The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 5 | Issue 11 | Article ID 2586 | Nov 03, 2007

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“Wanne Uchinanchu – I am Okinawan.” Japan, the US andOkinawa’s Endangered Languages

Patrick Heinrich, Fija Bairon

“Wanne Uchinanchu – I am Okinawan.”Japan, the US and Okinawa’s EndangeredLanguages

Fija Bairon and Patrick Heinrich

Patrick Heinrich interviews Fija Bairon onOkinawa’s endangered languages and culture,and efforts to restore them.

The proportion of languages and of nationstates stands roughly at a relation of 1 to 30.Hence, the predominant number of nationstates is multilingual. Japan, notwithstandingits modern monolingual self-perception, is noexception. As with many other nation states,Japan has merely been invented as an“imagined community” of monolingual andmonocultural members. The effects ofmonolingual and monocultural nationimagining are far-reaching for linguistic andcultural minorities, in Japan as in many otherplaces across the world. For minorities,modernisation and incorporation often wenthand in hand with pressures to abandon locallanguages and cultures. Monolingual nation-imagining ideology is one of the major forcesbehind the unprecedented loss of linguisticdiversity we are witnessing today. Expertsproject that only 10-15% of the world's 6,000languages are safe from extinction. In Japan,the Ainu languages, the Ryukyuan languagesand Ogasawara-Creole English are extremelyendangered while Japanese and Japanese signlanguage are safe. Many minority communitymembers are aware of such “dark sides ofmodernity.” In this article Okinawan languageand cultural activist Fija Bairon speaks on thediscovery of his Okinawan identity and on his

at tempts to mainta in and rev i ta l izeUchinaguchi, one of five Ryukyuan languages.An introduction addresses issues of Ryukyuanlanguage endangerment and the local attemptsof language revitalization.

Introduction

Language and dialect are emic categorieswhich rely on various criteria such as ethnicity,language genealogy, language typology,unshared linguistic innovations, orthographyand mutual (un)intelligibility. Languageboundaries are artefacts and those involved inthe business of drawing these boundaries haveconsequently been termed “language makers”(Harris 1980). Japan’s most influentiallanguage maker was Ueda Kazutoshi(1868-1937), who, at the end of the 19thcentury, introduced the idea of “nationallanguage” (kokugo) to Japan (see Clark 2002for details). Ueda’s idea of national languageserved as conceptual basis to e i therincorporate all language varieties spoken in theJapanese state into the ideological concept ofnational language, or to treat deviations suchas Ainu as bound to vanish.

Researchers of all sorts of disciplines havebeen p lay ing a dec i s i ve par t in therationalization of modernist nation imaginingideology. Most influential in giving currency tothe view that the Ryukyuan language varietieswere part of national language was Tojo Misao(1884-1966) , the father of Japanesedialectology. The arguments underlying Tojo’s(1927) classification were political, linguisticand ideological. He considered the Ryukyuanlanguage varieties as dialects of national

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language because (1) the Ryukyu Islands werepart of the Japanese nation state, (2) becausecomparative linguistics had confirmed that thevarieties of the Ryukyus were historically(genealogically) related with Japanese and (3)because highlighting mutual unintelligibility byclassifying the Ryukyuan varieties as languagesin their own right would imperil the idea of ahomogenous Japanese nation. Most researchershave never questioned the ontological status ofthe Ryukyuan languages as dialects of anational language. As a matter of fact, socommonsensical has the idea of a homogenousJapanese nation become today that onlyresearchers talking of “Ryukyuan languages”have to justify their classifications, while thosespeaking of “dialects” do not.

Be it as it is. Suffice to note here that theidentification and designation of languageswithin chains of linguistic variation are far frombeing acts of objective description. Notsurprisingly therefore, language makers dooccasionally meet with resistance. Considertwo brief examples from the Ryukyuan context.In 1944 Kinjo criticized the classification of theRyukyuan language varieties as part of nationallanguage because linguistic differences werebrushed aside and their status as dialects had,in his own words, “from the start beenconsidered as common sense.” The fact thatJapanese and the Ryukyuan languages arehistorically related in that they share the samegenealogy was, in his opinion, not sufficient toclassify the latter as dialects of nationallanguage, i.e. of Japanese. After all, Indo-European languages, too, share the samegenealogy but are considered languages intheir own rights. Probably the most famousinstance in which the status of the Ryukyuanvarieties was negotiated was the dialect debate(hogen ronso) of 1940/41. Folk art scholarYanagi Muneyoshi called for more recognitionof the local languages in the Ryukyu Islandsand, unsuccessfully, lobbied for an end of theirsuppression (Clark 1997).

Since the classification of language varietiesinto languages is an intricate issue, it is hardlysurprising that the number of languagesdesignated for the Ryukyu Islands differsbetween scholars or works of references. Someencyclopaedias name as many as elevenlanguages in the Ryukyu Islands (Grimes 2000),others only two (Voegelin 1987). Most often,however, five varieties are differentiated on theground of mutual unintelligibility (e.g.Matsumori 1995). Mutual unintelligibilitymeans that two neighboring local languagev a r i e t i e s d o n o t a l l o w f o r m u t u a lcomprehension. Thus, while Japanese dialectspeakers from Tohoku in the northeast andfrom Kyushu in the southwest of Japan mightnot be able to understand each other, the chainof mutual intelligibility is never interrupted asthe neighbouring language variety is alwaysintelligible. The same holds true for thelanguage varieties in Germany and theNetherlands, despite the fact that German andDutch are considered two distinct languages.They are considered distinct languages onpolitical grounds. The Ryukyuan languages, onthe other hand, are considered dialects ofJapanese by many simply because theirspeakers have Japanese nationality.

This introduction differentiates between fiveRyukyuan languages. These are Amami-Ryukyuan, Okinawa-Ryukyuan, Miyako-Ryukyuan, Yaeyama-Ryukyuan and Yonaguni-Ryukyuan. Such classification is based on (1)mutual unintelligibility to the neighbouringvariety, (2) it reproduces the major islandgroups and local identities and (3) it coincideswith the classification of the Society forOkinawan Language Rev i ta l i za t ion(Uchinaguchi fukyu kyogikai) which asked onthe 18th September 2005 for the recognition ofOkinawa-Ryukyuan, Miyako-Ryukyuan,Yaeyama-Ryukyuan and Yonaguni-Ryukyuan asindependent languages. (Amami-Ryukyuan isabsent because it is spoken in KagoshimaPrefecture and not in Okinawa Prefecture.)Note also that in the interview Fija makes a

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similar distinction between these languagesand between what he calls “cultural spheres” inthe Ryukyu Islands.

