Haisai JET is the Okinawa JET monthly newsletter produced by the International Exchange Division of the Okinawa Prefectural Government. If you would like to subscribe (Japan only) please contact the Editor via email below. Submissions for each issue of Haisai JET close on the 20th of each month.
History Question – What date did the Okinawan invasion begin? The general consensus is that it began on April Fools Day, Easter Sunday, 1945, when American forces landed on the beaches of the Okinawan mainland, in the area of land north of Chatan and south of Yomitan. I personally am prone to disagree. Why? Let me explainc. Like most foreigners coming to this country, I had many questions lying in wait to release upon the locals of Japan at an opportune time, in the hopes of gaining a little insight into their point of view. With both personal and academic curiosity, my main interest was how the Japanese view the War. Unlike tea ceremony, kimono or Japanese cuisine, it was obviously a subject that had to be treated with the utmost care, lest it unleash a myriad of emotions that at best may cause offence and at worse, start a brawl. Thus, my attitude was to wait, wait until I had made some good Japanese friends. Then I could one day sit down with them in confidence and weed out the answers I was looking for - answers to questions I believed to be too sensitive to bring up in public. How quickly I was to be proved wrong. Two months after arriving in Zamami, while enjoying my newly found love of awamori in my favourite izakaya, I happened to meet one of the islandfs most important officials. What began as a cordial introduction quickly turned into a one of the most interesting conversations I have ever had the pleasure or displeasure (depending on onefs attitude) to be involved in. It began when the official suddenly turned to my wife and I and asked somewhat seriously, gDo you know what happened here?h We were not too sure what he meant. gDo you know the history of this island!?h We replied that we had just recently arrived and were not too sure what he was referring to. His response, to this, gIf you are not interested in what happened here during the war then you will not be welcome!h Before we could stop him, he began to describe in first hand detail the events that occurred in the last week of March 1945; a week the people of the Kerama islands will never forget.
The Keramas are an archipelago 30-40 km west of the main Okinawan island. Today the islands of Tokashiki, Zamami, Aka and Geruma are the only inhabited islands of the chain, with a total population of about 1800. They rely on the tourist industry for income and have become famous holiday destinations not only in Japan, but because of their beautiful scuba diving sites, throughout the world. This industry has only developed in the last 20 years or so. Before 1945, life on these islands was very different. Estimations give the populations in 1945 as well over their current totals, somewhere between 3-4000 people. The islanders had lived quietly for hundreds of years as farmers, later also turning to fishing the great crops of tuna that abounded in the East China Sea. They benefited from the wonderful natural harbor the islands create, giving safe stay to trade ships traveling too and from China and beyond. How were they to know that this very thing would bring such devastation to their beautiful islands?
In March of 1945, the American invasion fleet, numbering over 1400 ships, traveled quickly north towards the Ryukyu islands. All Japanese resistance had been defeated in South-East Asia and the Alliesf eyes were on the mainland of Japan itself. The Japanese High Command believed an invasion of Taiwan would follow if fate looked like depriving them of victory, so they fortified it with troops from both the mainland and Okinawa. It was here they believed they would stop the American push north.
The Americanfs however saw no value in Taiwan and headed straight for Okinawa, seeing it as a perfect base to begin an invasion of the Japanese mainland lying only 585 kilometers (365 miles) north. Upon receiving news of this, the Japanese High Command ordered that the troops and locals of Okinawa show their full devotion to their Emperor and fight to the last person in the hope of prolonging the American movement north, giving the mainland added time to strengthen their defences. Okinawa was to be the sacrificial lamb, the debt to the Emperor for three hundred years of subjection to be paid back in full.
