NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I am in Okinawa this week. I'll be speaking at a conference in Ishigaki Island this weekend, but I've spent the past week traveling around doing interviews with various activists involved in the struggle against US bases here. I haven't had much time to write up anything for this blog or elsewhere since I've gotten here as things have been so crazily busy. On Facebook one source of information about Okinawa that I've found very informative is the group Okinawan Independence and Free Ainu. It provides a very intriguing perspective on these two native groups within Japan which the Japanese government and people once sought to erase. These two groups are native to locations which lie at the opposite ends of Japan, but it is heartening to see a group that is seeking to connect their histories and futures. I've included some recent updates from the group below: *********** 181 environmental groups support LewChew (Okinawa) governor Onaga’s revocation of Henok

--> I wrote on my Facebook the day I arrived in Okinawa “Sweet Home Okinawa :) ” I am not Okinawan and have never lived in Okinawa, but after being there three times in 1 year and a half, I have developed an interesting relationship to the place. I started writing about this last year in my blog post " Coming Home. " People in Japan tend to assume my origin in the following ways: #1: People would ask me if I was Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan who the government and most people pretended to be non-existent for quite a while. #2: I was from Hokkaido. I have no idea what people from Hokkaido look like, but if I was to imagine myself as some sort of Japanese person, it would be from Hokkaido. #3: People regularly asked if I was from Okinawa. But eventually I wrote that the historical and contemporary connections between our islands actually make me feel oddly at home in a place I have barely visited. I wrote that my coming to Okinawa was a "h