Establishment and Objectives
The Okinawan History and Culture Website came into existence in October 2007 as a rebranding and restructuring of the Contemporary Okinawa Website that was established in 1995 as an educational, public resource for information on Okinawa in English. Given that I was then researching the economic, political, and social history of postwar Okinawa, and because there was a distinct lack of such information available to the reader in English, I thought a devoted website might fill the void. I believed then, as I still do, that the World Wide Web would become a powerful research tool to complement the physical libraries and other centres of information we use and love, but with far greater accessibility.
Disclaimer and Copyright
All opinions expressed within the Okinawan History and Culture Website (the foot of each constituent page is marked with the site name and my e-mail address) unless otherwise indicated, are my own. Responsibility for inaccuracies and/or deficiencies rests entirely with me. Clearly, I take no responsibility whatsoever for the contents of external websites or resources linked to from this site. Your comments on this site are very much appreciated. My e-mail and postal addresses are listed below.
Unless of my own creation, the original source of photographs and other images will be clearly indicated. It is not my intent to infringe upon any copyright laws. The sole exception to this rule can be found on my contents page, and this is for purely stylistic reasons, though the original image sources are credited elsewhere on the site. Copyright issues in case of original text documents will unlikely arise since most are in the public domain. If you have a problem with me presenting more recent documents please let me know and we can sort it out.
Permission is happily granted for individual and classroom use and reproduction of original materials on the Contemporary Okinawa Website on condition that the author's intellectual property rights to these original materials are respected. In the case that quotes from original sections are intended for publication, the written permission of the author must be obtained. In this regard, e-mail is acceptable and perhaps most convenient. A copy of the published article should also be sent on to me (see postal address below). In terms of organising footnotes and bibliographical references for this online resource, please follow what stylistic conventions exist in your area of origin.
Personal Background
I was born in the city of Plymouth, Southwest England (UK) in 1961. On leaving school in 1977 at the age of 16, I embarked on and completed a two-year City and Guilds course in Hotel and Catering at the Plymouth College of Further Education (CFE). This was followed by a couple of years as a silver/gueridon service waiter for hire. In 1980, I joined Virgin Records (Retail Ltd.), rising to the position of Assistant Manager of the Plymouth Branch. During this time I became interested in the sword-drawing art of Iaidou. I quit my job at Virgin Records in late-1987 to take a trip to Japan, in large part to investigate this art further.
Although the trip did not quite work out as planned, it did stimulate an interest in Japan. On returning to England in early-1988, I determined to follow in a friend’s footsteps and undertake Japanese language studies at undergraduate level. As a mature student without the necessary qualifications to jump straight into university (I could have done better at school! "John seems to have gone off the boil," one of my history teachers once wrote about me in a school report), I took ‘A’ (advanced) Levels in Government and Politics and in Film Studies at Plymouth CFE. To financially support myself in this endeavour (and hopefully what would follow) I got a job as a domestic assistant at a local psychiatric hospital.
Things panned out as hoped for, and a somewhat unlikely (to me, at least!) career in education unfolded. I obtained a B.A. in Modern History and Japanese Studies from the University of Sheffield, northern England, in 1993. Sometime in early-1992, I encountered the name “Okinawa” for the first time. So hooked did I become that I directed my final dissertation towards Okinawa and the three large powers it was in alignment with or subject to throughout its history. At the Department of History I was lucky enough to be able to study under Dr. Gordon Daniels, a scholar of Japan and, particularly in terms of my research interests, WWII and the postwar US occupation.
Later in 1993, I was accepted into an M.A. programme in International Relations at the International University of Japan, Niigata Prefecture, graduating in 1995. Here, I was able to study Japanese history with Chushichi Tsuzuki and Japan-US relations and Japan’s diplomatic history and foreign relations with Chihiro Hosoya. My supervisor was Yasushi Kosugi, a specialist in Islamic and middle eastern studies. My final thesis, titled Island of Military Bases: A Contemporary Political History of Okinawa, was submitted on 15th May 1995. Those familiar with the flow of Okinawa's history will note the irony. Shortly thereafter, I created the Contemporary Okinawa Website, uploading most of my M.A. thesis as its core text.
After six months as a kenkyusei (research student), I was accepted into a Ph.D. programme at the Graduate School of International Development (GSID), the University of Nagoya, in April 1996, continuing my research into Okinawa but from a different perspective. My doctoral dissertation, entitled Managing a Wild Horse with a Rotten Rope: A Socioeconomic History of Kin Town and Okinawa was submitted to the GSID on 31st January 2002, and I was awarded my doctorate on 6th March 2002.
My research interests over the past couple of years have primarily been concerned with land and land use from the pre- into the post-war period, though these have had to take second place behind work-related matters. 2007 was supposed to see a big change in this situation as research and work began to see some confluence, but this didn't quite pan out.
