Yesterday, my publisher @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social revealed the cover for my new book, "Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence." Feeling super honoured that artist, Yuken Teruya, designed an obi wrap for it. Release date set for February 2026! www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-are-w...

2/2 よそ3〜8世紀頃に分岐という学説が、世界では定説です。 It is the established view worldwide that Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages diverged from a parent language around the 3rd to 8th centuries.

1/2 うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)は方言ではなく「言語」やいびーん(です)！ Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) is not a dialect but a language! うちなーぐちを含む琉球諸島の言葉「琉球諸語」は日本語の方言ではなく、日本語とは姉妹言語です。 The languages of the Ryukyu Islands, including Uchinaaguchi, are not dialects of Japanese but sister languages of Japanese. 日本語と琉球諸語は元は一つの「祖語」から、お →

Much-needed break from book editing = sunset run along Tokyo’s Tama River. (Finally sounds/smells of an end to summer’s heat).

Pre-reversion Okinawa was major hub for CIA airlines’ anti-communist – and commercial – operations

うちなーんちゅの皆様、もうすぐ御精霊(うそーろー。旧盆)やいびーん(です)。 心から手を合わせれば言葉は関係ないと思います。 しかし、うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)で仏壇などへ「我達(私達)家内(ちねー。家族)見守(みーまん)てぃ呉みそーち、御拝(にふぇー)でーびる」と言えると、もっと先祖の方々と繋がることができるかも知れません。 うちなーぐち習てぃ見(んー)じゃびらに(おきなわ語を学んで見ませんか)。

Huge congratulations to Okinawa Shogaku for taking first place in the summer high school baseball tournament!!! www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/1...

The calm pace of our livestreamed microfiche scanning may not show the scope of the work, so here’s a time-lapse revealing how many pages we can digitize in just one hour. 📡 Watch the real-time stream ⤵️ www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5R... #Preservation #Digitization #InternetArchive

The Memorial to Fallen Journalists (戦没新聞人の碑) in Naha. Around the anniversary of WW2’s end, Okinawan media workers gather here to pledge not to glorify militarism or romanticize state violence. 「戦争のために二度とペンは取らない」

Read the full article by @freedom.press’ @laurenleharper.bsky.social: FPF’s Top 10 most urgent FOIA requests

Surfers beneath the flight path to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

Here's one of the first: the February 1975 press conference given by Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese army lieutenant who hid in the jungles of the Philippines for thirty years without knowing World War II was over. m.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2U...

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan is working with the History Channel to make available recordings of historic press conferences from the Club's archive.

Super stoked to be featured in this forthcoming documentary, Unai, about PFAS contamination in Okinawa and around the world. It will debut in cinemas in Naha on 26 July then in Tokyo from 16 August. Hopefully an international release in the near future, too. #ウナイ　 unai-pfas.jp

"The Pacific is not empty. The Pacific is not paradise. The Pacific is not a wasteland. The Pacific is not already postcolonial. The Pacific is not dependent. The Pacific is not the tip of someone else’s spear. The Pacific is not someone else’s borderland." -Sasha Davis

After giving a two-hour lecture at Waseda Uni about investigative journalism, the only thing to recharge my batteries was a bowl of spicy vegan tantan noodles from the legendary Sora no Iro. Highly recommended!

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the (official) end of the Battle of Okinawa - and here is today's news: "US marine jailed for seven years for sexual assault in Japan (Okinawa)." It's no mystery why Okinawans want the bases moved off their islands. bbc.com/news/article...

Great news report on one of my heroes, Ishikawa Bunyo, the Okinawan photographer who chronicled the Vietnam War. youtu.be/gRsOprzT6uM?...

On the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, @okinawatimes.co.jp has started publishing the names of 242, 567 victims; they'll continue printing them from today until 22 June, the day the Japanese Army commanders killed themselves. (But the official Japanese surrender was not until September).

Thank you, @modernjapanhist.bsky.social, for offering me a chance to talk about my recent publication. Your very generous invitation was much appreciated. www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Just finished a perfect book too full of too many perfect things, and now I have to wander the halls of my home and the streets of my city, lost for all eternity. How can I continue a life outside of the book? Is there even life outside of the book? What will become of me now?

Was delighted to help with the Spanish and Catalan translation of this year's Urdd Peace and Goodwill Message: Poverty. A message so important but one which should not be needed. No young person should experience or live in poverty. #Heddwch2025 youtu.be/adLSv8ACkWc

InterPol is happy to support Urdd Gobaith Cymru in their #Heddwch2025 message - focusing on poverty- both globally/locally- for 1 in 3 children live in poverty in Wales. Urdd calls for community action, empowerment and creating thinking from our leaders! 🙌https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adLSv8ACkWc

Today's @okinawatimes.co.jp is running my article on the annual Urdd Peace and Goodwill message translated into Uchinaaguchi by @fijabyron.bsky.social. Both Wales and Okinawa share similarly dire levels of child poverty (this years' message theme). www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/1...

1 DAY TO GO Tomorrow we'll play our part in sharing a powerful message from the youth of Wales with the world calling for an end to child poverty 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌍 Proud to partner with Urdd to help inspire this year's all-important global peace message #Peace2025 urdd.cymru/peace

As mainland politicians try to rewrite Battle of Okinawa, islanders recall Japanese troops’ atrocities against residents. The lesson? “Militaries don’t protect civilians.” 日本兵が刀で祖父を虐殺　教訓を口伝えする沖縄戦体験者「軍隊は住民を守らない」　参政党代表の発言に憤り www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/1...

