Shisa Talk

The random writings and ramblings of Shisa

[turnoverrr]

The Okinawa-America conflict explained

When I first got to Okinawa, I was posed with the question by practically all of my friends, "What's with the protests?". After having spent 7 months here and getting both sides of the story, I feel I can safely answer this question.

First off, what's the backstory? To put it simply, Americans have a really bad reputation on the island. Not only has the U.S. tried to expand military operations on the northern part of the island (to much dismay of the Okinawans who would rather be able to use their land for their own purposes), Americans are known for being highly impulsive and reckless. As joked by one of my Japanese taxi drivers, if you see someone cutting you off in traffic or tailgating, it’s most likely an American.

This is a recipe for disaster for any who study political crises. Political distress combined with demographic tension almost always leads to demonstrations once given a spark. And as many have seen in the news, we recently got that spark and it created fire. After the rape and murder of an Japanese woman taking a stroll through the forest by a U.S. marine, Okinawans took to the gates of the U.S. bases demanding the bases be closed. One protester sign read, “Military bases on Okinawa are hotbeds of serious crimes! We demand all bases get out of our land”.

How has the U.S. and Japan responded to this? In rather unique ways, actually. Japan detained a prominent anti-U.S. base activist by the name of “Hiroji Yamashiro” based purely on suspicions of misconduct, while the U.S. has given back land to Okinawa from parts of its bases in order to appease the upset local populace. In other words, both sides heard Okinawa’s voice and responded in the way they found appropriate.

For Japan to try and silence unrest is nothing new, since in 2004 three antiwar activists were detained by Tokyo police which warranted Amnesty International to declare them “prisoners of consciousness”- a designation appropriated typically to oppressive regimes like North Korea and China. But for the U.S. to concede land is really surprising and praised by many internationals and Okinawans. We may not see a complete U.S. withdrawal from Okinawa anytime soon, given its strategic importance (something constantly toted on U.S. military sites and on its bases), but the more land given away most certainly means less Americans to stay.

However, simultaneously, the U.S. is taking a peculiar approach to dissolving unrest on their bases. In orientations and on state-sponsored newspapers (i.e. “Stars and Stripes”), the U.S. is claiming that all the protesters are paid and from mainland Japan. This isn’t true at all and merely a propaganda spat to keep their troops happy, but interesting to take note of.

Overall, it’s hard to say what will come of the conflict, but what is clear is that Okinawa wants its land back and the U.S. wants to keep its strategic position in the Pacific, and the sooner that a compromise can be reached, the better.

[turnoverrr]

History Unknown: Okinawa (pt.2)

Prologue:

100 ships and 3,000 men, armed for war, sneak upon Nakijin under the cover of night. They carry the cross-circle flag of Satsuma, shouting orders in a familiar tongue. This will hardly be a war.

“The Mountain in Chains”

Ryukyu had always paid the occasional tribute to the Japanese as part of a price for continued peace since the 14th century, however Japan is unified now as of the 17th century and will take no small tributes for peace as they did before. If they were going to allow this small island chain called “Ryukyu” retain its sovereignty, they would have to pay a larger price.

That larger price came during the Japanese invasion of Korea. Admiral Yi was devastating the enormous Japanese armada with his handful collection of newly-made turtle ships. Hideyoshi subsequently called upon every man to retaliate against this nuisance, going as far to demand that Ryukyu, though not property of Japan, to send 15,000 troops”

Satsuma was in charge of making sure Ryukyu caved into the demand, but they were more understanding and reasonable, having known and had relations with Ryukyu since 200 BC. As such, Daimyo Shimazu Yoshihisa wrote to Sho Nei, Ryukyu’s current emperor:

“Hideyoshi ordered Ryukyu and Satsuma to contribute 15000 troops in order to invade China; however, Ryukyu is a far country and Japanese military strategy is unfamiliar to your forces. I exempt you from mobilization of the troops. In exchange, however, you must supply 10 months' rations for 7000 troops“

Sho Nei refused Yoshihisa’s generous offer and only supplied half of what he asked. He saw the demand as infringing on the sovereignty of Ryukyu.

To Satsuma, this was provocation for war. According to them, Ryukyu had slighted not only the emperor of Japan, but their closest friend, Satsuma, who was really trying to make Ryukyu’s burden lighter.

Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding here is that Satsuma regarded Ryukyu as Japanese and always Japanese. Satsuma didn’t see them as independent like the Ryukyuans themselves did. The Ryukyuans saw Ryukyu as “Ryukyu” and nothing else. Ryukyu paid tribute to its neighbors as part of friendly relations, not because they felt threatened.

