Puerto Rico and Okinawa

HIST 110
Essay Assignment

Misfortune Islands on the Sea

What comes to your mind when you hear the words with colony, merger, and invasion? These words are related to a sad part of history in the past. Puerto Rico and Okinawa are two islands experience the sad part of history. Not only those two countries, but there were many other countries that were taken control ever by another. My country, Korea, also had been occupied by Japan for 35 years, so that my opinion about Okinawa and the Puerto Rico are different from the view of the United States and Japan. Chalmers Johnson described Okinawa as “the Puerto Rico of Japan.” However, I disagree with his statement. In this essay, I will be by restating about Chalmers Jonson’s saying with not only historical background but also culture, language, and minority group in two islands. To restate Chalmers Jonson’s saying, it is necessary to figure out what is going on between these two islands. First, Okinawa was the independent kingdom as named Ryukyu. According to the history documents, Ryukyu appeared in 1372, and the documents mentioned “Ryukyu paid a tribute to Ming Dynasty by the Emperor Hongwu of Ming’s request.” While Ryukyu was developing a trade system with China, they were invaded by the Japanese feudal domain of Satsuma in 1609. Later, Japan made Ryukyu one of the states in Japan in 1879. That state was Okinawa, and as a result, one kingdom became the prefecture now.
After Ryukyu transferred as the prefecture of Japan, Okinawa underwent an ordeal. At the end of World War II, the United State of America carried out a landing at Okinawa to invade the main land Japan. At that time, the holocaust occurred causing more than 170,000 deaths; in addition, by C.W Nimitz’s proclamation, the U.S. army, military, and government began in Okinawa. Soon after, an enormous American air station was built. Okinawa stayed as a land part of the United States until 1972. There are two main points that must be understood from this event. The first point is that the original Ryukyu people had to experience the loss of their land twice by the United States and Japan. Secondly, Ryukyu people tried to be an independent kingdom when Okinawa belonged to Japan again. As a result, the Liberal Democratic Party and he cabinet in Japan ignored their movement for the independence. The misfortune land, Okinawa, belonged to Japan again even to the present day.
Then what about the Puerto Rico? The Puerto Rico is located at the boundary line between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. There were Arawak Indians who were emigrated from South America Continent in the ninth century to the Puerto Rico. However, Christopher Columbus landed at this island and claimed that this land was the domain for the king of Espana. Columbus also named this land as San Juan Bautista on November, 1493. After that, Juan Ponce de León established and changed the name to the Puerto Rico. Even though Arawak Indians broke out in rebellion to Espana people, it turned out a failure.
Afterward, in order to exploit the gold mine, Espana people brought in slaves from the United States. Since 1530, the gold mine was depleted, so that they changed to grow sugarcane. From the middle of the 16th century, Espana [Spanish] military constructed San Felipe del Morro Fortress to prepare for conquest of Latin America. In 19th century, Northern and Southern American colonies of Espana [Spanish] began to become independent, and Espana people who were faithful to their homeland left their residence and came to the Puerto Rico. In the latter half of the 19th century, the movement of independence grew more powerful, so Espana invested right of autonomy to people in the Puerto Rico. However, before the right of autonomy was taken effect, the war between United State and Spain occurred. As the U.S Army occupied the island on August, 1898, the military administration was established in October. The Puerto Rico became American territory. Since that time to in 1932, it was called as Porto Rico.
In the 1930s, the Puerto Rico divided into two groups: pre-independence and pre-transferred as American states. In 1952, by the constitution, the Puerto Rico received the right of autonomy for the internal affairs. Later, there was conflict between full-independence and the raising of status for being as a state of the U.S. Full-independence movement was seen as terror for a plot to assassinate the President Truman. However, the major issue was changed to the relationship between the United States and the Puerto Rico, there were not independent any more in 1970 to the 1980s. In the years of 1992, 1998, and 2003, there was the inhabitants’ voting, and the opinion about maintaining the current status as the Liberty United Provinces show preponderance a little bit more. The point of the Puerto Rico is that they had a movement of independence was continued during the period of Spain [Espana] governed and the period of being possession of the U.S.
What was previously stated were the history about these two islands? There are several similarities between two islands. First, people living in those islands did not want to be a part of the war. Meaning, they did not have their rights to decide. In the end, the people had lost their land to other countries, Japan and the United States. Second, there was a movement to be independent from U.S and Japan.
However, there are some differences between the two countries. First is their ethnicity. In Okinawa, Okinawa’s people are hard to distinguish from people in the mainland Japan now. It is because many people were mixed with Original Ryukyu people and the mainland Japanese. In contrast, in the Puerto Rico, there are 80.5% of Espana white people and 8% of black people. Second, there is a difference in the language that they speak. The language of Okinawa is very similar with the mainland Japanese language. Their language is just a regional dialect, so that mainland Japanese people can understand Okinawa’s language. Only a few words are different. However, the Puerto Ricans do not speak English. In 1902, they used English and Spanish as their official languages. However, the system broke and a bill was established to use only Spanish as the official language. Therefore, even if the Puerto Rico is American territory, English is not used as the official language.
Today, Okinawa’s culture is mixed with the original Ryukyu culture and the modern Japanese culture, so that visitors can see Omikuji, Geta, Yukata style fashion, and Shyamisen in folk village in Okinawa. It cannot be defined as exactly same culture but similar. However, even though Puerto Rico is one of the provinces of the United States, they have a different culture compared to the United States. They have more Arawak Indians culture and Espana culture.
In conclusion, Chalmers Johnson described Okinawa as “the Puerto Rico of Japan.” I understand what he was trying to say about the two islands, but I disagree with this statement. It is hard to define like his statement without the word of minority group in these misfortune islands. The word, the minority is deeply related to their culture and languages. I would say that it is a hasty expression to call Okinawa is the Puerto Rico of Japan. The statement might be valid when it is talking about the status only. The national identities in both islands were strongly appeared in their history about a movement of independence. However, the minority status of culture and languages shows that Okinawa and Puerto Rico have different results. Therefore, his statement is not valid with all section including, national identities, minority status, culture, and language.

Work Cited
Book
* Takara Gurayoshi, RyuKyu Kindom, DoSeo Publication, 2008. * Hokama Syuzen, the history and culture of Okinawa, DongMoonSun GyundaiSinSoe, 2008. * Young-Gyu, Park, Finish by one book for The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, Woongjin.com, 2004.
Website
* Okinawa.com: Okinawa travel, culture, links and more, Research board “Sketches of Myahk”, ‘Okinawa History” Accessed June 19, 2007. http://okinawa.com/ * Youtube.com. Swampgift,” San Juan Puerto Rico: A Jostpru- Found Video Object”, August, 17, 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tVxCeDnIZo * Youtube.com. Elkiloymedio. “Puerto Rico: History of Resistance”, November, 1, 2009 * History of Okinawa: 沖縄の歴史:History of Okinawa, Prehistoric Okinawa, The Ancient Ryukyus, The later period Ryukyu, Modern Okinawa, http://rca.open.ed.jp/web_e/history/index.html.