In order to exemplify the difference betweenthese languages and their distance to StandardJapanese, consider the respective expressionsfor “thank you” (“arigato gozaimasu” inStandard Japanese).

English Local languagename

“arigatogozaimasu”

(1) Amami-Ryukyuan Shimayumusa obukuridaryon(2) Okinawa-Ryukyuan Uchinaguchi nifedebiru(3) Miyako-Ryukyuan Myakufutsu tandigatandi4) Yaeyama-Ryukyuan Yaimamuni mifaiyu(5)Yonaguni-Ryukyuan Dunangmunui fugarassa

All five languages are severely endangeredtoday. There are several ways for measuringlanguage endangerment. In an analogy to theRichter Scale for earthquake measurement,Fishman (1991) proposed to determine thedegree of endangerment on a GradedIntergenerational Disruption Scale rangingfrom 0 (safe) to 8 (moribund). On Fishman’sscale all Ryukyuan languages place on stage 7(severely endangered). Another widely usedmethod to measure language endangermenthas been provided by the UNESCO Ad HocExpert Group on Endangered Languages(2003). According to their criteria, theRyukyuan languages are most often assessed tobe ‘severely endangered’ or ‘criticallyendangered.’

The Ryukyuan languages are severelyendangered today, because domains ofRyukyuan language uses have beencontinuously lost since the start of Japaneselanguage spread in the 1880s. The expansion ofone language always coincides with thecontraction of another. Languages are thus notlost word by word but domain by domain. Oncethose domains in which the language isnaturally transmitted are lost, the language isendangered in its survival. From that point on,languages are lost speaker by speaker. While

Japanese was largely restricted to officialdomains until the 1940s, shift to Japanese inprivate domains such as the family and thene ighbourhood meant tha t na tura lintergenerational language transmission wasi n t e r r u p t e d . S i n c e t h e 1 9 4 0 s t w opredominantly Japanese monolingualgenerations have been raised in the RyukyuIslands (Heinrich 2004). It now only takesknowledge about average life expectancy,Ryukyuan demographics and a l i t t lemathematics to calculate the future decline ofthe Ryukyuan languages in the event that noeffective counter action is taken. I will refrainfrom doing such maths here since languageshift can be reversed.

T h e i n t e r r u p t i o n o f t h e n a t u r a lintergenerational language transmission in theRyukyu Islands is an intricate issue. It waspartly the effect of suppression campaigns ofthe local languages by means such as thedialect tag (hogen fuda), a practice started in1907. The dialect tag had to be worn aroundthe neck by school children who had used locallanguage in the classroom (Itani 2006).Ryukyuans were crucially involved in thepromotion of Japanese over the locallanguages. Already before 1945, StandardJapanese language spread was mainlyadvocated by the prefectural government and alocal popular Movement for Enforcement ofStandard Japanese (Hyojungo reiko undo) whileTokyo remained relatively uninvolved (Kondo2006). Penalizing measures such as the dialecttag aside, the spread of Standard Japanese wasto a large extent driven by language ideologicalviews according to which all Japanese nationalsspeak Japanese as their mother tongue(Ramsey 2004).

Languages spread on the basis of the societal,economic and symbolic advantages they haveover other languages. This is an importantpoint because local language decline continuedunabated after 1945, despite the fact that USoccupation authorities attempted to highlight

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differences between Ryukyuans and Japaneseby initially promoting everything which wasRyukyuan, including the local languages. Thisfact notwithstanding, American effortsaccelerated Ryukyuan language loss becauseAmerican policy was quickly recognized toserve American interests, that is the interestsof the occupying authorities. Americanoccupation between 1945 and 1972 gave rise toa fervent Japanese nationalism in the RyukyuIslands. It led to the development of a popularMovement for Return to the Fatherland(Sokuku fukki undo) which advocated Japaneselanguage use in all domains. It was in order toresist American occupation and in the hope ofimproving the dismal living conditions underUS occupation that a generation, which hadbeen made ashamed of their local languagesbefore 1945, chose to raise their children inJapanese only. In so doing, Ryukyuan Islandersused ideologically mediated views which hadlargely worked against them before 1945 inorder to safeguard their own interests againstthose of the Americans. Improving theirsituation meant proving themselves to beJapanese. Speaking only Japanese was a keyfactor therein. Thus, Japanese and not theR y u k y u a n l a n g u a g e s s e r v e d a s a nemancipatory tool in the eyes of many underUS occupation. The price Ryukyuans had to paywas the interruption of intergenerationlanguage transmission. As a result, today’schild-bearing generation in many parts of theRyukyus no longer speaks the local languagesand cannot transmit it to the followinggeneration. This is the classical pattern oflanguage loss.

But should we be concerned about the declineof languages in the Ryukyu Islands orelsewhere? Why care in view of manythousands of languages that have ceased to beused in human history (Brenzinger 2007)? Whycare when we do not appear to be short oflanguages in our everyday communicativeneeds? Why care when languages are lost, afterall, as an effect of collective decisions of speech

communities? Ever since Krauss (1992), in aseminal paper, projected that only 10-15% ofall languages are safe in their survival, linguistshave raised and faced such questions. Theanswers and reactions were divided. On onehand, the study of endangered languages hasgrown into a substantal field of linguistics inthe last decade and has produced popularreference works (e.g. Crystal 2000, Fishman2001). Others have attacked endangeredlanguage scholars for being “paternalistic” (e.g.Ladefoged 1992) in assuming that they wouldknow what is best for endangered speechcommunities. Again others have warned thatmuch of linguists’ rhetoric on endangeredlanguages, such as universal ownership oflanguages (“we are in danger of losing onefacet of our humanity with every dyinglanguage”), is estranging community membersfrom their heritage language (Hill 2002). Somehave made a case in support of languagemaintenance and revitalization, arguing thatloss of knowledge is inevitably accompanyingthe loss of languages (Harrison 2007).Language loss has also come to be understoodas the loss of a powerful tool for securing thehuman rights of marginalized minorities (May2001), for claiming more rights to self-determination (Kymlicka 1995), and forproviding a powerful symbolic link to the past(Fishman 2001).