Then everything got worse. In 1598, Hideyoshi’s death was followed by Ieyasu’s rise to power. Satsuma called upon Ryukyu to submit to the new shogun, but Sho Nei, once again, declined the offer.

Now relations between the Japanese and Ryukyuans were truly bitter.

5 years later in 1603, it reached its peak. A dispute between a few Ryukyuan sailors and locals in Sendai resulted in the deportation of these sailors. Satsuma pleaded to Sho Nei to show allegiance to the new shogun by thanking him for deporting the sailors “who were clearly out of line”, but yet again, he declined the offer.

Now there were no more negotiations. Ryukyu wanted to show they were independent and Japan wanted to throw Ryukyu back into its fold.

It was now time for war.

Satsuma would carry out the invasion- the same Satsuma that had brought civilization to Ryukyu, had courted Ryukyu all these millennia as their closest friend, and the same Satsuma that would now have to forget all of that and teach their old friend a lesson.

A small invasion party of 3,000 men and 100 ships was sent to take over Ryukyu.

Amami island was their first stop and the local population surrendered without a fight. In fact, the local chief of the island completely surrendered to Satsuma, providing supplies to the invasion force in their efforts to make Sho Nei submit.

This shocked Sho Nei. How could he win a war if his people weren’t willing to fight? Did his people even want to be independent of the Japanese?

With these thoughts, Sho Nei sent Ibun, the priest of Tenryu temple, to discuss surrender with Satsuma. For reasons unknown, Ibun never made contact with the Satsuma army.

So the Satsuma conquest continued onto Tokunoshima island. The Tokunoshimans fought Satsuma as a defender with whatever they could muster, but what they could muster was very meagre as they were but an even smaller island than Amami was. 70-80 Tokunoshimans were killed in the battle and they unconditionally surrendered after 3 days.

Now the big island, Ryukyu itself, was next. Sho Nei had his face palmed. He had tried to surrender and yet somehow word of that never reached the Satsuma. Satsuma was still out there fighting his people and the lives of 70-80 men were now lost because of this miscommunication.

Sho Nei ordered that every castle in Ryukyu have its garrison disbanded, much to the disapproval of his military commander, Tei Do. No more blood would be spilt because of this.

Satsuma invaded Ryukyu and occupied the castle of Nakijin 5 days after leaving Tokunoshima. For whatever reason, not seeing the empty castle of Nakijin as strange at all, they still marched as an invading force and set fires to several buildings around the castle.

Sho Nei ignored the fires, however. He just wanted peace, so he sent Kikuin, a zen master, to call for peace talks.

“You had lived in Satsuma for several years, so you know three lords of the Shimazu clan very much. Go and make a proposal for peace”

(Sho Nei’s imperial order to Kikuin)

Kikuin succeeded and immediately Satsuma sailed to Oyamise, Naha, to begin peace talks and ease tensions. The talks resulted in Ryukyu retaining sovereignty with Satsuma oversight and Amami being ceded as a permanent domain of Satsuma.

Meanwhile, Sho Nei was brought to Edo (Tokyo) for a formal audience with Shogun Ieyasu. He would be forced to admit all wrongdoings in refusing to comply with the Shogun and, perhaps more interestingly, admit that Ryukyu had always been a domain of Satsuma (an obvious falsehood).

Ryukyu would also have to obey “The Fifteen Injunctions”- a document which would turn over all of Ryukyu’s extensive trade relations with China and Japan to Satsuma.

Effectively, Ryukyu was now officially a vassal to Satsuma, but they cleverly hid that on paper so they wouldn’t incur war with the Chinese, to whom Ryukyu still paid tribute to and was actually officially a vassal of.

The Chrysanthemum had wrestled the mountain and secured it into its grasp. Where does a mountain in chains go now? Stay tuned for the next part where we’ll talk about Okinawa in WWII!

[turnoverrr]

History Unknown: Okinawa (pt.1)

Prologue:

Sho Hashi silently stares out to sea. He’s accomplished everything his father could’ve ever wished for. Ryukyu is united, trade is prospering with China, and culture is blossoming from Naha. Everything is right in the new kingdom. And to think he’s done all of that himself. Despite how the wind blew in his opponents’ favor, he had unified his island long before the Japanese could ever wish to unify theirs. He had made a nation from a small state. He had accomplished the impossible by forging three mountains into one.

“Three Mountains. One Remains.”

The first early inhabitants of Okinawa migrated via a land bridge from Japan around 32,000 years ago.

They lived the typical hunter-gatherer lifestyle as most around their time, however around 200 BC, everything in Okinawa began when Kyushu- a small island a part of Japan- established contact with Okinawa.

