The Ryukyus: A History of the Island Kingdom at the Heart of East Asia

By Ibrahim Jalal

The captivating story of the Ryukyu Islands, located to the south of the main Japanese islands, covers the rise and fall of a maritime kingdom and its enduring legacy. The Ryukyus, which include Okinawa, have a rich and complex history which contains influences from a variety of cultures, including China, Ja

• Language: English
• Publisher: Earnshaw Books Ltd
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9789888843299

Book preview

Prologue

In the Forbidden City, the vast imperial palace in Beijing, news has reached the Emperor that the king of one of his many tributary states has passed away. With the former king’s heir apparent set to ascend the throne, the Emperor orders the formation of an over five-hundred-man delegation of diplomats, scholars, musicians and cooks, who are to make immediate preparations and sail east. Rare goods from both within the Middle Kingdom and the empire’s tributary states scattered throughout Asia are carefully loaded onto huge junks, themselves a reminder of the Emperor’s vast power.

The upper section of each junk is coated in heavy black paint with red accents around the edges, and on the each side of the bow two wide eyes have been painted. In contrast to the somber tone of the ships upper section, the hull is a fluorescent white. The junks are all equipped with three tear-shaped sails, each fixed to three separate battens. The smallest of these sails is at the ship’s stern, with a marginally larger sale sitting at the bow. The largest of the sails, more than double the size of the smaller counterparts is unfurled from the mainmast at the ship’s center. Amongst the rare goods that loaded onto the junks is royal clothing fit for the new king and a black crown studded with assorted jewels.

The junks set sail from the port of Fuzhou, tracing the flow of the Min River as it pours out into the Pacific. The junks cross the great ocean, pulling away from the shallow waters surrounding the mainland and heading into the deep blue waters of the Pacific. Having completed their journey, the ships anchor in the port of Naha, where the delegation will spend the next half year. This tributary state has been expecting them, and the delegation is promptly guided to a special building constructed for their very purpose, designed to meet their every need during their stay here.

Before attending the enthronement ceremony, some of the Chinese delegation pay homage to the kings of yore at a Buddhist temple not far from ocean. When the day of the enthronement ceremony begins, the delegation marches ceremonially with pomp towards the castle that sits at the heart of the kingdom. As the procession proceeds to the royal capital of Shuri, curious locals look on in awe. The procession moves along roads paved with coral limestone tiles, passing ancient Banyan trees with their long roots stretching down from the canopies to the ground, blood red Hibiscus flowers from which long stamen protrude and fruit trees of citruses.

The heir apparent meets the delegation at one of the castle’s gates, Shureimon. A towering structure of red lacquered wood, a roof of red and white tiles, and a central plaque on which ‘Land of Propriety’ engraved in golden Chinese characters. The heir apparent and the delegation together make their way to the castle, situated on a hill overlooking the city below, complete with zig-zagging walls that cut across the landscape. Like Shureimon, At the center of the castle complex sits a building of red lacquered wood and red and white tiles. In the castle’s courtyard precious objects from the Emperor are presented in a building constructed for this very occasion. A declaration is read in classical Chinese and Chinese instruments play during the enthronement ceremony. At last, the heir apparent is presented with the royal clothes and crown that had so carefully been transported across the ocean. He is now recognized by the Emperor of China as the King of Ryukyu, and like his predecessors is granted access to the Middle Kingdom’s tributary states, opening up a world of international trade for his small island nation.

This small kingdom to which the Emperors of China would dispatch delegations from time and time across the centuries, is the Ryukyu Kingdom, the historic predecessor of today’s Okinawa.

Okinawa first came to the wider world’s attention in the dying days of World War II. The Japanese military chose to make a stand there and the Battle of Okinawa from April 1 to June 22, 1945, was one of the most ferocious engagements of the entire war, one that appeared to foreshadow an even more gruesome and bloody invasion of the Japanese home islands. It saw Kamikaze aircraft attacks, suicide charges and a gruelling slog though mud and mortar fire as the Allies slowly prized control of the island away from the Japanese. The Imperial Japanese army fought with such reckless abandon because for the first time they were fighting to protect what they saw as their home soil. One quarter of the entire population were killed in the fighting, many of them compelled by Japanese troops to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Allied forces.