Should scholars care? I would argue theyshould. Benign neglect of minority interests,Kymlicka (1995) and May (2001) make clear, isde facto support of linguistic majorities andtheir interests. Get it right. Ignoring minoritylanguage and culture issues is just asideological and political as the decision to makethem an object of research. In the interviewFija asks “why does one get rid of something aswonderful as Uchinaguchi (Okinawan-Ryukyuan)?” I would not know the answer tothat. As a matter of fact, I wonder whether allthose who consider Ryuyukan language declineas inevitable, whether all those studying thelanguage solely for their own scholarly benefit,

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whether all those blocking attempts toestablish local language education despite hugepopular demand, whether all those whocriticize the rise of English as the internationallanguage as an instance of “English languageimperialism” in Japan (see Heinrich 2007b fordetails) but remain silent on what could muchmore aptly be termed “Japanese languageimperialism” in the Ryukyu Islands could offeran explanation. I somehow doubt they couldwhich is, upon reflection, good news. The mostimportant answer to the question “why care”might, however, be that many speakers ofendangered languages themselves do careabout the loss of their heritage language andthat specialists of language documentation,anthropological linguists and sociolinguistshave the possibilities to shed light into theissues which concern them.

No language shift is identical with another asthere are a plethora of factors involved whichrange from geography, to migration patters,local economy, linguistic proximity to thedominating language, religious practices etc.The idea that the further one moves away fromthe centre, the more vital the local languagesare is an oversimplification. Language shift inthe Ryukyu Islands is highly complex and weare only starting to understand the differencesbetween the various islands (Heinrich 2007a).It is beyond the scope of this introduction toattempt a summary of the language shiftsacross the Ryukyu Islands. Suffice to mentionin this context that language shift in the privatedomain was delayed 5-10 years in Amami tothat in Okinawa. It was most early and radicalin the Yaeyama Archipelago, but most gradualin the neighbouring Miyako Archipelago.

Map

While most local language use can beascertained in Yonaguni today, Yonaguni’sdemograph i c deve lopment i s mos tunfavourable for the maintenance of the locallanguages. In addition, a continuous shift

towards Standard Japanese can be witnessed inYonaguni, while the inhabitants of other Islandshave started to shift from Standard Japanese tohybrid varieties of local Ryukyuan Japanese.This shift emerged earliest and most strongly inAmami and then in Okinawa. In these islands,designations for such mixed varieties havesprung up and in particular youngsters takepride in their use of Uchinayamatoguchi(“Okinawan Japanese”) and Tonfutsugo(“potato standard”). These new languagevarieties have become the unmarked languageamong the young generation, taking over thesocietal functions of solidarity and familiarityonce linked to the local heritage languages.The emergence and spread of these mixed orhybrid language varieties are meaningful inseveral ways. The purposeful choice of a localhybrid variety over Standard Japanese testifiesto a break with the modernist languageideology according to which all nationals weretreated as abstract beings devoid of ethnicity,sex, education, and other aspects of identity.Hence, these language choices can be said tobe reflective of modernity, if not post-modern,in nature.

Sonai on Yonaguni

In the Ryukyu Islands, organized attempts oflanguage revitalization have come to the fore

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only in recent years, although they have hadtheir predecessors. As Hara (2005) illustrates,attempts of language revitalization are closelylinked to concerns about the decline of localculture in Okinawa. Such concern first led tothe establishment of local cultural associationswhich, from early on, included linguistic issues.The oldest such organization is that of Koza(today’s Okinawa City) which was founded in1955. Later Departments of Cultural Affairswere established in various cities, towns andvillages and, in 1994, Okinawa PrefectureCultural Association (Okinawa-ken bunkakyokai) was inaugurated as a parentorganization thereof. These institutions havebeen central for the organization of speechcircles, speech events or events of performingarts in which the local languages play a centralrole. The local media, too, played a crucial roleand so did many individuals in making possibleefforts aimed at linguistic revitalisation. Someof the most influential participants met inOctober 2000 to form the Society of OkinawanLanguage Revitalization (Uchinaguchi fukyukyogikai). The society represents the mostorganized attempt to counter Okinawanlanguage loss so far. Its 300 members setthemselves the objective of establishing locallanguage classes at elementary and junior highschools. With that aim, they have developed anorthography of Okinawan, published variousteaching materials, trained volunteers as locallanguage teachers and established an annualLocal Language Day (Shimakutuba no hi). LocalLanguage Day was first commemorated in2005. Prefectural support for Shimakutuba nohi in 2006 (Okinawa Taimusu 2006/09/18) mustbe seen as an important symbolic contributionto Okinawan language revitalisation since, forthe first time ever, Okinawa prefecture wasacting in support of the local languages.

First Local Language Day, 2005

Language activists can draw on public supportfor their endeavors today. A questionnairesurvey by the local newspaper Ryukyu Shinpoin 2006, for instance, revealed that, dependingon the age of the informants, 81% (informantsin their 20s) to 97 % (informants in their 70s orolder) had started to feel an affection for thelocal language (Ryukyu Shinpo-sha 2007: 25). Itis also encouraging for language activists tosee that prefectural support is growing. In July2007, Okinawa Prefecture decided to set up anExpert Committee on Local Language Spreadwithin its Educational Department. TheCommittee will work towards developing localorthographies of the languages of Okinawa,Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni and towardsmodernizing the lexicon where necessary.However, it is important to note that the locallanguages revitalization efforts have, until now,not attracted much attention among younger

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people. Being supportive of local language isone thing – learning and using it another.