In the Keramas, when Japanese troops first arrived in 1944, they were looked upon with some admiration. Here were young men sent to defend the villages from eforeign devilsf, who also helped in the fields, repaired houses and roads, and who were smart, looked good in uniform and were perfect to marry their daughters off to. War at this time was a world away. At their height, there were over 2,300 troops in the Keramas at one time, building the gsuicide boath bases that were to never be used. As the threat of Japanfs loss drew closer, and preparations began to be made against an impending invasion, things began to change. The Japanese Command in Naha believed that the Americans would immediately attack from the south, (something the Americans later played on when they feigned an invasion of south-east Okinawa just prior to their main landings). The Japanese therefore pulled back most of the forces defending the islands surrounding Okinawa Island, leaving skeleton forces on each, most without any supplies at all. Food became scarcer as the villagers toiled and failed to produce enough food for themselves, the soldiers and the demands of the Okinawan mainland. They were promised that food would be sent out by boat, but these promises were either ignored or the boats were sunk by American planes, bringing the islands close to famine. As troop numbers began to drop, anxiety among the local populations of the Keramas was fueled. This in turn caused the soldiers to panic in fear of their own lives and they employed barbaric means of controlling the populace, which were sadly not simply born from desperation, but actually based on Defence Force policy. Innocent locals would be pulled out, some because they were undesirable, others at random, accused of being spies for the enemy and executed before their families. This was to later culminate into the famous massacre of Kume island, when 49 innocent people were executed by Japanese soldiers, some of the victims as young as 2-3 years old. It had the desired effect and the people of the islands remained docile.
Then, on the 26th March 1945, on the south-western horizon emerged a huge fighting force, whose commander in chief, Admiral Turner, decided that an immediate invasion of the Okinawan mainland was premature. He wanted a base of operations to begin the invasion from, and in the face of opposition from his advisors because of its close proximity to airfields on Okinawa island, he chose a small archipelago of islands 30-40 km west of the mainland which provided a perfect natural harbour, big enough for all the invasion fleet to rest. The commander in chief briefed his officers of what he wanted - he wanted the Kerama islands, he wanted them all in one day and he wanted them without excuses. With the invasion of Okinawa as a whole on his mind, the fate of a collection of small islands was a trifling matter indeedcthere were larger matters at hand. One friend we have met remembers the day very well. He was in elementary school at the time. He and his fellow students were exercising in the schoolyard when they saw the planes coming. They swooped from the sky directly at the village and unleashed their guns, strafing the houses of Aka village. Unknown to the American forces, the islands of the Keramas would be essentially undefended. There were Japanese forces stationed there, but their numbers were less than half of what they once were. There was also no trained army, but volunteer marines and specialist suicide boat pilots whose morale was all but destroyed in the first bombardment. The suicide boats American intelligence had reported would never be used, and the bases destroyed before the attacks out of fear the American troops would capture them. Furthermore, the Japanese had close to no bullets for their rifles as these had all been sent to aid the troops on the Okinawan mainland. The impotence of the troops to stop the attacking planes greatly angered the local people who saw it as a betrayal. The demoralized Japanese troops had no orders, no supplies and no hopes of reinforcements to defend the islands. They could only rely on the orders given to the Okinawan forces as a whole from the Japanese High Command. They were to sacrifice their lives in the name of the Emperor - never could they bear the dishonour of being taken prisoner by the enemy.
What happened next on each individual island differs to some respect, the following is a general account of the events of the nights of the 26th-27th March 1945. The troops on each island met with the village Mayor and issued their orders. In the name of the Emperor and under the ruse that it would make combat easier for the troops, the villagers were all to commit ritual suicide. The Mayors are then believed to have held village meetings and issued these orders to the people. Some rebelled, but most followed their trusted leaders to the grave. The populations of Tokashiki, Zamami, Aka and Geruma went off after sunset, some into the hills, some to caves and some to their family graves, to pay their final debt. Without weapons, these suicides would not take the form that one would first imagine. There were no ritual swords or bullets to do the job. On the mainland of Okinawa many of these suicides took place by locals flinging themselves off cliffs. In the Keramas these acts took on a more gruesome form. On Tokashiki, where the soldiers could spare them, they passed out grenades, one per family, with the instructions that the youngest, strongest family member would kill their family, and then use the grenade to kill him or herself. Elsewhere, they did the bloody job by any means they could, by hand, club, sickle, knife blade or razor. What took place those nights on these beautiful islands is a thing of horror that I nor any other outsider could ever imagine. First the weakest, the grandparents would be killed then the younger brothers and sisters and last the parents. After this, if they were lucky enough to have one, the pin was pulled and the grenade held close. Those nights have stained the wonderful people of the islands forever.
