Two fourth-generation Okinawan-American performers from the Los Angeles branch of the Afuso School of Classical Ryukyu Music Association (Koten Afuso-ryu Ongaku Kenkyuu Choichi Kai USA), Ryan Yasuaki Nakamatsu, 35, and his apprentice, Yuko Yamauchi, 48, were awarded first place and Distinction, respectively, in the Afuso-style sanshin (Okinawan banjo) category of the 54th annual Ryukyu Koten (traditional arts) competition, hosted by the Ryukyu Shimpo.
Nakamatsu and his master, Grant Sadami Murata, 57, shared the news with the 87-year-old living national treasure, Choichi Terukina, at his residence in Naha City. Terukina happily offered his praises.
Nakamatsu hails from Honolulu, Hawaii. He joined the Hawaii branch of the Afuso School of Classical Ryukyu Music Association in 1998, taking the Newcomer and Distinction awards over the years, as he developed his skills.
He earned his instructor license in 2010, and currently teaches young performers in Los Angeles.
Yamauchi was born in Naha City, Okinawa, and grew up in Los Angeles. As a student, Yamauchi was invited to visit Okinawa on a prefectural scholarship in 2000, and trained under Terukina.
Even after returning to the U.S., she continued to study the Afuso-style sanshin.
The two award-winners were inspired to enter the competition for the first time in over a decade, after seeing Terukina’s performance during his birthday concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall in April.
Yamauchi, who was overjoyed with her Distinction award, said, “I didn’t place last time, so it was especially great to receive the award this year.” Nakamatsu said, “My students compete too, so I felt I had to win first place.
Everyone’s support made this achievement possible.” Determined, he added, “This award is like a spring board for me; I want to ride this momentum and take on new challenges.”
Terukina told Nakamatsu, “Strike the iron while it’s still hot—do a solo concert soon.” Nakamatsu sheepishly but positively responded to the master’s request.
The music association’s Los Angeles branch currently comprises 30 performers. Nakamatsu said, “Some of our members are interested in competing next year. I encourage them to just go for it.”
The 8th Okinawa Traditional Karate Ceremony (hosted by the International Okinawan Goju-ryu Karate-do Federation – IOGKF) held their demonstration event at the Okinawa Budokan in Naha August 4, the final day of the even which opened July 29.
Celebrating the 40th year of the federation’s founding, the event drew over 1,000 participants from around 50 countries.
There were Karate demonstrations from Grandmaster Morio Higaonna as well as the elite performers from each of the federation’s countries, with audiences watching the kata with rapt attention and responding with applause.
This festival had previously been titled “The World Martial Arts Festival.” This year, as part of the effort to have traditional Okinawan Karate registered on the UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization) intangible cultural heritage list as a ceremony, the even was renamed The Okinawa Traditional Karate Ceremony.
Sydney Ryanholst, 47, who came from the Netherlands, said, “In the past I studied other martial arts, but I wanted a style that fit me better, and discovered traditional Okinawan Karate.”
On August 5, the Nansei Shoto Industrial Advancement Center (NIAC, headed by Mitsuru Omine) published a report analyzing trends in resident foreigners in Okinawa.
From July 2018 to July 2019, Okinawa’s total population (prefectural estimate) rose by 6,153, of which 2,797, accounting for 45.4%, were foreigners.
In other words, nearly one in two people among the population increase were foreigners.
According to the Ministry of Justice, there were 18,025 foreigners living in Okinawa at the end of 2018, an increase of 2,178 over the end of 2017.
This 13.7% increase rate is high, the sixth highest among all Japanese prefectures.
Looking at nationality and region of origin, there are now 2,600 Chinese residents of Okinawa, surpassing Americans (excluding people associated with the U.S. military) as the largest foreigner group in Okinawa.
Okinawa is the only prefecture in Japan experiencing a “natural increase” by means of the birth rate exceeding the death rate, but the population increase rate of Japanese nationals is slowing.
Meanwhile, since 2015, the increase rate of foreigners has been in the double digits, and the proportion of foreigner influx in Okinawa’s population increase is rising.
Senior Researcher Takeshi Kaneshiro, who was involved in the survey, says, “Demand has increased as a result of rising tourism, and this is leading to an increase in resident foreigners.”
By the end of 2018, residents of Chinese nationality in Okinawa had risen to 1.5 times their number of 1,730 at the end of 2012.
Of those, 564 are here under an “engineer/specialist in humanities/international services” visa, meaning they provide services like language interpretation; this is four times the number of residents having such visa at the end of 2012.
This increase is thought to stem from an increase in interpreters and language instructors resulting from an increase in tourists from Chinese-speaking countries.