The former mayor of Koza, Ōyama Chōjō (1901—1999) described the suffering succinctly:

"In March of 1945, the American army landed and the Battle of Okinawa began...from children to the elderly...it was awful and ghastly. The battle continued for three months during which I lost my young brother and sister, who had such bright futures ahead of them, and also my mother and older brother. Such a deeply sad experience is not unique to me. There is not a single household who did not lose a member of their family or relative in the Battle of Okinawa.¹"

After the war was brought to a shuddering halt, not by a mass invasion but by the ignition of two atomic bombs in August, less than two months after Okinawa succumbed, Okinawa and its many associated islands became part of America’s ‘Keystone of the Pacific’ a floating military base that provided superior access to East and Southeast Asia. The Americans made efforts not only to revive Okinawa socially and economically, but also to revive the identity of the people as independent from Japan and harking back to the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom, an independent mercantile nation that was for long periods a tributary state to China, trading with Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia.

The Americans, during the administration after 1945, made increasing references to ‘Ryukyu’ such as in the naming of the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (the civil administration government), the holding of a Commodore Perry centennial event in 1953 to mark the relationship between the peoples of the former Ryukyu Kingdom and America, and even the establishment of Ryukyu University—pointedly not called Okinawa University—the first university to ever be established in the Ryukyu Islands. The site was purposefully chosen on the bombed-out remains of Shuri Castle, the royal capital of the Ryukyu kings, to stress the American commitment to respecting the long history and culture of the Ryukyu people.

Regardless of all this, in time the majority of Okinawans eventually settled for a return to Japan, although the Americans continue to operate a number of large military bases there. Okinawa was frequently referred to by the US as the ‘Keystone of the Pacific’, strategically located perfectly in between Japan, the Korean Peninsula, China and close to Southeast Asia, a crucial location for maintaining stability in Cold War Asia. During the Vietnam war, for example, Okinawa was vital in dispatching troops to Southeast Asia. Some would argue the military presence on the islands continues to ensure peace in the region today, while others protest that the bases are no longer needed. The issue is a contentious one in Okinawa and Japan.

This book takes you on the journey of how this tiny island state played a pivotal role in the history of East and Southeast Asia, its rise, its decline and ultimate transformation into Japan’s most southern prefecture, Okinawa and its role today as a strategic location for the US military.

Let us first set the scene. The Ryukyu Archipelago is a collection of over 150 islands. Some of these are large enough that it would take days to cross on foot, others are so small the ocean can always be seen and the waves always heard. Some of these islands have been inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, others have been largely left to nature and remain uninhabited.² Those who call the islands home number some 1.5 million people, residing at what could be considered a crossroads of East Asia, almost directly between Japan, Korea and China. It is precisely because of this special location that these islands have played such a significant role in the history, society and culture of the region.

The Ryukyu Archipelago today is Okinawa and is Japan’s most southern prefecture, the only one to be composed solely of islands. The territory of the former Ryukyu Kingdom, which lasted from 1429 to 1879, also included the southern islands of Kagoshima Prefecture which extend southwards from mainland Japan.

This book will take the reader on a journey from the time of the first people to enter these islands, to the rise and fall of the Ryukyu Kingdom in a narrative history that whenever possible will present the life, thoughts and motivations of those who lived here in their own words.

Since history as a discipline began in Ancient Greece and Ancient China, there have been many different styles of writing. Herodotus (BCE 484—425) ‘the Father of History’ took a more narrative approach compared to Thucydides (BCE 460—400) who shunned ‘storytelling’ for a more a more matter-of-fact approach. History today has changed and developed and is now generally divided into two styles of writing: academic works and works for the general public.

This book has not been written with an academic audience in mind, instead I hope to attract readers who may have little familiarity with the region but who may already have an interest in Japanese, Southeast Asian, or Chinese history. This book aims to introduce much of the knowledge that is currently locked away in the Japanese language to a wider audience in English.

I have provided sources for the reader for orientation in the text in the case of quotations from historical figures, scholar’s interpretations and statistical information. This has been provided as footnotes with standard numerals, while a full list of texts used in this work can be found in the bibliography. Endnotes are in Roman numerals and have been used to provide extra information that would distract from the flow of the text, or Japanese language words that would be difficult to find if searched for with the Roman alphabet for those who do have an understanding of Chinese or Japanese but who would like to investigate further.

