Independent Okinawa
![Image](http://web.archive.org./web/20210128152647im_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mxoUhBzHtWo/VkoWPHAHB7I/AAAAAAAAL_Y/1pEMmffyi2U/s400/okinawa%2Bus%2Bmilitary%2Bindependence.jpg)
I got a copy of the journal of Okinawan Studies a few years ago, and ever since I've had an article in my head. I've been working for years with a growing independence movement in the islands, and I've done countless interviews, attended several conferences and giving several dozen talks to groups both big and small on the topic of decolonization and independence. I've been thinking about what would be the best approach to writing an article on this shift. If we compare it to Hawai'i's sovereignty movement, we can see so many similarities, including the various ways in which independence is articulated, and how its genesis is discussed. For some it is rooted in a previous political epoch and the form of sovereignty at that time. Some in Hawai'i argue in terms of the "Kingdom" and a royal family and the Hawaiian nation-state that was overthrown. In Okinawan you have a similar discourse, where there are those with strong ties to that