(English translation by T&CT and Sandi Aritza)
Go To Japanese
https://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/entry-966821.html
The “Coordination Committee for Principal Governors Engaged in External Affairs” (also called the External Affairs Governor Committee, Kanagawa Governor Yuuji Kuroiwa, chairman), which is comprised of the governors from the 15 prefectures that host U.S. military bases, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), the Ministry of Defense (MoD), and the U.S. ambassador to Japan to deliver written demands for base policies to reduce the number of bases as well as for revisions to the U.S. Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
The demands regarding SOFA include the establishing of a new clause wherein the U.S. would be required to consult with Japan prior to conducting training outside of the base, as well as clarification for the application of Japanese law to resident U.S. forces such as aviation law.
In the regular general committee meeting prior to the demands, Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki introduced an investigative report written by Okinawa about the Status of Forces agreements in other countries, where he explained that in four European countries that host the U.S. military, military personnel are subject to those countries’ domestic laws.
In his opening remarks, Tamaki noted the referendum vote in Okinawa on new base construction in the Henoko neighborhood of Nago in February this year, where Okinawans voted for against with an “overwhelming majority,” and commented, “The strong rebuke of land-filling activity in Henoko by the people of Okinawa was the first such display, and held great significance.”
According to Kuroiwa, who met with the press after delivering the demands, and said that Kiyoto Tsuji, parliamentary secretary at MoFA, said that SOFA was, “something that changes with the times, and must take a form that citizens can agree with.” Kenji Harada, vice-minister of defense, commented, “We would like to pursue this together in the way we should.” Kuroiwa said the answers, “Have not been more in depth than what we have received so far.”
Additionally, the renewed request for a liaison committee with the U.S. and Japanese governments as well as the External Affairs Governor’s committee received no further comment from both the MoFA and the MoD than “we would like to coordinate this.”
Governor Tamaki also received an answer on the base issues in Okinawa he cited in June from secretary Tsuji, who explained that they are revising the an agreement for using only parts that do not contain the organofluoric compound PFOS, and to reduce parachute trainings outside of Ie Island, as established in the SACO agreement.
The External Affairs Governor Committee has established that “Revisions to SOFA cannot be avoided,” and requests revisions to both the Japanese and U.S. governments annually.
This year’s requests included seven items mainly centered on the discretion allowed to the U.S. military such as “transparency for base usage,” and “establishing environmental clauses,” and raised 19 other revisions. Additionally, there were operational improvement requests such as respecting the wishes of the region for when conducting parachute training.
In the committee executive election, Kuroiwa was re-elected as chair, and three others including Tamaki were selected as vice-chairs.
Tetsumi Takara, who was elected in the Okinawa at-large district in the House of Councillors election, attended his first National Diet session in Tokyo on August 1.
Takara once more expressed his determination to block construction of the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) in Henoko, in line with Okinawans’ popular will.
He said, “I feel the weight of duty. I will bring attention to the issue of Henoko not being Okinawa’s problem, but a problem facing the whole of Japan.”
On his first day in the House of Councillors Takara donned his trademark hat, and a necktie of the same pattern as his hat which was gifted to him by a student during his time as a university professor.
Even though it was a hot day with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, Takara called it “a gracious heat,” and gave thanks to the constituents who voted him onto the National Diet.
After attending the Diet session, he greeted his fellow House of Councillors member Yoichi Iha with a firm handshake and the words “Let’s do our best.” Together, Takara and Iha form the House of Councillors Okinawa no Kaze faction.
Takara plans to join the Upper House Committee on Judicial Affairs, the Special Committee on Reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Commission on the Constitution. He emphasized, “I’ll be surprised if I can get on the Commission on the Constitution.
Today’s constitution was adopted by a majority vote in the Imperial Diet, it is certainly not an imposed constitution.
” As a constitutional scholar of the National Diet, Takara will call attention to the indispensability of the current constitution, while taking into account its origin.
Takara’s wife, eldest daughter, younger daughter, and eldest son were present on his first day in the House of Councillors.
(English translation by T&CT and Erin Jones) Go To Japanese
Reiner Braun, Co-President of the International Peace Bureau (IPB), a Berlin-based pacifist organization advocating disarmament, held a joint symposium on July 31 with the All-Okinawa Coalition, which comprises political parties and organizations that oppose the U.S. base relocation to Henoko.
Braun proposed adding the All-Okinawa Coalition to IPB’s global network of 300 member organizations throughout 70 countries, in order to make the Henoko relocation issue a “global effort,” and called for cooperation to advocate peace.
The symposium, where Braun offered his insights on a panel, attracted around 150 guests.
The IPB co-president also held a press conference at the Okinawa Prefectural Office earlier in the day with Suzuyo Takasato, co-leader of the All-Okinawa Coalition and others.