Those still alive were met the next morning by an invasion like nothing they had ever known. After bombardment by ships and planes (including the truly formidable 12 inch guns of the battleship USS Arkansas), troops landed on the many beaches of the islands covered by heavy caliber covering fire. The surviving troops and locals, in a blind panic took to the hills. Many were cut down as they ran. One of our very best friends on Zamami Island lost his little sister as they scurried away. The American troops took the Keramas in two days. It was reported in American accounts that some stiff opposition was experienced on Aka and Zamami, and minor resistance on the other islands, but given that 31 Americans to 530 Japanese troops were killed in those two days it is easy to see how, as one author expressed it, the gislands had been taken remarkably easyh. What the Americans then found I would believe is still very close with those who saw it. In the caves and hills they found separate piles of dead bodies, each pile a different family; all that remained of the villagers who climbed the hills those fateful nights. Other bodies found were those who, experiencing the invasion and with nowhere to run, panicked and killed themselves, fully believing the stories of the horrible fate awaiting them if captured by the eforeign devilsf. Somehow, some of the villagers were still alive, and the edevilsf they were so afraid of tried to save their lives. Even more disturbing, the American troops were powerless to stop locals who, seeing them approach, tried desperately to kill themselves anyway they could, to the point of smashing themselves against rocks, trying to die as the soldiers tried to stop them. The old lady next door clearly recalls these times, telling us of her fear in the caves as her family waited for the American soldiers to come. The Americans found those who had fled cowering in the hills along with many Japanese soldiers, something that greatly angered the surviving villagers. The ultimate betrayal; the Japanese troops had declared to the villagers that they would fight to their deaths or commit suicide, but many did not.
Most of what was left of the villages was then leveled and supply bases set up for the impending invasion of the Okinawan main island. Later, a civilian prisoner of war camp was established on Geruma Island. Our Board of Education Superintendent spent his childhood in the camp. Those taken in the battle of Ie Island were shipped there too. Four days later, most of the invasion fleet left the Keramas and invaded Chatan, beginning what is commonly believed to be the invasion of Okinawa on the 1st April 1945. How historians regard the invasion of the Keramas remains a mystery to me. If it wasnft part of the Okinawan campaign, what exactly was it?
Today there remains and will forever remain an invisible division in the communities of the Keramas. You could live here all your life and never see it, but to the people whose families have lived here for centuries it is very real. The division is between those whose family gave up their lives, and those who refused. One side cannot allow themselves to feel anything but pride for the bravery of their kin, the other looks to them in pity, shaking their heads at the awful, needless loss. This will always be a stain on the pride of the families here, and is the horrible legacy they feel the Japanese brought to the islands.
One of the things that struck me most after the conversation with the official in the izakaya was the number of old people in the village. The official himself is in his 60fs meaning he was a small child when all hell broke out in his home, which may have served as some shelter from the horror he experienced. Some of the older people in the village are in their 80fs and 90fs, so would understand and remember vividly what was happened in the war, and heaven forbid, some may even be the survivors of attempted suicides, or worse still, those that were deemed youngest and strongest on those nights. My late great-uncle served in the Philippines in World War II and was taken prisoner, a guest of the infamous Changi Prisoner of War Camp. Until his death, he never forgave the Japanese, would never say a kind word about one and the earth would have had to move before hefd ever have spoken to one. I believe he would roll over in his grave if he knew one of his family has found a home in Japan. After the horrific events of March 1945, I expected much the same attitude from the older people of Zamami and I would never raise an argument against their right to feel that way. If anyone deserves to feel bitter, the Kerama locals have unlimited license to do so. They, like other Okinawans, have personally seen the horrors of war up close, smelt its stench, and felt its terrible heat. They are the victims of a war they never played a part in starting but were expected to pay the ultimate price for. I am, however, proud to admit they have proved me so terribly and wonderfully wrong. The elders of all the Kerama islands have welcomed us into their community with open arms. Their weathered faces never show anything but a smile when they meet us, our presence representing hope to them that their grandchildren will never have to witness or endure the horrors they themselves have. Their love of life, each other and everyone they meet is a living monument to the strength of the human spirit. They joke and banter like children, rejoicing every new day while toiling away slowly in the fields. The secret to the longevity of these people is no mystery to me. They live because they love to live and for that, they live long. It is with some embarrassment when I say they put my youth and energy to shame. They are a truly beautiful people.
