NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

I traveled to Japan last month with Ed Alvarez the Executive Director for Guam's Commission on Decolonization. We were in Japan for just a few days but we were able to give a number of talks at two universities in the Kansai area thanks to our friends Ronni Alexander (Kobe University) and Yasukatsu Matsushima (Ryukkoku University), who arranged our visits to their institutions of higher education. Our visit also got us some coverage in the newspapers Tokyo Shinbun and Chunichi Shinbun. I have no idea what they are saying in the articles or in this article below taken from the website for Ryukkoku Uniersity, but I am hoping they are either speaking positively about the message we had about decolonization in Guam or about the illustrious nature of my beard. Si Yu'us Ma'åse ta'lo nu si Ronni yan si Yasukatsu para i ayudon-ñiha gi este na hinanao! Gof ti apmam, lao gof gaibåli sinembatgo. ************* グアム政府事務局長、グアム大学教授による特別講義を開催（地域経済論ほか） 12/26/16 Ryukkoku Universit

I ma'pos na biahi na hu bisita iya Okinawa, tinatiyi yu' ni' pakyo' dangkolu. Matto guihi para un konferensia, lao ma cancel i dinana' put i pakyo'. Gi ayu na hinanao sumaga' yu' gi un kuatton hotet para tres dihas, ya taya' bida-hu. Ti manali'e' ham yan i meggai na atungo'-hu siha guihi. Para kuatro na sakkan hu bisisita iya Okinawa. Kumuentos yu' meggai biahi gi diferentes na klasin dinana' academic pat activist. Hu bisita i diferentes na lugat, taiguihi Henoko pat Takae, nai guaha protest pa'go put taimanu trinatrata i tano' ni' militat Amerikanu.  Guaha otro konferensia guihi gi otro na mes. Malago' yu' na bei hanaogue, lao kalang mappot. Ayu Mes Chamoru, fihu i mas mitinane' na mes para Guahu.  I kinalamten para Independensia guini giya Guahan esta gof machalapon. Guaha na biahi gof annok i taotao ni' sumapopotte gui' gi media, sa' meggai gi gurupun-mami yan-niha manoghe gi kanton chala

The image above is taken from a conference that I attended in Okinawa earlier this year. The conference focused on the issue of Okinawa's sovereignty and the betrayal of the island that took place when it was sold out to the United States in 1952. The conference took place on the anniversary of that day of shame, when the rest of Japan received its sovereignty back, but Okinawa became a military colony of the United States for the next 20 years. For the past two years I have been to Okinawa four times, meeting with and working with demilitarization and decolonization groups there. I recently helped on such group work on the English version of their charter of incorporation. After seeing this group grow so much over the past two years, it was amazing to see what has been discussion become a political reality. In May of 2011 I spoke at a conference at Okinawa International University to a room that was sparsely filled about independence and decolonization. In April of this year

Gaige yu' pa'go giya Belau. Este i fine'nina nai hu bisita este na isla. Esta meggai hu taitai put Guiya. Meggai hiningok-hu put Guiya. Hu tungo' na este na nasion i fine'nina ni' tumachu kontra i dano' i atmas nuclear gi este na mundo. Ma pas gi i Constitution-niha i fine'nina na "taya' nukes" na lai. Siha i fine'nina fuma'tinas lokkue' un "fanliheng'an" para i halu'u siha gi i tasi. Achokka' maoriyayi yu' ni' Binelau, hu hahasso ha' iya Okinawa. Manhahami yan Si Yasukatsu Matsushima yan Si Ed Alvarez gi este na hinanao. Si Yasukatsu ha kokonne' magi i estudiante-na siha para u fanmanaligao giya Belau. Esta mambisita siha giya Guahan. Manmanaliligao siha put i islan Guahan yan i islan Belau, yan taimanu giya Guahan ti ma gubetnan maimaisa (ya i hiniyong na prublema) yan giya Belau put taimanu ma gubetnan maimaisa (ya i hiniyong maolek). Malago yu' mohon na bei fanngge

When I was in Okinawa last month for a symposium on Okinawan sovereignty and decolonization, there was significant interest amongst the local media in the island. I was interviewed extensively by a reporter from one newspaper. The other newspaper also provided coverage and even organized a large televised panel on the issue. A local media station filmed the symposium I spoke at and is planning to make a documentary about it. The one thing missing however was the mainland Japanese media. They didn't cover much of the sovereignty/decolonization related events. It seemed almost like a blackout, or perhaps a temporary refusal to acknowledge. I can understand why the Japanese media might want to not cover this issue.    Media operates by frames, by easy ways of understanding a story. A story is presented in such a way that all you do is provide some details and the audience can already assume everything else. This is part of the limitations of the media b

I haven't posted for the past few days because I've been so busy with my trip to Okinawa. Here is the symposium that I participated in yesterday. I'll be writing much more about it later, but for now I need to pack and head back to Guam.

I'm heading to Okinawa today for another conference. This time I'll be speaking at Okinawa International University and also talking during a town hall meeting in Ginowan City. The topics once again will be decolonization and demilitarization, things that I have researched extensively in the context of Guam, but have been researching in an Okinawan context since last year. I'm sure I'll be posting while I'm there.

“Okinawan Independence” Michael Lujan Bevacqua April 10, 2013 The Marianas Variety Professor Yasukatsu Matsushima is a strong, but polite voice for Okinawa's Independence. I first met him last year while he was in Guam doing research. I ended up taking him on a hike to Pagat. Later he invited me to come to Okinawa and speak at several conferences on decolonization. On my most recent trip to Okinawa, I was fortunate enough to hear him give a lecture at Okinawa International University on “The Myths of Okinawan Independence.” Although the topic of Okinawa’s independence is very new and somewhat taboo, his talk was crowded with people wanting to know more.  Professor Matsushima may seem assuming at first, but make no mistake he is resolute in his belief that Okinawa should be an independent country. This advocacy has made him somewhat notorious. In both Okinawa and Guam independence is something considered taboo, impossible or anti-Japanese/American.

The representative from Hawai'i at the Island Language Revitalizaation Forum this week at Ryukyu University is Noelani Iokepa-Guerrero. She is both a professor at University of Hawai'i, Hilo but also Program Director for the Punana Leo Hawaiian Medium preschools. She is very much involved in the training of Native Hawaiian teachers and the perpetuation of the immersion school programs that have been created there over the past 30 years. Her presentation at the conference was "Hawaiian Language Revitalization: 30 Years of Lessons Learned" and it laid out the approach to teaching the language that Native Hawaiians have developed. In the early days of their revitalization efforts they simply translated materials from other languages and other contexts. This proved ineffective and so efforts were made to create a curriciulum that was rooted in Native Hawaiian language, history adn culture. As a result of this they came to develop 5 key lessons or insights. These 5 sim

Yasukatsu Matsushima is a strong, but polite voice for Okinawa's Independence. I first met him last year while he was in Guam doing research. I took him and Ed Alvarez, who was showing him around the island, on a hike to Pagat. I later met him again when we both spoke at a conference on decolonization in Guam and Okinawa at Okinawa International University last May. He returned to Guam in July of last year with Masaki Tomochi another Okinawan professor, and I took them and two Japanese professors on a rainy hike to Pagat. I am fortunate that this trip our paths crossed again. Yasukatsu may seem unassuming and quiet when you first meet him, but make no mistake, he is very determined and very assertive in his advocacy for Okinawa's independence. In both Okinawa and Guam independence is something considered impossible, taboo or anti-Japanese/American. It is something that is crazy and worse yet something that would disrupt the existing dependent relation

--> 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