The Okinawan Diaspora and Prefectural Associations by Theodor Jaich
In this week's readings, the main area in which each of these pieces intersect is through a discussion of the Okinawan diaspora community. Each of the foreign cities and regions, ranging from places like Osaka all the way to Bolivia, provide important information on the ways in which Okinawan communities sustained themselves while abroad in the face of assimilation campaigns and the recurring sense of 'otherness.' The most important take-away from each of the pieces, as will be expanded upon, is this imposed nature of the Okinawan peoples as an 'other' in relation to a majority culture. Their treatment by the native cultures of these distant lands, as well as the seeming necessity of forming Okinawan 'prefectural associations' to support these communities, prove that the pressures placed on the diaspora groups to assimilate with the dominant cultures, or be subjugated by them, was extremely intense.
Most notably, Steven Rabson's pieces, "The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan at War" and "Being Okinawan in Japan: The Diaspora Experience" very clearly outline the ways in which the Okinawan communities, while much of the time they benefitted economically while working in Osaka and elsewhere in the main islands compared to working in Okinawa, constantly faced discrimination. This sense of being an outsider or foreigner was reminiscent, as Rabson puts it, of Frantz Fanon's discourse on the creation of the Malagasy as one in relation to the French colonizer; that is, 'the Okinawan' is only crafted, and treated differently, when in relation to 'the Japanese.' This sense of Okinawan 'otherness' was ever-present during their time in Japan, including the wartime period where their contributions to the war effort through factory work was key to the sustainability of Japan's massive imperial force. That all being said, Rabson makes note of the importance of Okinawan prefectural associations in ensuring that members of the Okinawan diaspora community in Japan were getting jobs and were treated somewhat fairly in the workplace.
Similarly, Kaneshiro's ""The Other Japanese;" Okinawan Immigrants to the Philippines, 1903-1941" and Amemiya's "The "Labor Pains" of Forging a Nikkei Community" further elucidate the fact that Okinawan prefectural communities were key to the ability of the Okinawan diaspora community to secure jobs as well as retain some sense of their culture. The Okinawans, while in the Philippines, were seen as the 'other' Japanese by the native Filipinos because that sense of Okinawan cultural background remained, despite intense pressure by imperial Japan to assimilate them. This assimilation campaign, however, was one which, while placing the Okinawan in closer relation to 'the modernized Japanese,' was always associated with the idea of their subjugation to that dominant Yamato race. Okinawan prefectural associations, including the one in the Philippines at Davao, ensured that the community abroad never completely entered Japanese-ness. Similarly, the community in Bolivia also proved this point as there remained an 'Okinawan' settlement distinct from the Japanese one, in which jobs were secured thanks to the unity of the diaspora group in the face of en extremely foreign, dominant Bolivian culture.
Finally, this Okinawan sense of cultural unity through prefectural associations, no matter where they were in the world, was a constant reminder to the diaspora Okinawans of where they had initially hailed from. As noted in an article in the Japan Times, the Hawaiian community of Okinawans had sent a large cargo shipment of pigs to Okinawa just after the Second World War to alleviate the food crisis that was devastating the island. This retention of Okinawan culture unified these diaspora communities, reminded them of their original homeland, and ensured their survival in the face of more dominant native cultures in the lands they settled in.
In totality, these readings each deal with the importance of Okinawan prefectural associations in keeping the community together and finding them jobs in the face of intense social pressures to assimilate or be subjugated. No matter where they went, the Okinawans retained cultural memories distinct from that of the Japanese or any of the dominant native cultures they engaged with.