Today, after 50 years of re-growth, the population of the Keramas is still nowhere near its pre-war totals. It is a rarely contested historical fact that the civilian population of Okinawa lived through the worst campaign ever in the history of war in regards to the nature of the combat and the loss of innocent lives. Many more innocent lives were lost in Russia, Europe and China in wars during the beginning of the 20th century, but in a single campaign never had so many civilians died compared to military losses. In three short months, Okinawa lost one third of its population. Everyone lost someone. The reason I write this is twofold. Firstly, I want the world to know what happened in the Kerama islands, and this is the first step. My wife will soon start translating a book of interviews taken from the old people about their experiences during the war in the hope that we can bring it to the attention of those who write the history books. Secondly, I want to reflect on my own experiences, on how the people here have changed my own outlook on the issue of war and ethics. Before my time on the JET Programme I studied ethics at university, researching moral issues regarding military conflict and focusing on the legitimacy of war and the role innocent people play in wartime. It is the study I will return to when I leave Zamami. So it was by some strange stroke of fate that my placement in Japan was to be this island.
The Okinawan people make it very clear that they stand against all means of war and that they are a peaceful people. In fact, before occupation by Japan, Okinawa could boast about being one of the few countries in history not possessing a standing army. Peace for centuries was maintained by establishing strong ties of friendship with many different countries, removing the chance of war with these parties on the one hand and dissuading others from aggression against Okinawa because of the resulting support of these allied nations. This was to eventually prove unsuccessful, Okinawa becoming a puppet state of Japan in 1609. The Okinawan stance on peace is seen by many as naïve and unrealistic. Okinawans appear to be the hippy that shouts gPeace, peace, peace!h until some policeman comes over and bangs him over the head, demonstrating how weak screaming about peace is. This, I believe, is certainly not the case. Okinawan people have a deep personal insight into the nature of conflict and the role it plays in the world, especially itfs costs. Their experience has strength in argument, just as someone who has witnessed a loved one die slowly from cancer has added weight when discussing euthanasia. This is certainly not to say Okinawans are likely to stand by and see violence done to them without recourse, that they are pacifists in the extreme. To this claim, my response would be - I wouldnft mess with the daughters of some of the Okinawan fathers I know!