When the Kyushans stumbled upon the Okinawans, they were a bit like the French to the native Canadians- friendly and focused on trade. Sure a few scuffles would happen, but if anyone was to take Okinawa for themselves, they believed it would be the Okinawans.

With this, raw materials like shellfish and sea shells were the most common exports to Kyushu. In return, Kyushu gave the Okinawans chinaware, pottery, and also taught them how to bury themselves the Japanese way- all of which has remained for modern day.

Though, perhaps the most valuable export from Japan to Okinawa was the ideas of government and castles. When the natives learned they could rule over themselves and perhaps one day unify the entire island under one banner, of course they jumped at the idea.

And so came a time of instability. The entire island was earlier split among different tribes, but now it was split among different kingdoms who would war against each other back and forth for an entire millennium.

That is until the “Three Mountains” period in Okinawa around the 14th century- a time when only three kingdoms would rule throughout the island and vie to unify the island for themselves.

Hokuzan was the northern mountain- the most economically unstable but militarily mighty, residing in the northern part of the island.

Chuzan was the central mountain- the most economically stable and efficient, residing in the central part of the island.

Nanzan was the southern mountain- the most intelligent part of the island with direct contact to the Chinese through the port of Naha, residing in the southern part of of the island.

They were all independent of each other and had no central King like the Japanese did, but that all changed when the Chinese arrived.

The Chinese envoys weren’t as keen on dancing and trading with the Okinawans like the Japanese were. They wanted to expand their empire and quickly affirmed to the Okinawans that they were now tributaries to China, and only China. The Okinawans couldn’t resist or defend against the massive Chinese fleet so the three kingdoms unanimously submitted and became the “Loo Choo” kingdom under Chinese law. The Okinawans would still call themselves Okinawan, but not the Chinese.

But it’s not like they didn’t enjoy the Chinese company. The Okinawans had learned a lot from the Japanese, but they would still learn a lot from the Chinese- mostly in the form of government and trade.

In fact, the Okinawan nobility liked the Chinese ways of government and trade so much that 36 Chinese families were ordered by the Chuzan King Sho Shin, with approval from Chinese emperor Hongwu, to move to their lands.

Years later, these 36 Chinese families would become the greatest asset to Chusan if they ever wanted to unify Ryukyu. Many had already entered the nobility, advanced technology and warfare.

While these 36 families may have been a seemingly insignificant move at first, they single-handedly broke the balance that kept the three mountains disunified. Chusan was the mightiest mountain now with the knowledge of Nanzan, the might of Hokuzan, and the cleverness of their own.

Sho Hashi, prince to Chusan’s King Sho Shisho, was the first to realize their might compared to their neighbors and, in 1416, he decided to make a dash to conquer Hokuzan’s capital of Nakijin. It was no fair fight. Nakijin, the capital of Hokuzan, would fall the same year.

The fall of Hokuzan alarmed the Chinese because before they had an advantage in ruling a divided Ryukyu, but during the conquest they were too occupied with their Manchurian and Mongolian neighbors to really care, so they let it slide with a simple warning. Okinawa was also incredibly small compared to the rest of the Chinese empire so to embellish themselves in Okinawan affairs would be silly.

But, as we see across history, warnings to conquerors mean very little.

As such, soon after, Hashi set his eyes on ‘the southern mountain’ Nanzan, but they needed an excuse. They were already under the watchful eye of the Chinese, thanks to their hasty conquest of Hokuzan, so they needed a reason. Some kind of casus belli that would pave the way to war.

Then they had it. Nanzan’s king “Taromai” died in 1420, and with their court then embroiled in several political conflicts, a succession crisis emerged. Chusan would still have to settle political and economic affairs retaining to their conquest of Hokuzan, but they would take advantage of this.

And take advantage of it they did. In 1429, Nanzan was still left without a clear king, so Hashi made his dash for Nanzan.

Just like with Hokuzan, or perhaps quicker, Nanzan fell and finally, after several millenia and centuries before Japan would ever become united, Ryukyu was united under the Sho dynasty.

The capital was moved to Naha, the previous and luxurious capital of Nanzan, and Sho Hashi established the Chusan kingdom as the newly unified Ryukyuan kingdom.

All he had to do now was keep it together, of which he did expertly. Ryukyu flourished in trade, even becoming one of the largest deciders in how East Asian commerce flowed into South Asia

Sho Hashi would then die 10 years later in 1439, leaving Ryukyu and the Sho dynasty to a long boring line of succession and rule, but his legacy would remain unsoiled for almost two centuries.

That is, until the Japanese came back. Stay tuned for next time where we’ll talk about the Satsuma invasion and Japanese rule!