Until I Acquired an Okinawan Identity ⑤ My First Minority Experience

The first culture shock I experienced after studying abroad in America was not from Americans, but from my Japanese friends.

As I wrote last time,
their way of feeling about people and events was subtly different from mine,
and since I had never felt anything like that while I was in Okinawa,
it became a catalyst for me to look at myself.

I want to emphasize that the person who got angry at me for being late at that cafe was also one of the people who continued to look up to me afterward,
such as by actively learning Uchina-Yamatoguchi.
Also, I didn't feel that subtle difference in "way of feeling" with all Japanese people,
it was just a few people who were from the city.

However, that became the trigger that would have a huge impact on my life thereafter.

As a result of convincing myself that the difference in feeling was because their culture and mine were different,
I felt shock and a great sense of loneliness that, despite thinking we were the same Japanese, I was the only one who was different from everyone else.

And one question arose.

Wasn't Japan a mono-ethnic nation?

I liked geography as a subject, and in that textbook or reference material,
it was written that "Japan is a mono-ethnic nation."

I had lived my life without ever doubting that.
Perhaps because Okinawan history wasn't necessary for entrance exams, I was hardly taught it, and I was more familiar with Japanese history.

I had lived my life thinking I was Japanese, and I had never had any doubts about it,
so why did I feel doubt at this time?

At this moment, I realized for the first time that I was placing myself in an environment where I was a "minority."

If you are in Okinawa, most people are "Uchinanchu" (Okinawan), and we are the majority.
Sometimes there were transfer students from the mainland at school,
but even if I interacted with them and thought something was "different" about them,
it would just end with me thinking, "Well, they're Naicha (from the mainland/outside the prefecture), so it's natural for them to be a little different."

It was the transfer student who was a little different from us,
and since I was on the majority side and shared the same sensibilities as everyone around me,
I didn't need to think about who I was myself.

However, when I came to America, I was the only Okinawan among the Japanese international students, and everyone else was from the Japanese mainland.

I realized that I was the only one who was different after coming into contact with a different culture,
and I was forced to think about things like,
"Who am I?"
"What is an Okinawan?"

It took about two and a half years to find the answer to that question.

*① Uchina-Yamatoguchi (Okinawan Japanese): A language spoken mostly by the generation under 50,
a mix of Okinawan (Ryukyuan) and Japanese, where Japanese verb endings are attached to Okinawan words. Example: Yukuin (to take a break) x ~suru = Yukuru