What the Okinawans are goes back to the teachings of Aristotle. Ethical issues are usually decided by argument, attributing that principle to this occasion, and this principle to that. I am sure you have heard of such principles as the greatest good for the greatest number, universal rules, issues of care, and so on. These principles were from whence I first understood moral strength in the world was derived; the creation of a strong argument using these principles can justifiably impose change on the way people act. What Aristotle concluded, after much deliberation, was that argument in ethics is weak and far from reliable. Each situation is different and skilled arguments can be used to prove almost anything one wants. Aristotle concluded that ideally it is not the head that should rule us when we make decisions regarding actions, it should be the heart. It should not be dialogue that persuades us to do the right thing, it should be a feeling we have deep down to do it because it is ggoodh. How does one develop this feeling for ggoodh, you may ask? It is developed through experience, the lessons one learns in life. It is called a moral education. The person who has this needs no argument, no reasons; they do what is good because they just know it is good. As Aristotle called them, they are a gmoral personh. They represent through their actions what moral argument should be trying to prove with its reasons. They are a personification of moral truth. It is here where the Okinawans stand. Some say the Okinawan opinion on peace is naïve because it contains no strength to change the minds of others, gEveryone knows peace is desirable but there is a war to fight so what else have you got to offer?h The truth, I believe, is that Okinawan people need no further argument; they represent and actively live the pinnacle of ethical thought in regards to war. They simply know in their hearts that war is wrong and everything should be done to avoid it. They know in their bones that it should be the very last recourse pursued. They have seen it in action and understand how high a price war demands, while others posit, theorize or create imperfect models to try and understand it, resulting in war being employed in situations where other peaceful options still exist but are incorrectly regarded as less desirable courses of action. Everyone else, rather than ridiculing what appears to be a very shallow position, asking Okinawans for more reason, more argument, in actuality has to try and catch up. And it is the sincere hope of the Okinawan people that others do catch up, that the worldfs moral education improves, and one day there will be no need for someone to justify a position of peace. It will be self-evident to all to avoid war at all costs as an answer to our problems and no one will ever have to endure the horrors our Okinawan neighbours and friends did on those fateful days in 1945. Dave Byatt, ALT Zamami Island
Cultures in Globalisation
Last month the United Nations University held its 3rd Global Seminar on Globalization in Naha at the Tiruru Womenfs Centre in the Port district of Naha. I attended the opening address to see what all the excitement was about, especially when one talks about cultures in the context of globalization. Professor Yasu Kim, the Secretary General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) gave the opening address entitled eIs common civilization possible or desirable?f@Here is a summary of his statement. It was during the late 19th century that the world was largely dominated by Western countries, as smaller kingdoms and traditional empires were defeated and re-formed as colonies within the British, German, Spanish, Belgian, etc Empires. In Central and Eastern Asia Japan and Russia mimicked European countries and the western system seemed to dominate global thinking with no room for dialogue, only subjection. The Industrial Revolution had enabled European countries to expand their market economies and to bring about change in their own cultures and societies. These changes had a spill over effect into their colonies. Many countries had only one way to progress through market economies and westernization; this became the yardstick of success. With the demise of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, many people believed that the capitalist ideology had won, that the fall of the Soviet Empire was the final Cultural Revolution that would end history and there would only be one world order. Globalization has become the new world order and like westernization is a system that many countries have been forced to adopt, a process largely controlled by countries in the west. In Asia there is a demand to keep apace with the west, and this is coming at the price of traditional Asian values, as modernization and development have been modeled on the western system. The world is showing signs of cultural fragmentation rather than eunity as onef as globalization has implied. This fragmentation, while much more evident in the third world is beginning to shows its symptoms in developed western countries. Recent events indicate that the synthesis of western individualism and materialism is not the way that society can build a new culture. The cultural synthesis of the west, its demands for human rights, individualism, democracy and welfare is reconsidering its impact and influence in the world today. More and more western culture is focused on a value system of individualism and material wealth; materialism is being marketed as a desired identity on a global level. Cultural identity, the difference between those who have and those who have not is beginning to undermine the progressive values held in industrialization and western thinking. Many countries in the west are now breaking down and eroding their systems of welfare, democracy and human rights, this is generating much debate about how the west will revitalize itself in the future. According to Huntington, identity has two halves; one is based and does not alter while the other is created. Thus one is born with an identity; however, as the individual develops they can create their own identity. More and more that identity is measured in terms of individualism and materialism. Along with other cultural factors that determine onefs identity such as religious affiliations, ethnicity or national groupings, all of these also constitute part of the cultural synthesis within a society. This sort of cultural synthesis needs to deal with its limitations and thus control its populations.
