Uchinaanchu Diaspora: Memories, Continuities, and Constructions

“Studies of Okinawa and Ryuukyuu were once considered marginal or, at best, esoteric topics to pursue within Asian Studies. However, with the rise of post-modern and post-colonial studies in the late-twentieth-century, and new patterns of globalization, consumerism, and imperialism in the twenty-first century, Okinawan Studies has become quite in vogue. . . . Unchinaanchu in Hawai‘i, one of the larger Okinawan diasporic communities, have become subjects of study by increasing numbers of researchers—from Okinawa and hondo (mainland) Japan, the continental U.S., and Oceania. Too often the results of those studies do not make it back to Hawai‘i, so there has been little opportunity for local Uchinaanchu to assess or learn about how researchers conceive of the Uchinaanchu in Hawai‘i.

“This volume represents an effort in community reflection. It looks at various aspects of the Uchinaanchu Diaspora, but mainly as it relates to Hawai‘i. It considers the social and cultural elements that Okinawan emigrants carried with them from their homeland of Uchinaa, the traditions and customs they maintained or continued to perpetuate and the new patterns, practices and organizations they constructed. It builds on the realization that the Uchinaanchu diasporic community in Hawai‘i is intimately connected to events, conditions and communities in Okinawa itself, as well as to other Okinawan diasporic communities.” —from the Preface

• Joyce N. Chinen, Editor