Customer Reviews

Okinawa: The History of an Island People

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Just as Gibbon's classic history of the Roman Empire tells us that Armenia has been a center of conflict since time immemorial, so also does Kerr's classic work remind us of the centuries of conflict Okinawa has witnessed. Just like Armenia, so also does Okinawa deserves something better.

Okinawa's early history was pockmarked by a series of kings struggling to maintain control over fighting warlords. Although Shunten established his kingdom in the 13th Century by defeating his rivals, the entire island was not totally unified until a century later when Sho Hashi conquered the three kingdoms, which made up the island. Peace, of a sort, reigned until 1609, when the Shimazu clan from Satsuma, in southern Japan, invaded Okinawa.

For the next 270 years, Okinawa was, in effect, a Satsuma colony. Satsuma demanded taxes from the Okinawans and controlled trade in exchange for island protection. Commodore Perry's black ships, as chapter seven explains, also paid an unwelcome visit during 1853 and 1854. Perry, who established a small military base there, clearly had plans to bring the entire Ryukuyu Islands into the American ambit.

Napoleon Bonaparte had similar plans. He regarded Okinawa as being central to France's vital interests. Anglo-Chinese tensions brought Okinawa further unwanted attention from both Britain and China. Because Britain, France and the United States were all making efforts to colonize the island chain, an increasingly apprehensive Japan tightened its grip on the island by sending a military detachment there in 1868. Later in 1879, Japan abolished the royal government and annexed Okinawa as a prefecture.

Okinawa was then left in relative peace until 1944, when the Japanese Army arrived in force to counter the impending American attack. The Battle of Okinawa was one of World War II's longest, bloodiest and hardest fought campaigns. Total American casualties were 49,151, including 12,500 killed or missing in action. Japanese Imperial Army losses totaled over 75,000. Nearly one-third of Okinawa's civilian population-100,000 people-also perished during those nightmare months. The battle ended on June 22, 1945, when Old Glory fluttered unchallenged from Okinawa's mountains and towns.

The Stars and Stripes have been flying there ever since. The area stayed under American military control until May 15, 1972, when Richard Nixon transferred administrative authority of the Ryukyu Islands back to Japan. The islands resumed the status they held prior to 1945 - the 47th prefecture of Japan.

Ryukyu means Beautiful Country of the Southern Ocean. Like Armenia, it is indeed a beautiful and haunted land. However, just like Armenia, it is in an unfortunate position. Because it straddles the seaways between China and Japan and because it is near to Korea, the Spratly Islands and a host of other strategically important sites, it remains one of the most militarized places on earth. As the author makes plain, China and the Philippines periodically claim the island chain as their own. When we read the book, we see how truly unfortunate this is.

Kerr paints the golden days of Okinawa before these outside pressures came to dominate the island. He describes how an impoverished people living on barren islands with no metals and little forest wealth were able to construct and preserve for many centuries a complex, progressive and stable government and society. Unlike some of the world's more endowed areas, the Okinawans, like the Armenians, had a toy state, with dignified kings, sententious and learned prime ministers, as well as an abundance of temples and shrines. Okinawa's whole fragile, minuscule structure was developed in a faithful effort to emulate great China, Asia's fabled Middle Kingdom.

Although Kerr paints this beautiful experiment with enchantingly melancholic hues, he makes it plain that there can be no return to those golden days. Maybe with peace pending on the Korean peninsula, a new and equally beautiful experiment in social engineering can begin. The people of Okinawa richly deserve it.

Researched and written by George H. Kerr, I believe that this book is accepted as the premiere text of authority with regard to the history of pre-war Okinawa.
I've read and re-read this book and have a much greater understanding of the people of the Ryukyu Islands - and I also have a much deeper regret for having not known this history while living among the Okinawans.

"...this is the history of a little-known people whom events have made it necessary to know well. It is also one of those all-too-rare books that happily combine solid scholarship and detailed accuracy with a forthright, enjoyable literary style that does justice to the storybook quality of many of the episodes. It will long remain the standard history of Okinawa and the Ryukyus."

I purchased the Kindle version of this book to learn about the area and as a reference tool. However, the conversion to ebook format is so poorly done, that any citings MUST be verified against either the print version or through other sources. The Kindle version simply has too many errors.

Otherwise, this book was an enjoyable read. Very informative and well worth the time.

As a musician who tours at least 200 days out of every year and spends time in the studio when I'm not on the road, I find that if I don't keep a number of interesting books with me on the road, my brain completely turns to mush.

One of the books I read recently was The Happy Immortals, a great novel set partially in the last years of World War II on Okinawa, as well as the Oklahoma Panhandle

Another powerful book was The Girl with the White Flag, also set in Okinawa.

Anyway, the interest from that novel led to a search for historical books about the and novels about the war in the Pacific and to this remarkable book.

Kudos to the author for a job well done!

Read the book just before a recent visit to Okinawa. I wanted to understand the history of the island(s) and the people that live there. It was comprehensive and very revealing and greatly enhanced my experience. It opened my eyes to the cultural differences between Okinawa and the main Japanese islands and I was able to better understand the subtleties I observed. It also helped me understand the transformation of feudal, isolationist Japan to Imperial power. It was all very much worth it when I first saw my first ancient mausoleum and I had an idea of what I was looking at and what it meant. Great stuff.

My goodness! When this tome of a book crashed on to my doormat, my immediate thoughts were, 'Oh no! Text book; too demanding, too wordy, too much to bother with today and put it on the coffee table because if nothing else it actually looks pretty impressive. Not that I'm desperate to impress. HONESLTLY!

I've been researching Okinawa and in particular the 1609 Satsuma invasion and had already read the excellent "The Samurai Capture A King" which at times became quite a chore to study with the huge amount of dates, names etc etc etc.

When I finally picked up this book I was more than pleasantly surprised to find that it was written in an extremely simple and understandable way and not at all in the high faluting fashion I had been expecting. I've only read-up what I've needed so far and have discovered some wonderful facts about the Ryukus, their people and in particular their mythical beliefs and deities; The Dragon Castle, The Sun Goddess to name but two, which I found fascinating.

I'm greatly looking to working further into the book to read about another historical event that has always fascinated me: The Battle for Okinawa in 1945. WhenI get to it I'll tell you all about it but it could take a long and very interesting while

If you, like me are a Karateka interested in discovering more about the place of your arts origin; or if you just have an interest in the amazing history between, Okinawa and it's great influences, China and Japan, this book is simply a MUST HAVE.

EXCELLENT!!

I am currenty writing a book on Okinawan martial arts and felt that a better overview of the history of Okinawa would better enable me to write my own book. There is little to nothing on Okinawan martial arts in this book, but it is an extremely readable book on the history of Okinawa up to the end of WWII. There are also a couple of addtional small sections at the end of the book with corrections and a brief history of Okinawa from the end of WWII to the end of the twentieth century. I learned a lot from this book and found it to be easy to read and easy to understand. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Orient in general and Okinawa in particular.

This book contains a very thorough description of the history and culture of Okinawa. However, the Plates, listed in the Table of Contents and referenced throughout the text, were missing from the book that I purchased.