The information revolution of the 21st century will give us access to other cultures and civilizations, which will provide us with different viewpoints. Civilization in practical and historical terms is the combination or synthesis of a cultural community that may be organized as a family, a town, city or country. Civilization is a living organism, which deals with survival and prosperity, and in doing so it deals with its natural boundaries, as well as having the potential to look forward beyond its limitations. It is a dynamic organism that changes as it needs to. In order to prosper, civilizations need to change and adopt, these changes may come from the outside or they can come from within. Failure to maintain control of its internal cultural pressures or its external natural environment can lead to the collapse and disintegration of a civilization. There are some important characteristics and values unique to Asian societies that affect onefs cultural identity. Confucianism has left a considerable mark in Asian thinking and perhaps two of the most important tenants of his teaching relevant to this topic are; Moral education What it means to be a human person. The response of Confucius to his turbulent times was to focus on moral education and self cultivation-in this lies the purpose of becoming a human being. He argues that one must become a human being, one is not merely born as one. It is only through learning to participate in human society and through developing relationships can one then become a human being. One must become a human being; it is earned, it is not a right. The issue of individualism is inherently tied with civilization, justice and society. Where there is no balance between civilization and the natural environment, individuality clashes with the society. Is there some way of finding a balance between the needs of the many and balancing the fundamental need for individual justice? There is a limit to natural resources. The task ahead is not to control nature, but to control ourselves, so that our economy can continue in the natural world. The meaning of life is connected with the attitude of the accumulation of wealth; this needs to change, so that a greater balance can be found in the needs of people. It places the value of inner satisfaction of the mind above that of mere material gain. What are the prospects of a successful cultural synthesis, what will it draw upon from western civilization and its values, or from another civilization?
gEngrishh Okinawa Style
Ifm sure most of you have heard of the website gEngrish.comh. If you havenft yet, you need to itfs really quite funny. It is further evidence that in Japan, English is cool, even if it is incomprehensible or inappropriate. Inspired by the aforementioned site, I thought it might be fun for us here on our little island paradise to have a laugh with some of the great gEngrishh plastered all over the Okinawa. I have been collecting gEngrishh whenever and wherever I can via photographs and thought I would share some of them with the rest of you. Ifd like to make this a monthly thing so, if any of you have some good ones that youfd like to submit, please do so – the more the better! If you have photographs, thatfs excellent, if not then just a small written bit about what it said and where it was located is great. You can e-mail them to me at
From a cigarette vending machine in Naha: gComfortable Space – I feel a piece of cigarette very gentle, when I feel easy at home after the daily work,.h Huh? Sounds a bit pornographic to me, but I guess whatever you do to relax is your business.
On the back of a big S.U.V. in Chatan: gWhenever and everywhere, we can meet our best friend-nature. Take a grip of steering!h Meet your best friend and crush him under your 4 wheel-drive monstrosity!
The Golden Era of the Ryukyu Kingdom
By the thirteenth century, Anji (local warlords) had organized their magiri (10-15 villages) into larger units which had evolved into three independent kingdoms, Hokuzan (Northern kingdom kR), Chuzan (Middle Kingdom R)and Nanzan (Southern Kingdom@ìR). There is a historical account on mainland Japan that says that the Ryukyuans or the people of eNantof (which literally means esouthern islandsf) were fierce fighters and that they enjoyed fighting so much that they ate the men they vanished. The cannibalism of course is a myth, but as to fighting, the Ryukyuans were able to turn back a Mongol invasion of 6,000 soldiers in 1291, when the main islandfs population was estimated to be around 20,000-30,000. Of the three kingdoms, the Chuzan was the strongest with 12 castles or guskus, the largest spanning 150 metres and the smallest just 22 metres. The next strongest kingdom was Nanzan with ten castles or guskus, the largest at 183 metres