It's now 2008, and my English teaching positions are decreasing while the history courses are increasing. As from this April, along with the History and Culture of Okinawa course that I teach at the Ryudai Ryugakusei Centre will be added a History and Culture of Okinawa Part II course (that will focus in on specific themes or issues that were too complex to adequately cover in the overview course and will offer offer historical perspectives from different parts of Okinawa Prefecture and the broader Ryukyu archipelago) and a course taught at the Faculty of Law and Letters on History and Culture in the Context of Tourism (which looks at the different reasons why people choose to visit Okinawa and at how history and culture connect). The recent redesign of this site is intended to make it more useful in the context of my history teaching. This is a very exciting project for me.
In between looking after two children, Orson and Sergio (see below), I attempted to earn a crust doing translation and proofreading work. In 2004, I got the opportunity to teach the Intermediate English Course at the University of the Ryukyus. From April 2005, I started work as an adjunct professor at the Department of Tourism Sciences (DTS), the University of the Ryukyus. At the moment, I combine my teaching responsibilities at the University of the Ryukyus with an administrative position within the General Affairs Department, Planning and Evaluation Section, at the University of the Ryukyus head office. that runs until the end of March.
Finally, after years of avoiding it, I took a driving course early in 2006 and got my license in March.
Jamming with Progression at Dream Kids, Shinkaichi, back in the day
Rachel and I are the proud parents of two little minkeys, Orson and Sergio.
Orson is a third year elementary school student (9 years old). He likes reading all sorts of stuff from manga, to magazines, to books, and is a great fan of kanji (he breezed his first kanken and should do likewise with subsequent ones. I sometimes have to take him down a few pegs when he gets overly cocky by showing him some Meiji period kanji and asking him what they mean, but it's great that he's so enthusiastic). Orson started calligraphy (shuuji) towards the end of 2006 and was coming on really well, but he started being too naughty and had to be yanked out of class. I personally think he needs to continue this in conjunction with kanji-learning, but it's his choice. He still loves making stuff out of cardboard with pens, pencils, scissors, a stapler, crayons, and sticky tape. Orson's two main physical activities are karate (gojo-ryu, obviously) and swimming. His current obsessions are playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on our new PlayStation 3 in coop mode with me (his dad). He likes playing Iron Man in his ultimate costume, Iceman and, at my suggestion, Moon Knight. He also likes Dragonball Z, origami (which he's very good at), a variety of duelling card games and performing magic tricks. On TV, he likes to watch Doctor Who, Avatar: The Airbender, cartoons and all sorts of anime. Movie-wise, he loves Home Alone, the Goonies and a bunch of things he can watch with his little brother. He and his little brother Sergio use a pretty old eMac G4 1ghz to play games, use interactive educational software, and access the internet. Foodwise, rice with furikake, curry rice and mikan are favourites. He still enjoys not listening to parents and teachers, leaving important things at school and playing very loudly with his little brother.
Sergio is 5 years old. He's been at a local daycare since he was one. Our strategy for both boys was complete Japanese language immersion from as early as possible. Orson thrived in that environment, and so has his little brother. Sergio loves to play games and have imaginary battles (complete with Sergio's narration and dialogue) with his favourite superhero characters. These include Gekirangers, Ultraman, Boukengers, Magirangers, Dekarangers, Kamen Rider Den-O and a bunch of heroes and robots whose names I can't remember. He also likes drawing and painting. Like Orson, Sergio is nuts about books. He's lucky in that he has a lot of his own books to read and access to Orson's library. He may not understand what he's reading sometimes, but he knows that big brother reads and enjoys it. Sergio's favourite time of day is probably storytime before bed. He used to like eating just about any kind of food, but he's entered a fussy phase and expects opt-outs with almost every meal. His capacity for ice cream and chocolate cake is legendary in Kin. Typically, by the time we see what he's doing it's a little too late for the cake or ice cream. He watches Cartoon Network and Nicklodeon with his big brother, likes the Banana Splits, Hong Kong Phooey and movies like Chicken Little, Curious George (which he roars with laughter through) and Home Alone (for the slapstick bits involving adults getting injured, I think). Sergio loves swimming and "going mental" with his mates at daycare. He moves up to Kin kindergarten this April.
Postal Address
Koki Apt 101 Aza-Kin 7906-7, Kin-Cho, Kunigami-Gun, Okinawa-Ken, 904-1201 Japan
Telephone/Fax
(Japan +81) 098-968-5644
Geek Corner
This website is designed and maintained on a dualcore 2.3ghz G5 Macintosh with 2 GB of RAM running Mac OS 10.5.1. For webpage creation and site management the latest version (9) of Adobe GoLive is still excellent. Perhaps more powerful than you'll require if your site is comprised of fewer elements, but good for large sites with complex hierarchies. I love the simplicity and compatibility of iWeb, .Mac and Garageband, and have thought about migrating this entire site over to .Mac, but for now it will stay where it is. For web-bound photo editing and compression, Adobe Photoshop (Elements being an able, and cheaper alternative) is indispensable. For the graphics and logos throughout this site Adobe Illustrator is my weapon of choice. For OCR (Optical Character Recognition), Omnipage has long been a great piece of software for English text, and Yonde Koko reliable for Japanese.
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