Today's Japanese may not feel quite so discriminatory against Okinawans as the pre war generation, but nevertheless, discrimination still exists. The post war generation, especially those born in the last 30 years or so, tend to be more liberal in their attitudes and have been exposed to diverse cultures much more than the older generation. The younger generation no longer uses such derogatory terms as sankoku-jin (three country person, meaning Chinese, Koreans and Taiwanese) but the prejudices still persist. Anyone with a darker complexion is looked down upon by many and myths still exist that you can't trust people with darker complexion for they are somehow untrustworthy. Filipinos have always been discriminated against, considered even lower than sankoku-jin!
Despite much improved attitudes by Japanese, sadly, even today, Okinawans face discrimination. I know personally of young Okinawans who eagerly moved to Tokyo only to return after several unhappy years living among yamato people. In the late 1960s I knew the General Manager of Toyota Motors on Okinawa very well, a man in his early 50s at the time. In one of our conversations I mentioned that I had recently left the U.S. Army and he asked me how I felt about serving in the U.S. military and if I was discriminated against. I told him that although there may have been individuals who were prejudiced, the system as a whole treated me as an equal to everyone else and I did not experience any problems. He shook his head and said that he too was a beterano (veteran), that he served in the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two. But, he added, he was treated like crap! Despite his university education, he was never promoted above the rank of private and he served in a "work battalion" that was made up of Okinawans, Koreans, and Taiwanese, in other words, sankoku-jin who became cannon fodder in many cases!
At this time there was a lot of discussions between U.S. and Japan on reversion and Okinawan papers were full of articles on the subject. He said that he did not favor reversion. He felt that the Japanese would take over and relegate Okinawans to lesser positions! He said that despite cries by many Okinawans to return to "motherland," most Okinawans had forgotten what it was like under Japanese rule. I said that perhaps the Japanese people changed after the war. He said yes, no doubt the defeat had changed Japanese people, but, he added with a smile, not enough to change their basic attitudes! He was right in many ways. As soon as reversion took place, all key positions on Okinawa were taken over by mainland Japanese. To this day, key positions in the government are held by naichi (mainland Japan) people. Of course there are Okinawans in high positions, starting with the Governor, but there are enough career government positions filled by mainland Japanese that everything is still controlled by Tokyo!
They say that if you want to learn about a culture or people, other than going and living there, the best way is to read their literature. Okinawans have produced some very good and interesting literature that is very revealing of their feelings about treatment by mainland Japanese. There are a number of literary works that deal with the this subject, but the ones that have been translated the most into English are short stories that were written anywhere between the early 20th Century into late 20th and beginning 21st Century. Many of these stories won literary prizes, so they are very well written. A short story called "Officer Okuma" was written in 1922 and it is about a young Okinawan who becomes a police officer on Okinawa. However, he has to deal with discrimination by his bosses who are all from naichi (mainland Japan) and although he tries very hard, he knows he will never be accepted by the Japanese. Another short story written in 1931, "Mr. Saito of Heaven Building" is about a successful businessman in Tokyo who carefully hides his Okinawan background and is ruined when it is discovered that he is an Okinawan and not a Japanese from Tokyo.
In the more recent, post reversion period, "Silver Motorcycle" (1977) is about an unhappy woman who is widowed by an American soldier killed in Vietnam. The story actually depicts Okinawans as being "Americanized" in some ways and being "different" from mainland Japanese. Another story, "Love Suicide at Kamaara" (1984) also depicts Okinawans as being "Americanized" and distinctly different from mainland Japanese. It was interesting to see how the authors were trying to promote a different identity for Okinawans, separating them from Japanese!
All these stories and more, show clearly that Okinawans are not happy under Japanese rule, whether it was before the war or after 1972! Of course these are views from the authors' perspectives. No doubt average Okinawan may not feel that way at all. But, it is quite apparent that there were and are Okinawans who are acutely aware that they are not Japanese and will never be accepted as such by Japanese! The distinction that Okinawans make by calling themselves uchina and the mainland Japanese yamato is not just regional pride, but born of Japanese discrimination.
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