Braun praised the coalition, which received IPB’s Sean MacBride Peace Prize in 2017 and said, “The Okinawan people are creating history in peace activism.”
On August 1, Okinawa Prefecture’s Nakagusuku Village Board of Education (BOE) held a Peace Education Workshop, which was intended for all faculty of public schools K-12 within the village.
While there are municipalities that hold workshops intended for newly appointed teachers and teachers in charge of peace education, it appears that Nakagusuku Village is the first to hold a workshop intended for all faculty.
Following an invitation from the Okinawa City Peace Guide Network, about 120 people gathered to learn the truth about the Battle of Okinawa by visiting the Okinawa Shihan Kenji Monument and the Korean Memorial Monument.
In doing so, they reaffirmed the importance of passing it onto the next generation.
With the number of people who experienced the war diminishing, so do the opportunities to pass on their stories.
This has caused concern among young faculty at schools when covering the topic of peace education. The Nakagusuku Village BOE decided to hold a workshop for the purpose of improving faculty leadership regarding the Battle of Okinawa and to share information amongst the different schools grades.
At the Okinawa Shihan Kenji Monument, 79-year-old Seikou Teruya, who was the guide, introduced the monument with tears in his eyes as he said, “This is the monument dedicated to the people who would have also become faculty like you if they had graduated.”
He also appealed, “It goes without saying that everyone should pass on the tragedies of war, but I would also like everyone to continue to make an effort to teach without becoming overconfident in one’s knowledge.”
Since the faculty learned about the war not just from the standpoint of the victim, but also the perpetrator when visiting the battle sites, visiting the Korean Memorial Monument was also added to the agenda. Elementary school teacher Izumi Teruya, 44, who was also a guide, said, “Kids in the future will have more opportunities to go to foreign countries.
It is very important to teach them things that actually happened.”
Nakagusuku Elementary School teacher Takehito Higa, 40, said, “It was my first time going to many of the places we visited.
There’s a big difference between what we learn via hearsay and what we learn from actually visiting a war site.
I hope to learn about this more and to be able to give a more thorough guidance to the kids.” Nakagusuku Junior High School teacher Ako Yonaha, 46, said, “This reaffirmed my position as a teacher.
I hope to do my best to pass this on so the students can continue to learn.”
(English translation by T&CT and Chelsea Ashimine)
On July 27, a group called “Association for Returning Remains in Kenken, Motobu to their Homeland” was established with the aim of collecting the remains of fourteen people, including Koreans mobilized during the Battle of Okinawa, that were found in Kenken, Motobu, and returning them to the families of the deceased.
Next year will mark 75 years since the fourteen lost their lives, and the association hopes to have Japanese and South Korean citizens work together to collect remains as early as next February, hoping that the collection of remains will serve to form a bridge of peace and friendship between the two nations.
It hopes to have students from both countries join in the collection of remains, and will start a trial digging survey as early as this fall.
Regarding the remains found in Kenken, Motobu, a photograph of fourteen grave markers with Sesoko Island in the background was published in Life Magazine on May 28, 1945.
It was revealed that twelve of the fourteen were passengers of the Hikosan Maru ship, which was attacked and sunk off the coast of Motobu on January 22, 1945.
In June 2017, the Ryukyu Shimpo reported on the basis of interviews with residents living near the burial site that the remains might still be buried there.
After reading this report, Members of the volunteer group Gamafuya, which works on collecting remains of those who died in the Battle of Okinawa, and South Korean civic groups visited the site and agreed to work together on collecting the remains.
In a subsequent survey they made contact with the families of several of the Japanese and Korean deceased based on the names written on the grave markers.
On July 27, the association held an inaugural event in Ginowan. Takamatsu Gushiken of Gamafuya, priest Kouryu Okada, and Fukiko Okimoto of the NPO Okinawa Han no Hi were selected as co-representatives of the association.
“[Koreans too] were killed in the war [just like Japanese]. It’s only natural to offer consolation to all without differentiating by nationality.
I also want youth to come face to face with the fact that these people were killed in the war,” said Gushiken.
He expressed his hope to see youth from Japan and South Korea join hands and participate in the collection of remains.
“There is no doubt that to the surviving families on the Korean peninsula, the war and colonial rule have yet to be resolved after all this time,” said Yoshihiko Tonohira, who has been central to efforts to return remains of Koreans who died in the Shumarinai region of Hokkaido during the war to their families.
Keiji Ueda of the Return War Victims’ Remains to their Families Liaison Committee discussed the negotiations his group has engaged in with the government.
Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki took the stage during the final day of Fuji Rock, Japan’s largest outdoor music festival, held at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata prefecture on July 28. The session took place at the festival’s Atomic Cafe stage, where the topic centered on Okinawa. During the discussion session, the governor made a case against the new military base construction at Henoko, Nago City. The talk was followed by Gov. Tamaki’s acoustic guitar performance, which enraptured the crowd.
Wearing a T-shirt and a guitar strap, Gov. Tamaki performed “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. After his solo performance, Tamaki was joined by YOH, a member of the popular Okinawan rock band ORANGE RANGE, and together performed Bob Dylan’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.”
From left, journalist Daisuke Tsuda, Gov. Denny Tamaki, ORANGE RANGE bassist YOH and Jinshiro Motoyama discuss Okinawan issues at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata prefecture on July 28.
During the preceding discussion session, journalist Daisuke Tsuda served as the moderator, and welcomed the governor, Jinshiro Motoyama (representative of the civil organization, Henoko Referendum Council) and YOH to the stage, to discuss Okinawa’s current situation. Gov. Tamaki touched on his roots and his father’s background as a U.S. military soldier, and commented: “What hasn’t changed in the 74 years since World War II and the 47 years since Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, is that U.S. military bases continue to be present [on Okinawa].” Tamaki explained that U.S. bases came to be concentrated in Okinawa, because opposition and conflict against hosting U.S. bases arose in the main islands of Japan after the war. He added, “This is not the legacy we pass down to our children.”
YOH said about the ongoing protests in Henoko and Takae: “It’s not a pleasant trip to make, but you start to realize things by going there. What’s worse is letting information overload stopping you from thinking about the issues.” Motoyama, who was at Fuji Rock all three days, reflected on his time lobbying the prefectural referendum and said, “I realized that many of us don’t think we can influence the government’s actions. I pushed for the referendum because I wanted to show that the people want change.”
From left, Gov. Denny Tamaki performing with ORANGE RANGE bassist YOH on stage at the Naeba Ski Resort on July 28.
Gov. Tamaki was a popular radio show host before he was elected as a Diet member in 2002. He also played in a band, and wrote lyrics for Okinawan artists. The governor loves rock music, and he often plays his guitar to unwind at the governor’s residence in Naha City, since assuming his post in October.
Atomic Cafe is a music stage launched in 1984, to protest against nuclear energy and power. The stage was discontinued in the 90s, but was re-launched at the 2011 Fuji Rock Music Festival, after the Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Atomic Cafe is located at the NEW POWER GEAR Field/AVALON every year, an area powered entirely by new energy. This year’s theme was Okinawa and self-regulation.
The Ministry of the Environment (MoE), Okinawa Prefecture, and Nakijin Village announced July 29 that after conducting an autopsy, a dugong which was found dead in Untengyo Bay in Nakijin in March of this year and is a protected species in Japan was ruled to have died from the sting of a pink whipray in its abdomen. According to the MoE, the ray’s stinger caused damage to the abdominal cavity, causing the digestive tract contents to leak out, eventually killing the animal as its conditions worsened. There were no other obvious injuries such as a bone fracture or other external wounds.
The dugong was discovered March 18 after washing ashore in the breakwaters of Untengyo Bay. There was blood and cuts around the head and fins. The Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) has stated that the dugong was “Specimen B” one of three dugongs that have been confirmed to inhabit the waters near Okinawa and who made its habitat near the village.
In June, the ODB reported at the “Environmental Oversight Committee” which investigates the environmental impacts of the new base facility construction at Henoko, that the construction boats had no effect with regards to the death of the dugong.
Veterans for Peace—Ryukyu Okinawa Chapter Kokusai (VFP-ROCK) President Douglas Lummis and members held a press conference at Okinawa’s prefectural press club on July 25. The group announced VFP-ROCK’s intentions to submit a new resolution for approval at the 34th National Convention of Veterans For Peace, which will be held in Spokane, WA next month. They seek to halt the construction of the new base in Henoko, Nago City with the new resolution.
Lummis points out that in the defense authorization bill, a section that previously described the Henoko site as “the only option” has been replaced with language requiring re-examination of the Henoko base construction. Lummis plans to submit a written request to the U.S. government, to directly inspect the destruction of coral gardens, and the presence of active earthquake faults and soft sea beds.
VFP-ROCK members Yoshikazu Makishi, Osamu Ogata and Shisei Toma will be attending the annual conference in Washington.
Kaiya Yonamine, an Okinawan-American Nisei and Oregon high school student, will also attend the conference. She will be screening “Our Island’s Treasure” at the conference, a documentary Yonamine produced to raise awareness in the U.S. and abroad, on issues surrounding the new base construction in Okinawa.
VFP-ROCK is currently raising funds for their trip to Washington. If you are interested in making a donation, contact Makishi at 090-3796-5404.
Webcam(Kokusai Street)