In places, I have created other narrative-like sections derived from history to give the reader a sense of place. These sections are based on historic sources and local legends, while at other times I have taken to quoting contemporaries directly where the opportunity arises.

Ryukyu prospered during its time as a Chinese tributary state; trading of goods developed between Korea, Japan and China in the East, and distant Malaya and the islands now part of Indonesia to the south-west. During this golden age, the Ryukyu Kingdom developed a high culture, established diplomatic links throughout Asia and successfully brought the entirety of the Ryukyu Archipelago under the domain of one central authority for the first time in history. This international mercantilism was such a point of pride for the kings of Ryukyu that a 721 kilogram bronze bell was cast declaring the small maritime kingdom ‘The Bridge of Nations’, and Ryukyu’s prosperity, culture and history entirely depended on this internationalism.

Yet this era of prosperity was not to last. By the early 17th century the first Europeans, the Portuguese and Spanish, had begun to enter Asia and other European nations soon followed. These very same Europeans began to topple Ryukyu’s trading partners, the Sultanate of Malacca, the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and eventually threatened the heart of the East Asian tributary system itself, China.

But it was not the Europeans who bought an end to the Ryukyu kingdom’s independence. Closer to home, the Satsuma samurai of Japan launched an invasion of Ryukyu in 1609, annexing the northern island of Amami and bringing it under their direct control. South of Amami, the Ryukyu Kingdom was reborn as a puppet state that was now partially integrated into the Shogunate system, the samurai government of Japan. Over this period, trade declined and agriculture became the main staple of the Ryukyu economy, leading to a booming population, albeit one that was constantly in flux due to natural disasters and famine. North of the kingdom, in what had become Satsuma-controlled Amami, sugarcane developed into a cash crop enriching the southern samurai in the process and creating a class of indentured servants amongst many of the common people of Amami. Under de facto Japanese rule, a ban on Christianity was enforced throughout the archipelago, with stone beacons erected in the most southern islands so that the sight of any foreign ships could be rapidly relayed to Shuri, then to the Satsuma and ultimately to the Shogun. Despite being under the control of the Satsuma, the Ryukyu Kingdom still governed the majority of the archipelago and while the Satsuma samurai were pulling the strings, this would have been hardly noticed by the majority of the kingdom’s peasants whose daily struggles continued as before.

As much as possible, the Satsuma attempted to keep their dominance of the Ryukyu Kingdom a secret, allowing a degree of Ryukyu tribute to China from which they could profit. At the same time, the archipelago came under the Sakoku policy of Japan in which the Shogun in de jure terms at least, forbade any foreigners from making landfall in Japan, while also preventing any Japanese leaving.

In an increasingly imperialistic 19th century, such isolationist polices were impossible to maintain, and beginning in the 1850s the Shogunate was forced to concede access to numerous ports, following America’s use of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ to force the country open.

During this tumultuous period, debate erupted in Japan about where the country was heading. Some scorned the Shogunate, with many samurai rallying under the phrase ‘revere the emperor and expel the barbarians’. While the emperor had ‘ruled’ Japan since ancient times, the real power was in the hands of military generals, the successive dynasties of shoguns who had ruled since the early 14th Century. Those who rallied around this phrase believed that restoring the emperor to his rightful place would prevent the decline of the nation.

This tension culminated in the Meiji Restoration of 1868 in which power was forcibly taken from the Shogunate and the emperor was restored to power as a figurehead. But the Ryukyu Kingdom did not fit neatly into the fledgling nation state, and questions arose about what to do with the islands and its people. Both the Qing dynasty (1636-1912) of China and the Meiji government of Japan asserted claims to the Ryukyu Archipelago. Questions about who rightfully controlled the Ryukyus were put to rest in 1895 when Japan defeated the Qing in the first Sino-Japanese War (1894—1895). Following this, the Ryukyu Kingdom was abolished and succeeded by Okinawa Prefecture. The last king of Ryukyu was exiled to Tokyo in 1879.