Fija Bairon might play a decisive role in makinglocal language maintenance and local languagerevival an issue for the younger generation. Tostart with, at 37 he is one of the youngestspeakers. To add, he is a popular radio DJ and aperforming artist. His cool rubs off on locallanguages and, more crucially, efforts tomaintain and revitalize them. Since Fijadiscovered his own local identity rather lateand has only learned to speak the language inrecent years, he has experienced life withoutthe local language and remembers thisexperience vividly. Due to what he calls his“Okinawan identity,” Fija today prefers theOkinawan designation for the island and itslanguage. He thus often uses the terms Uchina(Okinawa), Uchinanchu (Okinawan),Uchinaguchi (Okinawan language) andUchinayamatoguchi (Okinawan Japanese). Intranscribing this interview, I refrained fromtranslating his usage of these terms intoEnglish as the English expressions are formedon the basis of Japanese.

Fija Bairon is an activist and not a scholar. Theinterview has profited enormously from Fija’shonesty and courage. I feel somewhat inclinedto conclude this introduction with a remark indefence of possible criticism of him. Protestinevitably seems to involve the reproduction ofunequal power relations. A feeling ofhumiliation is part of the experience of askingfor the respect of one’s language and culture.Activists like Fija have to deal with this. Butthere is a way to circumvent it. Ridicule.

Fija Bairon

Interview

Will this interview be in Uchinaguchi?

I am afraid not.

Oh well then. Japanese is fine.

Fija Bairon is a rather unusual name, isn’tit?

My name is Higa in Japanese. Fi ja isUchinaguchi. The sound “fi” is used in thelanguage o f Shur i and Naha . In thecountryside, Higa would be pronounced Hija.Since I am using the language of Shuri andNaha in my performing arts, I prefer Fija overHija.

Does it make a difference whether you arecalled Fija or Higa?

It affects my identity, my existence. Whenbeing asked who I am, I prefer saying that myname is Fija, but not everybody understandsmy motives. Some laugh about it. They say,“You mean fiijaa,” which means goat inUchinaguchi. Many Okinawans don’t know thatHiga in Uchinaguchi is Fija and that this namebecame only pronounced as Higa after Japanestablished Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. Fija isan ancient name from the Ryukyuan period and

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I prefer to be called by it.

When did you start calling yourself Fija?

After an “eye opening” experience.

So you were different before. What wereyou like?

I was a person who didn’t know Okinawa. Or,more appropriately, I was someone who hadbeen educated in a way to not know anythingabout Okinawa. Neither my teachers norparents would teach me that Higa is a Japanesepronunciation of a name which used to bepronounced Fija. But now my identity isOkinawan and I speak Uchinaguchi and Idecided that calling myself Higa wouldn’t makemuch sense. Higa is Japanese and that is notmy identity. I am Fija, an Uchinanchu, and Ispeak Uchinaguchi.

You mentioned that some people laugh atthis, are there others who praise you foryour decision?

I haven’t met that many who would praise mefor this.

Why is that?

Most Okinawans have no awareness of takingpride in their name. I guess they haven’t hadtheir “eye opening” experience yet.

How come you had an “eye opening”experience and others not?

This is due to my parents. My father isAmerican but I don’t know anything about him.My mother was from Okinawa. I was raised bymy mother’s brother. My uncle and my aunt areboth from Okinawa. Needless to say, theydidn’t speak English. They were from Okinawaafter all! So while I might look American, I wasraised as Japanese. That was the idea of theparents who raised me. I was sometimesbullied for my appearance in school but that

was easily solved at the time. A bit of a quarreland the whole thing was settled. No big deal. Itbecame much worse when I turned 20. As anadult you have to go to various offices, you buythings, lots of formalities and so on. It was thenthat I was constantly asked whether I was aforeigner or whether I could speak Japanese.

What effect did that have on you?

These questions were asked so casually that Istarted wondering why I was treated sodifferently. I kept saying that I was Japanese,from Okinawa and that I couldn’t speakEnglish. But there was no way of stoppingthese questions. It made me angry because theparents who raised me never treated me asanything else but a Japanese kid from Okinawa.I was never prepared for being treateddifferently. It is only when I married five yearsago that my wife told me that people were justignorant and that there was not much onecould do about it. I wonder whether that isright, but anyway. . . Before, I couldn’t standthese questions but now I keep telling people “Iam Okinawan, you see, although I lookAmerican. My father’s American but I don’tknow him. My mother is from Okinawa. I wasborn and raised here.”

Isn’t that tiresome?

It is! 100 people, 1,000 people, 10,000 peopleand I keep saying the same thing over and overand over. I do this every day. But my wife isright. It has less to do with discrimination thanwith ignorance. There are some 10,000 peoplelike me in Okinawa, with an American fatherwho left. There are blond ones and black ones.They don’t speak English but none of themcomes to the fore and explains why. They aremerely trying to get along. So I decided that Iwill explain this, not only to one individual afteranother but through the radio, TV and thenewspapers. I have to get it off my chest. Ican’t not say it.

But you speak English!

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Now I speak English but I don’t want to speakthe language because I have to prove that I amOkinawan. When I speak English, my identitysuffers. Things get too complicated if I speakEnglish. I am afraid that speaking English willagain tip the balance I found. It’s difficult. Andthen, speaking English would put a distancebetween me and all the others with anAmerican father. After all, they have to sayeveryday that they don’t speak English. At 37, Iwill set English aside for a while.

After high school, you went to America.What made you go?

Before I started talking about Okinawa all thetime, I wanted to be America’s next Bon Jovi.All I talked about was America, tellingeveryone, “I am American.” The bad thing wasthat I didn’t speak English at the time. But thatdidn’t stop me. This only makes sense when Iremember how painful life had been for me inOkinawa. I was always being told that Ideviated and that I wasn’t Okinawan orJapanese. Besides, I thought that Americanswere best anyhow. And then I looked like oneon top of it. All I lacked, it seemed, was thelanguage. If I learn English, I thought, I can bean American. So I went to America, but it wasnot what I had imagined it to be. I becamedepressed.

What was different?

All the crime there. And the people there wereso different from the Japanese. They only knew“yes” or “no” and nothing in between. I thoughtthat these people were self-centred. I saw acountry where nobody says “I am sorry.” To say“I’m sorry” in America means to give in. ButJapanese just naturally always go on sayingsumimasen (I am sorry). What should I do, Iwas just used to saying “I am sorry” all thetime! Here it’s nice to say sumimasen. Personalrelationships are smoother if you saysumimasen. Despite all my talk of being anAmerican, I was in fact Japanese even though Ispoke English by then. I came to realize that I

was not American.