and the smallest at 49 metres in length. The least strongest Kingdom to the mountainous north (Hokuzan) possessed low yielding farmland and had two forts or guskus one at 100 metres length and the other 103 metres. Each kingdom maintained city-states that developed and enjoyed trading privileges with various countries in the Asia Pacific Region. Principal returning cargoes were sappanwood and pepper. Sappanwood sold in China for 100 times the prevailing price in the Ryukyus and pepper from 750-1500 times the price in South East Asia. Other goods brought from South East Asia included cloves, nutmeg, camphor, gold, tin, ivory, sandalwood, perfumes and incense, coral, mercury, opium, saffron, Malacca wine, cotton prints, muslin, silk goods, olibanum, eaglewood, costusroot, ebony, agate and exotic animals and birds. From archaeological evidence, the most popular imported items amongst Ryukyuans were Chinese celadons (porcelain) from the province of Zhejiang. In 1373 with the threat of Mongols to their northern boarders, Ming Dynasty China took great interest in trade with the Ryukyus, creating a demand for Ryukyuan horses and sulphur (from Kume Island, used to produce gunpowder). In 1416, Sho Hashi King of Chuzan started on a military campaign against the King of Hokuzan Hanan Chi. With a force of 2,800 soldiers, the armies of Chuzan managed to capture the capital of the north Nakijin and bring the two Kingdoms together. In 1429, Sho Hashi turned his eye southward and dethroned King Taro Mai of Nanzan, thereby unifying the main island and creating the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Golden Age of the Ryukyus is said to have been between 1385 and 1570, when the country was strong enough and rich enough to maintain central authority and to eventually put a ban on the private possession of weapons.
There are accounts of Chinese as well as Arabs, Koreans, and Japanese living in Naha during the Golden Era of Trade. There were 36 Chinese families recorded in Kumeson a district of Naha during this time, sent as emissaries by the Ming Dynasty. While the cities flourished with parks and temples, farmers out in the countryside were still expected to pay the same tribute to the royal courts, and subsequently there were a number of rebellions. The Yaeyama Islands to the south rebelled against Shuri in 1496 in response to which King Sho Shin dispatched nine generals and 3,000 soldiers in 46 ships to crush the rebellion in 1500. Thirty-seven years later a farmerfs rebellion to the north on Amami Oshima was also ruthlessly crushed.
The Ryukyuans began loosing their trading influence to the south with the appearance of Portuguese trade ships in the Asia Pacific Region. Armed with canon and shot, Portuguese ships (man of wars) made quick work of lightly armored Ryukyuan trading ships. With the capture of Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese under the command of Albuquerque monopolized trade in South East Asia, pushing the Ryukyuans out of ports in Siam, Palembang, Java, Sumatra, Patami, Armam and Sunda. After 1520 Ryukyuan ships traded with Siam and Patami only and by 1541 they maintained trade with only Siam. The Portuguese were also to share the same fate that they had dealt to Ryukyuan trade ships with the arrival of the Dutch East India Company in South East Asia. Armed with long-range canons, the Dutch could pick off the heavily gunned Portuguese ships at a distance.
To the north Japanese pirates (wako) who had been raiding Korea and China began moving southwards. Early in the fourteenth century their targets were mainly the Korean coastline, gradually moving down the coast to southern China along Fukien and Hangehou. After the civil war of Onin (1467-1477), when the power of the Ashikaga Shogunate in Kyoto became too weak to control resistive feudal lords, more pirates menaced Ryukyu shipping to the north. In 1480 Ryukyuan trade ships withdrew from Hyogo and Sakai, even though Sakai merchants still ventured to Naha through dangerous waters controlled by the Satsuma clan. There were two failed attempts by Japanese feudal lords to take over the Ryukyu Islands in 1516 and 1591 along with several attacks by pirates. The last King of an independent Ryukyu Kingdom, King Sho Nei came to the throne in 1589, managed to suppress a rebellion of the Jana clan in Naha three years later, but was completely helpless when in 1609 the Satsuma clan invaded with 3,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships. He was taken hostage to Japan and returned to the Ryukyus two years later, a mere vassal of the Satsuma clans of Kagoshima. P. Saeki@(Ref.; A brief history of Early Okinawa, based on the omoro shoshi, Sakihara,Mitsugu, 1987, Honpo Shoseki Press, Tokyo.)
Dave and Jenny's wedding on Zamami Island