4/1 写真は英国を形成する１つの国であるウェールズ国の新聞社「Nation.Cymru」が取り上げてくれた私の記事。 The photo shows an article about me featured by Nation.Cymru, a news outlet from Wales—one of the countries that make up the United Kingdom. この記事は、ウェールズ国の若者たちが毎年発信している「平和と善意のメッセージ（Urdd Peace and Goodwill Message）」が、初めてうちなーぐち(おきなわ語)に翻訳さ →

This is a *huge win* for those who aloha aina and respect #Hawaii: www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/05/10/h...

“The Japanese government does not help to promote these (Ryukyuan) languages and seems content to allow them to vanish. This is just one sign of how mainland Japan discriminates against Okinawa, dating back to the mid-19th century when Japan annexed the islands.” nation.cymru/feature/watc...

To strengthen Wales' connections with Japan, a writer based in Japan has shared a special translation of the Urdd's peace message in one of the country's endangered minority languages

Yet more proof of just how much mainland Japan's ruling party despises Okinawans... “I still believe what I said to be factual,” Nishida said. “I was wrong because I didn’t understand the emotions of the Okinawan people, not because I said anything untrue.” www.asahi.com/ajw/articles...

Save the date - I'll be doing an artist talk online at OIST in Okinawa on July 11th 9:30-11am (GMT+9). www.oist.jp/club/interse...

Last week, I and @fijabyron.bsky.social talked to Wales's national TV station, S4C, about the similarities between Wales and Okinawa, including our struggles against discrimination, a shared pacifist heritage, and efforts at language revitalization. Thanks, @newyddion.s4c.cymru!

"In 1879, our Ryukyu nation was taken from us by Japan. Since then we have been forced to get our education through a system that has turned us into Japanese citizens... we, as Ryukyuans, have the right to say we are Ryukyu people, not Japanese people." Fija Byron newyddion.s4c.cymru/article/27964

Protect and defend editorial cartoonists this World Press Freedom Day

Why traditional #journalism remains relevant in the #Pacific in the digital age www.pacificislandtimes.com/post/why-tra... #pressfreedomday

“Don’t buy a Swasticar” - Vancouver, BC.

Must-read thread by Fija Byron Sensei on Okinawans’ eight-decades-long struggle against structural discrimination by Washington and Tokyo. (Fija Sensei is at the forefront of revitalization of the Ryukyu languages which are on the verge of extinction…)

Haven't been BSing for a while. A chapter of mine of environmental civic action in Okinawa was published in Feb. Take a look here. scottmusgravetakeda.com/2025/03/30/n...

8 years after the Japanese government started construction of a new US Marine Corps base atop beautiful Oura Bay, Okinawans take to canoes to demand a halt. The Okinawan civil disobedience movement is one of the longest-running in the world (and the focus of my new book...)

Women in Okinawa bear the brunt of US military violence - and no mainland governors are willing to host the bases in their home constituencies. Structural discrimination against Okinawans is the bedrock of the US-Japan alliance. www.cbsnews.com/news/2-us-ma...

In STAD journal, I co-edited a special issue on critical historical sociology and historical research in Okinawa with @sytakahashi.bsky.social. Thank you to all contributors. If you are interested, please take a look. www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/stad/...

During Battle of Okinawa, Japanese troops raped, executed, forced civilians into suicide. But current Self-Defense Forces homepage displays poem by WW2 commander, Ushijima, extolling "Imperial nation." Now Japan's Defense Minister has voiced his support for the post. 80 years gone / history repeats.

This week marks 80 years since US invasion of Iejima. Known as a microcosm of the Battle of Okinawa, in the 6-day battle, residents experienced the full scope of atrocities Japanese troops committed against civilians elsewhere, incl. forced mass suicides / executions on fake spy charges.

Okinawa NGO submits report to United Nations detailing how US military contaminated the island's prime aquifer with PFAS, exposing 450,000 residents for decades. ＰＦＡＳ汚染や基地返還跡地の廃棄物問題　国連特別報告者に資料提出 www.otv.co.jp/okitive/news...

7/1 To everyone whose grandparents or parents—your grandfather, grandmother, father, or mother—are Luchuan(Ryukyuan) and over the age of 70: Please start speaking with them in Luchuan languages instead of Japanese right now. Why is it that your parents or grandparents were raised speaking →

"If you look at construction of (new US base at) Henoko, you can easily see why Japan has been in decline for past 30 years... They're spending money that should be used on education, industrial promotion, research etc." -- Okinawan author, Medoruma Shun. newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/rbc...

Please join us March 19th for our next webinar, "Doing Research on Okinawa," featuring Lynette Teruya (University of Hawai'i-Manoa), Hana Omine (Okinawa Prefectural Library), Jacqueline Toma (Okinawa Genealogical Society of HI), and Cameron Vanderscoff (Okinawa Memories Initiative).

There is a documentary film about Mr. Gushiken, a volunteer who collects human remains. English subtitled screenings will be available in the future. This is a documentary film that people outside of Japan should definitely see. efcjp.info/2021/08/23/o...