So what did you do?

I went back to Okinawa and thought of going toEurope. It was at that time that I visited a folksong bar. And there it was, the sound of theSanshin. I had a culture shock. Despite the factthat I had been born and raised on Okinawa, Ihad never before seen someone playing andsinging folk songs. I knew Taiko drumming andEisa drum dance, but I had never seen someoneplaying Sanshin. “What? Such culture exists inOkinawa,” I thought. First thing I did thefollowing day was ask some relatives if I couldborrow their Sanshin. It’s been 13 years nowsince I asked for that Sanshin. Me, who hadclaimed before “I am an American” and hadvowed to give up Japan and Okinawa, to neverreturn, had been drawn exactly in the oppositedirection. It was like a bow being pulledtowards America, but when the string wasreleased the arrow flew directly towardsOkinawa. BOOOOM, I had changed. I hadfinally become Okinawan.

Fija Bairon in a folk song bar

Now that you have found your Okinawanidentity, does it feel good?

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It feels good. After all, I’ve spent all these yearson this island. All my friends are Uchinanchu,my parents who raised me, my mother whobore me, all my relatives here are Uchinanchu.Everyone in school was Uchinanchu. But thisnotwithstanding, I had always carried on saying“I am American. Hey man, what’s up?” I hadalways thought that I should follow thisdirection but it had all been in vain.

What kind of identity do you think otherswith a mixed background in Okinawa have?

They are in doubt.

Because they have little to fall back on?

It’s an issue of roots. I found my Uchina rootsand then I had something to strive for. This isexactly what I am doing now. This is the reasonwhy I am alive. If I hadn’t found my roots, Imight have gone crazy, ended up in a mentalhospital, in prison or I don’t know where.

So your identity is something that youchose yourself?

Looks like it, yes. I went to the folk song barand everything changed. Sanshin. It does notexist anywhere else in the world. And the songsare in Uchinaguchi! Something like that onlyexists in Okinawa. I suddenly realized all this. Athorough culture shock was the result. BonJovi? Noborikawa Seijin! Ahh, how great is he!Have you heard anything by NoborikawaSeijin? You have to! He is Eddy van Halen onSanshin! Knock out! Because I had not beentaught anything about Okinawa, I could notthink of it as a source of pride before. All I wastaught was that Okinawa has that dark historyand that Okinawans are supposed to beJapanese. In education, ultimately, Okinawawas nothing good.

Playing the Sanshin

What did you do after that?

Having heard the Sanshin made me go to thelibrary, studying folk songs and getting tapes.How many cultural treasures there were! Howmany great things there are in Okinawanhistory! And nobody taught me anything aboutit! All I was taught is that things from Tokyowere great, or things from New York, Londonand so on. It’s there you have to go I was told –anywhere else is just uncool (dassai). It’s somekind of brainwash. I started getting aware ofthis in America. I had lived there and came tounderstand that being American is not thatgreat after all.

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Did your interest in Okinawa developgradually or were you all decided afteryour visit to the folk song bar?

It developed gradually.

What did you start with?

The Sanshin. I started practicing and when Icould play it, the next natural thing was to singalong. However, I didn’t understand themeaning of the songs. Of course I didn’tunders tand the songs – they a re inUchinaguchi! Anyway, I didn’t understand aword. So I started looking up things indictionaries or asked more experiencedmusicians. In this way I came to graduallyunderstand the lyrics. However even the moreexperienced did not fully understandeverything. Hence, all I could do was check itall out by myself. And if you do that, you haveto use study materials like the Okinawadictionary, the collection of Ryuka songs, or askolder people. Older people told me what thewords meant and how to use them.

So once again, you found yourself learninga language.

Yes, I wonder why I have to lead such a life ofalways having to learn a language. Before that Iwas always concerned about what certainEnglish expressions meant, and then the same

thing once more for Uchinaguchi. So you findout that there is a term like mensore (welcome)and you puzzle why there is mensochikwimisori (please feel welcome, informal) andwhen you know that you wonder whatmensochi kwimishebiri (please feel welcome,formal) means and so on. Japanese is easy. InJapanese, I know it all. If I had a Japaneseidentity, how easy it would have been! Butdespite the fact that I was Uchinanchu, Icouldn’t speak Uchinaguchi. So now I amoccupied day by day to bring back what hasbeen lost.

Didn’t it take quite a while until you coulda c t u a l l y u s e t h e l a n g u a g e i ncommunication?

Not really. In school, I was a bit of a wild kidand wild kids use Uchinayamatoguchi(Okinawan Japanese). If you don’t speak it, youcannot sell yourself as a wild guy. You have touse a bit of rough language and here thislanguage is Uchinayamatoguchi. WeirdUchinayamatoguchi, I should say. Because Iused such language a lot, I acquired the accentand other parts of the language. In addition,the parents who had raised me had usedUchinaguchi and Japanese fifty-fifty. Due tothat I already had a basis. What was difficultthough was using polite language. If you don’tspeak polite Uchinaguchi, you cannot be onradio or on TV.

When did you start appearing on TV?

Five years ago. I appeared in a documentary onTV but at that time I couldn’t speak the politelanguage of Shuri and my Naha language skillswere so-so. The language I used there was a bitstrong (kitsui). While all my younger friendspraised me for my first appearance on TV, theolder ones were more critical. They scolded me.So while I was on TV like once or twice at thattime, I understood that I had to learn politelanguage if I wanted to appear there moreregularly. If not, people would call me an idiot.I resented the idea that people might think of

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me in terms like “that chap doesn’t know athing – he just babbles.” I had to study how touse softer, polite language. Now I speak suchlanguage. One has to take care that not onlyrough language is maintained. Okinawansociety, like Japanese society, is a verticalsociety and one needs polite language forcommunication here.

Lots of people here say that youngerpeople are forgetting hogen (dialect). Doyou think that this explanation isappropriate?

For some people it is appropriate. One forgetsa language if it is not used. So to a certainextent that’s happening in Okinawa. The realquestion behind this is the extent that peoplewere able to speak before. One can say thatthose in their 50s and 60s are forgetting it, butit would be weird to claim the same thing forthose in their 20s. It would imply that theyspoke the language before, which is not thecase. For those who grew up in the post-warperiod, when an Uchinaguchi speaking societyexisted, the explanation that they forgot thelanguage applies. They had to transform intoJapanese and erase Okinawan.

