Word: ryukyu
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...tropical islands that make up the Okinawa Prefecture (also known as the Ryukyu Islands) look and feel very different from the rest of Japan, with their own language, cuisine and customs. While East Asian travelers have long been aware of their charms, the 1,000-km-long archipelago stretching out toward Taiwan remains something of an unknown to long-haul visitors, apart from its dubious renown as the location of the Battle of Okinawa. Visiting Japan? Here are five reasons why the Ryukyus should figure on your itinerary...
...Ryukyu Mura In an effort to preserve local culture after the decimation wreaked by WW II, traditional wooden houses from other islands were uprooted and reconstructed as a village at Ryukyu Mura, tel: (81-98) 965 1234, near the west coast of the main Okinawa Island. But this is no theme park. The elderly residents (locals regularly top the world's longevity lists thanks to a healthy diet and lifestyle) are serious about saving their way of life and will happily chat to you for hours on end over endless cups of green tea and sata andagi - sweet, deep-fried...
Back at the American Village a month after the incident, a matsuri is in full swing. But across the street, in front of a billboard for the movie Pearl Harbor, is a group from the local Ryukyu University. The students wave banners and shout hoarsely into bullhorns: "We oppose American bases on Okinawa! We oppose President Bush! We oppose violence to women! We will not rest till the bases...
...across the street, in front of a billboard for the movie Pearl Harbor, is another group of Okinawans from Ryukyu University. The students wave banners and shout hoarsely into bullhorns: "We oppose American bases on Okinawa! We oppose President Bush! We oppose violence to women! We will not rest till the bases...
...Okinawans, the special treatment afforded U.S. service members is symbolic of a deeper problem. The bases represent the latest face of the hard fate that Okinawa has endured since the once independent kingdom, the heart of the Ryukyu island chain, was annexed by Japan in 1879. The Japanese then tried with partial success to exterminate the local culture and language. Toward the end of World War II, 150,000 local people--nearly a third of the population--and 12,520 U.S. troops and 100,000 Japanese soldiers died there in the bloodiest of the campaigns in the Pacific...