Presented by Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing
Voices from Okinawa: Featuring Three Plays by Jon Shirota
Edited by Frank Stewart and 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.
Poem, i
Wesley Iwao Ueunten
Preface, vii-viii
Katsunori Yamazato
THREE PLAYS by JON SHIROTA
Lucky Come Hawaii, 1
Jon Shirota
Leilani’s Hibiscus, 52
Jon Shirota
Voices from Okinawa, 94
Jon Shirota
FIVE UCHINANCHU IN HAWAI’I
History and Okinawans, 134
Mitsugu Sakihara
Grandfather to Grandson: Perspectives on a Life, 140
Seiyei Wakukawa
The Gift: An Interview with June Hiroko Arakawa, 149
Kinuko Maehara Yamazato
The Dawning of an Okinawan, 157
Jon Shirota
An Okinawan Nisei in Hawaii, 174
Philip K. Ige
Sparrows of Angel Island: The Experience of a Young Japanese Prisoner of War, 187
Mitsugu Sakihara
Afterword, 203
Frank Stewart
Permissions and Acknowledgments, 210
Further Readings, 212