Another thing one often hears here is theterm hogen (dialect).

That word, I’d like to see disappear altogether.What on earth should one do with it? Help! Ikeep saying over and over “Look, hogen is adiscriminatory term. Please stop using it.”

Why is it discriminatory?

Because saying hogen implies that Japanese ison top and Uchinaguchi is underneath it. Idon’t use Uchinaguchi as something which isunderneath Japanese. Uchinaguchi is on thesame level. I tell this to my students and then30 minutes later somebody asks me “How doyou say this in hogen?” What on earth should Ido? It just seems to be impossible to get rid ofthis term.

What kind of language is Uchinaguchithen? Where is it spoken and how muchvariation is there within it?

Uchinaguchi is spoken on Okinawa and itsneighbouring islands. As a matter of fact, Iwonder whether the language of Yoron Island,for instance, belongs to it. Best thing is you askthe people there. That’s the best approachanyway. If people in, say, Aguni Island claimthat they speak Aguni language, fine. Somepeople might say that, so I cannot just definethe linguistic situation here as I want. Thereare various differences within Uchinaguchi. Tostart, there is the northern cultural sphere andthe south-central cultural sphere. The languagein the northern part is quite different despitebeing Uchinaguchi. The difference is bigenough that I always tell my students that Idon’t know the language of the northern part.

Do you understand the language ofnorthern Okinawa?

Hard to say. I’ve never heard authentic (chantoshita) language from the northern part. I get tohear some language as spoken in Kin Villagesometimes. I guess I understand half of it. Butbecause it is the same Uchina, it’s notcompletely different. There are a lot of wordswhich resemble one another. I understand itmuch better than say the languages of Miyakoor Yaeyama which are not part of Uchinaguchi.

How big are the differences within thelanguage as spoken in the south-centralpart of Okinawa?

Well, the language in Itoman is different andalso that on the Katsuren Peninsula. When I ambeing asked what language I teach, I tellstudents that it is the language of Shuri and ofNaha. Both languages became mixed and grewinto what is called Shibaikutuba (stagelanguage).

Do all people of Naha today speakShibaikutuba?

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It depends on the speaker. Shibaikutuba wasformed and spread already in the pre-warperiod. Before that, there existed pure regionallanguages, the languages of Nishihara,Nakagusuku, Urasoe and so on. While a lot ofthese words remained, these languagesgradually gave way to Shibaikutuba whichspread through Shibai theatre TV, radio andfolk songs. Furthermore, Shibaikutuba becamethe language of public speaking. Whilestandard language is not a term I particularlylike, I guess that Shibaikutuba can be calledthe standard language of Okinawa. What youhear today on TV, in radio, the folk songs, is allShibaikutuba. It spread through the entireisland.

One can thus address peop le inShibaikutuba throughout all of Okinawaand its neighbouring islands?

Yes, when I go to Kin Village in the northernpart I use Shibaikutuba and I make myselfcompletely understood there. The elderlypeople reply in Shibaikutuba, but with a Kinaccent. It’s among themselves that they use theKin language and then I understand only half ofwhat they say. In other words, the elderlypeople from Kin speak Shibaikutuba, then thelanguage of Kin and then Japanese. The peoplefrom Shuri and Naha, on the other hand, speakonly Shibaikutuba and Japanese.

So these people are multilingual?

Yes, completely. The old man we visited todayspeaks 100 percent Japanese and 100 percentUchinaguchi. That’s how it should be. That’swhat one should have striven for! Peopleshould have been educated to become like him.Had we done so, we wouldn’t need to sit hereand talk about language endangerment today.One has to make use of people like this old manfor educating future generations because ifnothing is done, as is the case now, thelanguage will disappear. But as long as I amhere, the language will not disappear.

C o u l d o n e s a y t h a t y o u l e a d a nUchinaguchi speaking life?

I think so, yes.

Where do you speak it?

I speak it with my wife and then with olderpeople. I’ve built myself an environment whereI can speak Uchinaguchi. I am 37 years but Idon’t have friends of my age. Well, sometimes Imeet some old classmates but they speak withthese accents. It’s not that we start arguingabout their language but … oh well, it’s stupidthe way they speak! It would be better if theyspoke Japanese. My best friend is the 92 yearold Yoshio Nakamura we visited today. He toldyou the same thing, didn’t he, that I am hisfriend?

He did.

We are best friends! Him, I respect. He is, whatshould I say, the pronoun of the Nahalanguage. I am closest to him.

You say you ’ve bui l t yourse l f anUchinaguchi environment, but is it notexactly this environment which isendangered? Will it still be here in 10years?

I don’t know, but this only means that I willhave to give my best effort in the next 10 years.

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I purposefully speak Uchinaguchi wherever I goand in this way I spread the language.Uchinaguchi is important. But talk is cheap.The language has to be connected withsomething more precious than talk – it has tobe connected to the economy. One needs tomake a connection between Uchinaguchi andmoney. While language is important, you haveto eat everyday, there is the rent to pay, andyou need to put gas in your car and how do youearn all this money? By speaking Japanese!

How should Uchinaguchi be connected tothe economy and who should do it? It issomething you can do by yourself?

You will see! I will build a theme park, UchinaWorld, where everyone speaks Uchinaguchi.Uchinaguchi performances, Uchinaguchibroadcast, Shibai theatre, folk songs and so on.With a small school attached to it whereUchinaguchi is taught. I would like to dosomething like that and leave it at this for themoment. But there is also something that I cando for society. I can do something foreducation, for school education.

Ultimately, decisions about schooleducation are made by politicians. How isit with Okinawan politicians? Do olderpoliticians …

The older ones are useless. They were broughtup on imperial ideology. They haven’t got theslightest doubt about being Japanese. But theyare all wrong. They are Okinawan. If you needproof of this, just look at the American baseshere. Seventy-five percent of all Americanbases are in Okinawa! One just waits for somekind of bomb to explode or for some jet fighterto fall onto the city. I wonder what will happenthe next time something like that occurs orbase crime rises again. I don’t want to makestatements here which smack of revolution orterrorism but what will happen when peoplecome to ask themselves “what happened to ourculture and our language? Why is it not hereanymore?” What’s the answer to that? “Japan.”

