Japanese university initiates research on Okinawans in NMI

A five-member research team from the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa in began last week its three-year field academic research on Okinawan immigrants to the CNMI during the Nanyo administration or the Japanese era in the Marianas.

Professors from the university are currently on Saipan to carry out the first phase of the study which intends to rediscover the settlement and way of living of Japanese Okinawans.

The group of geography and literature experts lead by Dr. Tomonori Ishikawa is also determined to conduct an in depth research on immigration patterns of Okinawans on Saipan, Rota, and Tinian during the periods covering 1914 to 1945.

Dr. Ishikawa, an archives specialist at the university, will summarize statistical and historical background of immigrants from Okinawa to the Mariana Islands.

According to Prof. Shinzo Shimabukuro, 70 percent of Japanese immigrants who inhabited Micronesia and Palau during the Nanyo era were Okinawans. “This is under the Japanese mandate,” said Mr. Shimabukuro.

Most Okinawans during the period were reportedly engaged in the production of sugar cane, fishing, and other agricultural activities.

“We came here to try to find out what used to be, how they lived their lives here, where they lived, their occupations, and what their relationship was with the local people and so forth,” he said.

The Japanese team also brought with them history professor Masanori Nakahodo, who has been designated to make up oral history with Japanese-speaking local residents who were present during the Nanyo period.
Mr. Nakahodo was born on the island of Tinian in 1943.

“My field is on land use. I will be probing deeper how Okinawans developed the sugar cane plantations and other agricultural lands, how they related to their tenants, the farm size. I want to know what exactly were the agricultural activities they were involved in,” said Mr. Shimabukuro.

“We would also like to call on those people who have information about our research to please come forward and share it with us,” the professor appealed.

The three-year research study is being done for the first time by the University of Ryukyus in the Marianas under the auspices of the Ministry of Education’s academic fund.

Other research members who will soon be heading to Tinian to gather more information on the subject under study are professors Mamoro Yabiku, Munehiro Machida, Masanori Nakahodo, and Hisamitsu Miayuachi.

The group has conducted similar Okinawan studies in areas around Latin America during the past 20 years.

Next year , the field researchers will carry out the same study in Palau and in Pohnpei in 2002.