Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa

Annexation and assimilation 23
nineteenth century, Japan was positioned at the periphery of this new international
order. By leaving its ‘domestic’ border undecided, it was under a grave threat
of territorial loss – as rival colonial powers expanded. In order to face a new
international relations paradigm with a clearly defined territorial border backed by
substantial military power, Japan started to expand its territory overseas, whilst
protecting itself from being colonized by Western imperial powers. The future
status of the Ryūkyū kingdom became a serious subject of deliberation among
the Meiji leaders. Owing to drastic reforms, the financial condition of the Meiji
government was not able to provide the remote islands with public services such
as police, military, and education. Also, completely incorporating Ryūkyū into
Japanese territory involved the risk of producing a diplomatic conflict with China.
Moreover, the opposition to accepting the Ryūkūans as Japanese was made by quite
a few leaders, who mentioned that the Ryūkyū people were ethnically different
from the Japanese (Oguma 1998: 20–1). 7
By the 1870s, however, the Meiji government became aware of Ryūkyū as a
strategic fortress in East Asia because of its proximity to China, Korea, Southeast
Asia, and other islands in the Pacific. In 1871, a fishing vessel drifted from
Miyako Island, a southwestern island of Ryūkyū. It landed on the Taiwanese shore,
and 54 of the 66 crew members were slaughtered by the indigenous Taiwanese.
The Japanese government seized this opportunity to send troops and a punitive
expedition to Taiwan in 1874. 8 While settling this incident, in October 1872, Japan’s
foreign minister gave the Ryūkyūan envoys an emperor’s order to create the domain
of Ryūkyū (Ryūkyū han) and to make King ShōTai domain king (han-ō). In 1879,
a dispatch from the Meiji government brought in 400 soldiers and 160 police officers
to formally abolish the Ryūkyū kingdom. King Shō Tai was captured and forced
to live in Tokyo. This action was called the ‘Ryūkyū disposal’ (Ryūkyū Shobun),
which ended the Ryūkyū kingdom: Ryūkyū was now formally annexed to Japan
and turned into Okinawa Prefecture (Okinawa ken). 9
During negotiation with China over the status of Okinawa after the ‘Ryūkyū
disposal’, the Japanese government offered to cut off Miyako and Yaeyama islands
from Okinawa Prefecture, and to give them to China in exchange for the most
favoured nation status in trade, equivalent to that enjoyed by European and
American powers. 10 Ōta stresses that the Japanese authority took advantage of the
marginalized positions of Miyako and Yaeyama within Okinawa, where people
were oppressed with the onerous poll tax by the central Ryūkyū authorities (Miyako
and Yaeyama’s position in relation to the central Ryūkyū court paralleled the
position of Okinawa vis-à-vis mainland Japan). This plan to divide Okinawa, Ōta
Masahide argues, encapsulates the marginalized position of Okinawa as a result
of the Ryūkyū disposal: to mainland Japan, Okinawa was now a pawn that could
be ‘moved’ wherever necessary for the survival of the state (Ōta 1972: 115). The
Ryūkyū disposal marks the opening of Okinawa’s history of humiliation and
marginalization by the modern Japanese nation-state. To the present, it has left a
scar on the sovereignty, autonomy, and pride of the Okinawans as the descendants
of the Ryūkyūans. It is in this historical context that the idea of a continuous struggle
of Okinawans is embedded.