It would be much better if we could avoid asituation like this. Maybe such a sense ofawareness should not be created here. Maybethe present situation as it is now is best.Imagine huge unrest here in 10 or 20 years.One would then look back at today thinking itwas much better when Okinawans had no ideaabout their language and culture. To whatextent should one make Okinawans aware ofthis? Ultimately, one needs to change thatawareness in a peaceful way. We should strivepeacefully for cultural independence. We couldset an example of how to do this for otherregions, for Europe, for example.

But in Okinawa the local language becameendangered because Okinawans chose notto speak to their children in Uchinaguchiany longer. I wonder whether one canentirely blame the education system. Thefamily is most important for maintaininglanguages.

Well that exactly is the most frightening thing.Parents chose not to teach us the language andneither did our grandparents. This is why theculture and the language have vanished for us.I, too, have wondered why. They have all beenbrainwashed in order to become Japanese. Andnow, now …

… now it’s difficult to maintain thelanguage?

I will do this peacefully and strive for culturalindependence. The state is fine, let Okinawa bepart of the Japanese state. But Okinawansshould decide what is happening in Okinawa.What we need is a federal system, just like theone in America.

Japan is not a country with one culture,one nation, one language then?

It’s not and from now on also the Japanese willhave to accept this. But if they do, they have toreturn all of Hokkaido, return it to the Ainu.

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Do you think that your views on Okinawaare representative? Are there peoplethinking in the same way as you?

I wonder myself. Somebody having the sameideas on Okinawa as me, I guess I never met.I’d like to speak about it, though. But people atuniversities and so on all seem to have theJapanese nationalistic ideology and otherpeople probably do not get involved in thesethings too deeply. If you are not a scholar, youjust don’t think about such issues. The one whounderstands me best is my wife.

Do you often speak about Okinawa withyour wife?

Every day! We barely speak about anythingelse. It’s always the same, people from outsideunderstand best. Maybe it would be better if Iwould go outside myself. At least people thereunderstand what is self-evident. In Okinawanobody seems to understand this, all the wayup to the professors. They go like “what shallwe do with this language we don’t understand,let’s all speak English.” English! English is nowtaught from elementary school onwards here.We breed people who speak English. This hereis not America! It doesn’t make any sense. Andthey are all like that, 130 million Japanese.What kind of a country is this? I have no ideawhat this is all about. Why does one get rid ofsomething which i s as wonderfu l asUchinaguchi? Why is there written “cleaningDVD” on this stuff here on the table? Peoplewouldn’t even understand what’s wrong with it.

Talking to people here, I am often told“from now on we will care about hogen(dialect).” In concrete terms, what …

It doesn’t mean a thing. Zero! It’s just words.It’s the same as saying “care about elderlypeople.” That, too, is just a slogan, acatchphrase. That’s all it is, a catchphrase. It’slike “let’s see, how about if we care abouthogen today?” Kind of puts you in a good mood.It’s just words. Care about hogen, care about

Okinawan culture. Just words. Look behindthese words and you’ll find nothing. If theywere serious, first thing they ought to do is askthemselves what their real name is and howcome they don’t know. I don’t run aroundsaying “my name is Higa, nice to meet you.”That’s over. I say “wanne Fija yaibin.Mishichoti kwimishebiri.” I can introducemyself, to start with, and I do all kinds ofactivities to spread the language, teaching it tochildren and so on. I don’t talk about things, Irealize them.

Are there other people like that inOkinawa?

(Silence)

There is the Society for OkinawanLanguage Revitalization, the OkinawanSpeaking Society in Urasoe, the JunsuiSociety in Shuri. What do you think oftheir activities?

(Silence) What should I say on this? (Silence)It’s good that you went there and met them.That’s all I will say on this issue. It’s good thatyou went there and met them. They are tryingto do the same thing as me. I can’t possiblycriticize them. Ultimately, they, too, want tomaintain Uchinaguchi.

One thing that strikes me is that I am theonly one who knows all these people herein Okinawa personally.

Indeed.

I talk to Takara Ben, Fija Bairon, MiyaraShinso, Oyafuso Keiko, Higa Toyomitsuand so on, but these people often don’tknow each other personally.

Worse yet, they ridicule each other like “thatguy is wrong here and that guy is wrong there.”That’s how it is and this is not good. I guessthis is due to the fact that Uchina is not united.That’s what I’ve been thinking all the time

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talking to you. There are the ancient threekingdoms on Okinawa, there is the northerncultural sphere, then there is Yaeyama andYonaguni. Yonaguni is completely different.There is Miyako and then there is Amami.

So you, too, are under the impression thatpeople in Okinawa do not cooperate muchon this issue?

They are separated. But maybe that has alwaysbeen like that here. I mean, look how smallOkinawa is. I bet there are people in Germanywho have as much land as all of Okinawa. Andon this little island, there were three kingdoms,Hokuzan, Chuzan and Nanzan. The islandsdivided into three parts! And maybe this iswhere all this being separated originates.Maybe this is some kind of fate of Okinawa.Maybe that’s how Uchinanchu are. They don’ttrust and accept each other. Maybe such line ofthought exists on small islands. The smaller,the worse.

In my opinion this is partly the way it isbecause language revitalization is adifficult undertaking.

Maybe. But I am like that as well. I, too, thinkthat the Okinawan language of certain peopleis weird and there are others that I don’t evenwant to meet. I wonder how Europeans aredealing with this.

In Europe things developed at a differenttime and circumstances than here. InOkinawa, language revitalization takesplace at a time which some people callpost-modernism. Modernist ideas won’twork in Okinawa, I am afraid.

But there is something like the Basquelanguage.

The idea of being Basque and the role thatlanguage plays therein is an old one. InOkinawa, people would like to create suchawareness right now. That’s different.

But how come something like that hasremained in Basque or in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and so on?

I think it is because Basque people don’tsee themselves as Spanish. People inOkinawa are, however, Okinawan-Japaneseor Japanese-Okinawans. There is almostnobody who is Okinawan-Okinawan.Okinawan-Okinawans would maybe createunrest.