Now formally part of Japan, Okinawa was caught up in a wave of reforms taking place across the nation that sought to establish a national conscious, the quashing of regionalism and the creation of a pan-Japanese identity. These reforms were particularly keenly felt in Okinawa as it had a larger cultural and linguistic gap to bridge than the mainland prefectures.

The assimilation of Okinawa was also crucial to the Meiji Oligarchs, the politicians overseeing this new order, as they saw the Ryukyu Archipelago as the southern entry point into Japan. It was from here they were vulnerable should the country be attacked in war. It was therefore important that those on Japan’s southern doorstep think of themselves as citizens of Japan, and preferably lose any identity related to the former kingdom’s history and indigenous customs.

While the official policy sought to assimilate Ryukuans, in their daily interactions with mainlanders they often became targets of discrimination whether at home in the islands, in mainland Japan and even within Japanese communities abroad. Okinawan attempts to become more like their mainlander counterparts were imposed top-down by the government, but these ideas were also proactively taken up by many Okinawans, with references to how they should even ‘sneeze like mainlanders.’

There is also a parallel Okinawan history during this era that takes us away from the islands themselves—that of the Okinawans who migrated abroad in the 19th Century. These migrants travelle as far away as Brazil, North America and even to islands in the south-west Pacific including New Caledonia.

The Three Divisions of the Ryukyu Archipelago

The Ryukyu Archipelago is a vast island chain that stretches over a thousand kilometers across the Pacific Ocean. The islands arch from just off the coast of Japan’s Kyushu in the north to just over one hundred kilometers from Taiwan in the south. In these subtropical islands, the temperature rarely diverges by more than 11 or 12 degrees centigrade throughout the year. Even in winter, temperatures below ten degrees are rare, with the average temperature between 15 and 18 degrees, while in midsummer the average is between 27 and 29.

Throughout the year, more than 2,000mm of rain fall and humidity is at a consistently high level. Much of the rain comes from the monsoon and typhoon seasons. These islands are warmed by the Kuroshiro Current, an ocean stream that brings warmer water from the Philippines north through the Ryukyu Archipelago and past Japan, allowing for the world’s northern-most coral reefs to flourish. In summer, these islands are visited by the Pacific High, a subtropical anticyclone, which ensures hot summer days and clear blue skies. The winter brings its counterpart, the Siberian High, a cold dry air bringing strong winds, clouds and rain.

A wide range of ecological, historical and cultural differences is to be found throughout this chain of islands. The Ryukyu Archipelago can be broken up into three distinct divisions: Northern Ryukyu, Central Ryukyu and Southern Ryukyu. Northern Ryukyu begins with the Tokara Islands, a 150-kilometer chain of twelve small islands that stretch from the Japanese home island of Kyushu down to the second section of the Archipelago, the Amami Islands. Unlike the Tokara Islands, Amami has numerous small islands with the larger Amami Ōshima, of over seven-hundred square kilometers, at its center. Tokara and Amami, are categorized as Northern Ryukyu and today they are part of Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture.

South from Amami, we move into Okinawa Prefecture. Here are the Okinawa Islands including the main island of Okinawa, it is the fifth largest island in Japan and the largest of the archipelago. it is home to hundreds of thousands of people, the most populous island of the Ryukyu Archipelago. Okinawa is also the historic home of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and as a result it is Okinawa which has come to have the greatest cultural and historical influence on the islands north and south of the archipelago. This core section is referred to as Central Ryukyu.

While Okinawa, Amami and Tokara are relatively close together, there is a gulf of two-hundred kilometers of open ocean separating them from Southern Ryukyu, which is made up of the Sakishima Islands. The Sakishima Islands themselves are generally broken up into two clusters: the Miyako Islands, a group with the main island of Miyako surrounded by smaller outlying islands and further west, the Yaeyama Islands, the most southern collection of islands throughout the archipelago.

The island with the biggest population in Yaeyama is Ishigaki Island, on which over forty thousand people live. Traditionally they have been confined to the coastal areas away from the jungles and mountains of the interior. To the west of Ishigaki is Iriomote Island, a heavily forested island which is the third largest within the Ryukyu Archipelago and the second largest in Okinawa Prefecture. Further west still is the more isolated Yonaguni Island. A relatively small island of only twenty-seven square kilometers, but notable due to its proximity to Taiwan, making Yonaguni the most western point of all Japan. As with Amami, Okinawa and Miyako there are also many smaller outlying islands to be found throughout Yaeyama.

