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Saturday, July 29, 2000

Okinawa & Hawaii

East-West Center helps keep
connections alive between
sister islands

By Robert Nakasone
Special to the Star-Bulletin

THIS year marks the centennial celebration of the first Okinawans to arrive in Hawaii as plantation workers. So it is especially significant that President Clinton last week announced U.S.-Japan support for an East-West Center initiative to create a special scholarship fund. The fund will bring young Okinawans for graduate training at the University of Hawaii.

The triangular relationship among Hawaii, Okinawa and the East-West Center has remained strong over the years. Approximately 45,000 residents of Okinawan heritage live in Hawaii, and they form one of the most active ethnic groups in the state.

The East-West Center has also brought at least 400 Okinawans here, and those alumni went on to become key players in the post-World War II reconstruction of Okinawa. The center has also been active among Hawaii's local Okinawans, or Uchinanchu.

"Hawaii of Japan"

THERE are many similarities between Hawaii and Okinawa. In fact, many refer to Okinawa as the "Hawaii of Japan."

Hawaii is isolated from the U.S. mainland and has a much different history and ethnic population from the rest of the states. Okinawa also considers itself different from the rest of Japan. Both places were originally independent kingdoms whose native peoples were great ocean navigators.

Under the Ryukyu Kingdom, Okinawans developed a thriving maritime trade with China and Southeast Asia. But both Hawaii and the Ryukyu islands were annexed in the late 19th century by powerful countries that would battle each other in World War II. The attack on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor led the United States into the war. More than three years later, Okinawa became the bloodiest military ground battle in the Pacific theater. Also dead were approximately 150,000 civilians.

Today Hawaii and Okinawa see themselves as "crossroads" for Asia-Pacific education, research and exchange. They share similar geographies and climates. Oahu is roughly the size of the main island of Okinawa, and the state and prefecture have populations around 1.2 million.

Both economies rely heavily on tourism, agriculture and military bases -- except that Okinawa's bases are foreign. The U.S. bases cover nearly 20 percent of Okinawa island, and military facilities occupy 15 percent of Oahu. Both places have struggling economies and higher unemployment than the rest of their countries.

Island partnerships

OVER the past century, Hawaii's Okinawans have maintained close ties to their ethnic roots. They formed associations based on their home village, town or city, and these groups eventually joined under the Hawaii United Okinawa Association.

After the war devastated Okinawa, Hawaii's Uchinanchu came to its aid, sending pigs to rebuild meat supplies, goats to provide milk for children, clothes, and school and medical supplies. Okinawans never forgot that help. They gave generously to build the Hawaii Okinawa Center in 1990. It is the only Japanese prefectural culture center in Hawaii.

Hawaii and Okinawa have several "sister" relationships besides the one between state and prefecture. They include Honolulu-Naha, Hawaii-Nago, Maui-Miyako, and Kauai-Ishigaki. The University of Hawaii and Ryukyu University, Meio University and UH-Hilo, and the University of Hawaii medical school and Chubu hospital also have formal relationships, not counting the close ties between visitor bureaus, chambers of commerce and individual businesses.

Three hundred Okinawans from Hawaii attended the first Worldwide Uchinanchu Festival in Okinawa in 1990, and 500 attended the second such festival in 1995. Gov. Ben Cayetano went that year as well, along with a Hawaii product show and entertainers.

In 1997 Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sponsored the first meeting of the ALOHA committee in Okinawa, a second one here in 1998, and a third in Okinawa last March. Established to promote practical cooperation, the committee is considering several projects of common interest to Hawaii and Okinawa in coral reefs, ocean technology, tourism, telemedicine, biodiversity, insect control and education exchange.

E-W Center contributions

THE East-West Center has supported Hawaii's Okinawan community and Okinawa's internationalization. As part of this year's centennial celebration, it sponsored the Okinawa Art Exhibit from March to May and two Okinawan concerts by Harry Nakasone, a "living treasure" in Okinawa music.

In 1997, the center and the Bank of the Ryukyus sponsored the first Worldwide Uchinanchu Business Association International Conference in Hawaii, with successive conferences held in Brazil, Los Angeles, and last month, in Okinawa. Former Hawaii Gov. George Ariyoshi, chairman of the East-West Center Board of Governors, and center President Charles Morrison have been keynote speakers at the gatherings. There are now 13 chapters worldwide.

This month at the East-West Center's 40th reunion, which attracted 800 alumni from 30 countries, a taiko drum performance by the Ryukyu Matsuri Taiko, a local Okinawan group, opened the banquet dinner. The 22-person delegation from Okinawa was the largest overseas group to attend.

The center has long-standing ties with Okinawa. From 1960, when the East-West Center opened, to 1972, when Okinawa was transferred back to Japan from U.S. administration, the prefecture supplied 17 percent of all non-U.S. center participants. These Okinawans eventually assumed leadership positions and have included a governor of Okinawa, presidents of Ryukyu University and Okinawa International University, a president of the Bank of the Ryukyus, and a vice governor of the Okinawa Development Finance Corp. This year the center named Choko Takayama, deputy mayor of Naha City, as one of three distinguished alumni, and the Okinawa alumni chapter donated $25,000 to the center.

An unfortunate side effect of reversion was that for East-West Center awards, Okinawa became one of 47 Japanese prefectures rather than a separate political entity, and it had to share the limited awards with the rest of Japan.

As the numbers of awards dropped, the Okinawan alumni aged. At a center reunion in early 1999, the Okinawa alumni chapter asked the new center management to consider ways to rejuvenate Okinawan participation. Within two months the center launched a proposal for a special Okinawa Business and Education Initiative in consideration of the prefecture's special educational needs and its significance for U.S.-Japan relations. It was this proposal that was endorsed as a U.S.-Japan partnership last week and dedicated by Clinton to the memory of the late Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Clinton remembered that Obuchi had decided to site the Group of Eight summit meeting in Okinawa.

When fully operational, the East-West Center program will include graduate scholarships, faculty/research exchanges, business seminars and internships, and help to develop an Asia Pacific Research Center in Okinawa..

It is fitting that Clinton chose to announce this program at the "Cornerstone of Peace," a monument dedicated to all who died in the Battle of Okinawa. Through this new international educational program connecting young Okinawans with East-West Center participants from all over the Asia-Pacific region, Hawaii's Uchinanchu and the center can help Okinawans realize their dream of becoming a true international center, the role once played by the Ryukyuan kingdom.

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Robert Nakasone, active in Hawaii's Okinawan community,
is the East-West Center's project director of the
Okinawa Education and Business Initiative.