The Basques then are Basque-Basque?

I guess so, being Basque means not beingSpanish.

But they have been made a part of Spain atsome point. How come they can say that theyare different?

Because of language, culture and all that.Okinawa, too, has a distinct language andculture but before an awareness of beingOkinawan was created here it becameJapanese.

It all starts with the 1609 invasion, right? Eversince 1609 Okinawa has been ruled andcontrolled by Satsuma (today’s KagoshimaPrefecture P.H.). In a way, Ryukyu ends in1609. So this has been continuing now for 400years. That’s why such awareness doesn’t existhere.

Ryukyu was a feudal society and ideas suchas being Uchinanchu only existed in theupper echelons of society at the time.

Right, that’s how it must have been. Therewere no such ideas here at that time.

In a situation like that in Okinawa today,how can the language be revitalized?

I prefer to talk about cultural spheres thesedays. I came to understand the diversity whichexists in Okinawa and I came to understand

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that the language I was learning was a mixtureof Naha and Shuri language which is calledShibaikutuba. So while I found out that I amnot American despite having American bloodand I only have a Japanese nationality, I definemyself culturally as Uchinanchu (Uchinanchubunkajin). There are also people who areculturally American, or Japanese or Ainu. Thatcan be chosen and it has nothing whatsoever todo with the colour of the skin. One has to buildsocieties where one can chose one’s cultureand then all kinds of discrimination based onskin colour and so on will be dissolved.Otherwise, you could say that I am not a realUchinanchu because my father is American.Being Uchinanchu means choosing a culture.Look, there are plenty of Yamatunchu(Japanese) and Americans learning to playSanshin. Playing Sanshin is not somethingrestricted to Okinawans. All those who want tostudy Uchina culture should help maintain it.And the people here who admire Americanculture should culturally become American.

So what wil l ultimately happen toUchinaguchi in the future?

It will become related to those who areculturally Okinawans. That’s the key concept,being Okinawan culturally. Such people arealready being raised. I am doing this. If you talkabout race, which is stupid anyhow, I wouldn’tbe an Uchinanchu. But this notwithstanding,nobody in the world at the age of 37 speaksUchinaguchi as well as I do. I don’t like theideas of blood or nation (minzoku). If theseideas are applied, I am the first one to beexcluded from being Uchinanchu. I amUchinanchu due to culture. One more suchperson comes to mind, my wife. She is from theTohoku region. Both her parents are fromYamagata Prefecture. This year she will turn 30but she speaks Uchinaguchi. She speaks it verywell. One has to wonder why there is no other30 year old woman in Okinawa speakingUchinaguchi as well as she does. We’ve beenmarried for 5 years now and I’ve spoken

Uchinaguchi all the time with her. Culturallyshe has become Uchinanchu. The two of us,who are not Uchinanchu by blood, areUchinanchu because we love the culture. Iknow someone else, somebody cal ledThompson. He is English by nationality, butculturally he is Uchinanchu. He knows thesongs so well.

How is it to be Uchinanchu culturally?

It’s fun! What is more, for me it’s good for self-fulfilment. I hate the term half which is used todesignate people like me and I always wantedto be someone complete. But Okinawans, as itstands, don’t take much pride in their culture.The average guy in Okinawa doesn’t runaround claiming “Wanne Uchinanchu – I amOkinawan” like I do. To them America isnumber one, then comes Tokyo and some twolevels further below or so comes Okinawa.That’s what people presently think in Okinawa.Awareness of Uchina as number one,Uchinaguchi as a part of a very importantculture, a culture which developed on thisisland simply does not exist. In America, acountry where nobody says “I am sorry,”people run around saying “I am American.” In away, that impresses me. I respect Americansfor that.

Revitalizing language and culture is funtoo, isn’t it?

Yes, it’s fun. One needs to produce a lot ofthings that can be seen and heard. One needspeople like the 92 year old Nakamura. If Icould, I would move into his house. I would sitall day in his place, taking notes. I want toknow everything he knows. I want to be likehim. He knows everything about the Naha andthe Shuri language. I want to know that too.

Why that?

Because the next time that I hear somebody say“I am German” or “I am American” I want tosay “Wanne Uchinanchu – I am Okinawan,” and

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if they ask me, “Show me some of yourculture,” I will be able to do so. But look aroundyou (pointing out the window). There’s onlyconcrete. There’s not so much one couldpresently show around here. Just Shuri Castleand that’s about it. All the ancient architecturethat remains in Europe, it’s great. Okinawa,too, has had that, the red roof tiles and all that.Turn all the roofs of Uchina red! It would be aworld treasure.

If being Uchinanchu was not important,one needn’t have all the hassle ofrevitalizing the language and the culture.Am I right in assuming that beingUchinanchu is important to you?

I don’t know. Language and culture must beliked. Importance is too strong a concept. Thatsounds like Basque-Basque to me and that isfrightening. Uchinanchu at present arecowards (yowamushi). They can’t even quarrel.They run away. We are such people. But look atit from another perspective. Maybe there issomething good about it. Who knows? I mean,what shall we do? Like start a war with Japan?(Silence). Who knows? Maybe this is anamazing place here. Maybe all the time wewere saying “I’m sorry” and “Japanese,Japanese,” we went like that (sticks out histongue and winks with his hands, thumbs in theears). “Japanese, I am sorry, the Japanese age”but in fact we went like this (repeats gesture).Maybe that is what is really happening here.

(Laughter)

Nifedebiru, thank you for this interview.

Fija Bairon appears on Radio Okinawa everySunday from 13:00 to 15:30. He writes forOk inawa Ta imusu every Sunday onUchinaguchi and teaches Uchinaguchi atOkinawa Taimusu’s Cultural Centre. He can bec o n t a c t e d b y e - m a i l i n J a p a n e s e :fi jabyron@yahoo.co.jp

Patrick Heinrich studies and teaches Japanese

Sociolinguistics at Duisburg-Essen University(Germany). He can be contacted by e-mail:patrick.heinrich@uni-due.de. The author wouldlike to thank Chris Nelson and Mark Selden forcomments which helped to improve this article.

Posted at Japan Focus on November 22, 2007.

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