友寄隆哉の
ジャズはなぜ死んだか？
ジャズから見る文化論
沖縄から日本を観る沖縄から沖縄を観る
英文沖縄
以下の英文には、「唐の世」「大和の世」「アメリカ世」「大和の世」までの「占領の変遷」と「民族教育」「コザ暴動」「現在」までを簡単に触れております。
外国人に「沖縄ってどういう所？」と聞かれた際にこの英文を送れば、即座に「沖縄」が理解できるようにしています。3001年までは有効です。
1: LIVING IN OKINAWA
By Takaya Tomoyose
(1) I was born on a small island in 1959. This island was once called Ryukyu (Rekio) before it was invaded in 1609 by the people from the bigger neighboring island of Japan, and it was eventually named Okinawa in 1879.
The island was first mentioned in historical documents in the year 607, during ancient China's Zui dynasty, and a reference to the Ryukyu islands appeared in Japanese documents as early as 699.
(2) Although there are some similarities between Okinawa and the Japanese mainland, there are many cultural differences between them.
(3) The Japanese government decided to educate the people of Okinawa. At first, they banned children from using their parent language as a "dialect" in my father's elementary school days (he was born in 1927). If any children happened to use words in the Okinawan dialect, they would have to wear wooden placards suspended from their necks that read, "I've used dialect," so that they would be ridiculed by the other children. It was my father's daily job to have this placard on his chest.
(4) Next, the government told the students our history -- where we came from, and how the Sun Goddess is the Mother of us all.
This history informed of the students that both the Japanese and Okinawan people have many of the same forefathers, who are all from heaven. My dad couldn't remember this part very well because each of our forefathers have too many relatives of their own.
(5) My dad liked to play outside, rather than stay inside, he confessed later. I think the government didn't know what to do with people like him. The problem was they didn't know how to educate or what to teach children.
(6) Before I was born, Okinawa had been changed into "America" (not "America itself," but rather "an island for the American army," I was told). During World War II, many thousands of Okinawa natives were killed, either by the Japanese soldiers making room to hide themselves in the small shelters, or by the enemy Americans.
(7) Americans took control of Okinawa (and the rest of Japan) in August, 1945, at the end of the war. Although Japan regained its own sovereignty in 1952, the U.S. maintained control over Okinawa, as the Japanese government relinquished the island as a sin offering to America.
(8) After the war ended, the majority of the island of Okinawa belonged to the U.S. Army. Many U.S. troops were stationed on the island, and people on the island had to give away their own lands to them to use. They weren't able to enter their own property anymore, and the Americans put wire fences around the lands.
(9) Many children thought that if they saw or took a picture of any parts of the B-52 combat plane they would get arrested and possibly be killed. The island also used American money then. From the time I was born in 1959, l never saw any Japanese money until 1972.
(10) Few people realize how difficult it is for the people who live on the island to make a living there. In order to do so, people have to get along with the soldiers. Many people have made their living by opening bars to serve drinks to the young soldiers.
(11) Over the years, many children have been born as a result of one-night love affairs between young soldiers from America and native Okinawan girls. Most of the fathers simply went back to their homeland, and never returned to the island.
(12) Many such children left by their fathers have grown up without being able to speak English, even though they look like an American, whatever the color of their skin is. They had to go to a Japanese school, because it cost too much money to go to an American school at the military base in Okinawa.
(13) Many problems between the soldiers and the people of the island have occurred since then. These include such crimes as rape, selling drugs, and hit-and-run accidents. Many times, soldiers who committed such offenses went unpunished, for the local authorities often felt powerless to arrest them.
(14) When Okinawan children grew up, they began to entertain the soldiers by playing the rock music that they and the soldiers mutually loved. During the Vietnam War, many soldiers wanted to vent excess energy outside the base before they went to the battlefront. They would shout loudly and party hard at rock music clubs, and then go off to fight, sometimes never to return. Meantime, their superior officers, most of whom had higher education, loved jazz music instead, and so they would invite jazz musicians to the base and have a party there.
(15) In 1970, a historic riot happened in the downtown area of "Koza City" (later known as "Okinawa City"). The "Koza Riot" started one night when people in the city came across a car accident where an American soldier had run over a man in the street. Military police came to investigate him briefly, and sent the driver back to the base. A month earlier, a woman had been killed in a hit-and-run car accident by an American soldier.
(16) Bystanders at the second accident began to yell at the military police, and that was the beginning of the riot by the people of the city against the Americans. Whenever the people found an American on the street, they would hit him, and they turned over cars belonging to Americans everywhere in the streets. The Okinawans didn't hit black people during the riot, because they knew how the black soldiers were treated by the whites.
(17) On May 15, 1972, Okinawa was officially returned to Japan by the United States. Since then, the money has slowly changed from dollars to yen. Older people have gotten accustomed to it again, just as they did before.
(18) When I was a child, the slogan, "Return to the main island," meant to me that all of the people on Okinawa would have to go aboard a big ship in order to physically move to the main island. My elder brother believed that the island of Okinawa would begin to float toward the main island by itself. My little sister couldn't understand the meaning of the slogan, but her thinking surprised me: she had believed that the areas behind the wire fences were in fact "America" itself.
(19) Nowadays, Okinawa is a place to where many young people have moved from the main island, especially from Tokyo. Many of them have moved here in order to play African , Jamaican or Okinawan music for pleasure. Such music is often called "ethnic music" or "world music," although many of its players don't seem very interested in the history of other countries. Some of them behave like easy-going people, but they don't mix in well with the people of the island. They tend to only associate with each other to play their "world music" together, or with non-Japanese people who speak English (although most of them don't speak English themselves).
(20) Sometimes, these people will spend American money when shopping here, just like Americans do. I don't know where they get the money, but they seem to like to use it as if they were vacationers in the U.S. However, we don't use American money here anymore, especially among the people who are born here. Only the soldiers still use the money.
(21) The main reason that such people move to Okinawa is that this island is closer to other Asian countries. Asian people don't work as hard, so that goes well with their lifestyle.
(22) Many young people of Okinawa have tried to get fame from the main island by their music. But most of them haven't ever had the experience of living on the main island. The island of Okinawa seems to have attractive powers like a magnet, especially for young people who love to play music.
(23) I saw on television recently where young soldiers at the base were taking pictures of each other with hidden cameras while they were in training. They seem to enjoy living here.
（A 12-year-old girl was raped by three American servicemen on Sept. 4, 1995.）
(24) These days, Okinawans no longer care who we have belonged to or where we are from anymore. We just simply say, "Welcome to our beautiful island," and ask, "Why don't you come here and have a lot of fun with the young people from all over the world?"
Because, I now believe, that is the real wisdom that our forefathers have left us.
(proofreaded by native speakers of English )
Takaya Tomoyose Jan. 6 2001
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