The largest islands in the Ryukyu Archipelago

Geology and Wildlife

In the Ryukyu Archipelago the larger islands are generally formed of the same rock as the mainland Japanese islands, while the smaller islands tend to be formed from Ryukyu limestone born from the movement of the earth’s crust compacting coral reefs.

The makeup of the islands has had an enduring legacy on the architecture with buildings made of Ryukyu limestone throughout Okinawa. This limestone is used in both traditional and modern architecture in stone walls and pieces are also sold as souvenirs, often engraved with a phrase in the Okinawan language. Often present within the stone are shells and creatures that have been preserved as fossils from tens of thousands of years ago.

Numerous caves known as Gama in Okinawan, are a unique feature of the landscape. There are about two-thousand limestone caves throughout Okinawa Prefecture formed from coral. Take for example the cave of Gyokusendo in Okinawa, where stalactites grow at a pace of one millimeter every three years. This relatively rapid rate of growth is due to the sub-tropical climate bringing large quantities of rainwater into the cave, this coupled with high levels of carbon dioxide allows microbes to thrive in this warm environment, speeding up the erosion of the limestone.

Generally large islands such as Iriomote and Amami Ōshima broke away from continental Asia millions of years ago, while smaller island such as Taketomi, Kohama and Kuroshima were formed from this limestone. Other islands are a combination, such as Okinawa Island, the south of which is composed of the latter and the north the former, as is the case with Ishigaki. Yonaguni is a smaller island that is not formed of Ryukyu limestone, and like Ishigaki and Iriomote has a more intense topography compared to that of limestone islands such as Taketomi or Miyako.

The formation of the Ryukyu Archipelago is tied to that of the wider Japanese Archipelago. During the last ice age, what would become the Ryukyu Archipelago was a land bridge between what is now Taiwan and Kyushu. About 1.5 million years ago, the northern part of Ryukyu began to pull away from this land bridge. This movement, followed by rising water levels, led to the creation of part of the Ryukyu Archipelago. About 500,000 years ago an upheaval of coral caused by movement of the Philippine Plate created the archipelago’s coral islands.

The geological formation of each of the Ryukyu Archipelago’s islands has in turn shaped life and geography on each island. On Iriomote and Ishigaki, there are Itaji trees (castanoposis sieboldii) and oak trees (quercus salicina) which came from the ancient days when these islands were still part of the Eurasian continent. Wildlife also varies depending on the island, such as with unique species including the Iriomote Mountain Cat, a tiny relative of the leopard, which was in the jungles of Iriomote when the island was still part of the continent.

The isolation of these islands has also led to the development of a unique range of wildlife. Rare animals that can be found in Ryukyu include the coconut crab, which can weigh as much as four kilograms, the Ryukyu flying fox, a giant bat with a wingspan of over one meter and the Okinawan rail, a small flightless bird found in the Yanbaru rainforest.

The islands are akin to the Galapagos, with diversity a central feature of the islands; the number of species of bird throughout Okinawa contributes to 73% of the total bird species in Japan and the same is true for 75% of Japan’s reptiles. Mammals throughout the Ryukyu Archipelago are relatively small, of these, fourteen species are unique to the Ryukyu archipelago, including the Amami Black Rabbit.

Language at the Crossroads of East Asia

Amid this unique geography and wildlife there is an equally unique culture, and just like the flora and fauna, this differs from island to island all the way from Amami in the north to Yaeyamain the south.

Those who visit Okinawa Prefecture will likely notice a distinct difference to mainland Japan. One example are the characteristic Shisa guardian lions displayed on the roofs, walls or in the grounds of homes, restaurants, hotels, or indeed almost any building. The Shisa come in many forms, some are fierce creatures with ragged manes like a bellowing fire, sharp claws and piercing eyes. Others are more friendly, including brightly colored lions with round faces and big eyes and gaping smiles. There are so many variations of Shisa throughout these islands that you can spot hundreds of pairs just walking through the streets of Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture.

Then there are the bright traditional orange tiled roofs of Ryukyu which make