Voices from Okinawa: Featuring Three Plays by Jon Shirota

Series Editor Frank Stewart.
Guest editor Katsunori Yamazato.

Voices from Okinawa features through literature the rich and remarkable culture of Japan’s southernmost islands. In this landmark publication—the first literary anthology showcasing Okinawan Americans—Okinawan voices are heard in plays, essays, and interviews. Through the beauty, humor, and heartbreak in Jon Shirota’s award-winning plays, readers will discover the exuberance and excellence of Okinawan American literature. And in personal essays and interviews, the compelling life stories are told of June Hiroko Arakawa, Philip K. Ige, Mitsugu Sakihara, and Seiyei Wakukawa. The distinctive cultural perspectives and literary excellence of Voices from Okinawa show that American literature is more inclusive, complex, and multilayered than we have imagined.

Guest editor Katsunori Yamazato is professor of American literature and culture at the University of the Ryukyus. He is also director of the American Studies Center of the University of the Ryukyus and director of the Pacific and North/South American Research Project “Human Migration and the Twenty-first Century Global Society.”

Artist Ozaki Seiji created the woodblock prints in this volume. The prints depict Okinawan dolls and toys and are reproduced from his book Ryukyu gangu zufu (Kasahara Shoni Hoken Kenkyujo, 1936), which is in the Sakamaki / Hawley Collection. Housed in Hamilton Library, of the University of Hawai‘i, this collection of Ryukyu/Okinawa materials contains numerous one-of-a kind items.

Extract

“Mr. Yuen, I can talk to you?”
    He took his cigarette out of his mouth. “Sure,” he said, looking at me with a smile. His forehead was wet with sweat.
    “You think my father Japanese?” I said, suddenly feeling foolish for asking because the answer seemed so obvious. I thought he might laugh at me for asking such a stupid question, but he didn’t, and his answer surprised me.
    “No. Your papa not Japanee. Him Okinawa. Japanee and Okinawa different,” he said. “Long time before, Okinawa no belong to Japan. Okinawa had king. King boss of Okinawa. Okinawa not called Okinawa long time before. Chinese call Okinawa Loo Choo. Chinese and Okinawa good friends for long time. They make business. Some Chinese stay in Okinawa, near castle town where king stay. And some Okinawan people stay in China.”
    “Yeah? This true?” I said, amazed and delighted.
    “Yeah. All this true,” he said. “Okinawa and China friends for long, long time. Maybe your papa get little bit Chinese blood. Him no more hair. Just like Chinese. Just like me. How come you get plenty hair?” he said, taking hold of my arm, rubbing it, and gently pulling the hair on it. “I think so your papa Chinese and you Okinawan,” he said, laughing and letting go of my arm.
—from “An Okinawan Nisei in Hawaii” by Philip K. Ige

224 pp., summer 2009 (21:1), $20
ISBN 978-0-8248-3391-6
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