From Okinawa to the Americas: Hana Yamagawa and Her Reminiscences of a Century

Victory Celebration

59 Victory Celebration In 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, some men from Nakijin were drafted. The whole student body went to send them off and walked with them all the way to the Amesoko racecourse, singing “The Japanese Army.” Ten ni kawarite By Heaven’s will Fugi o utsu. Our loyal, peerless soldiers Chuyu muso no Strike down evil. Waga hei wa. Kanoko no koe ni Cheering voices Okurarete Send them off from the homeland— Ima zo idetatsu There they go now! Fubo no kuni. Katazuba ikite How brave Kaeraji to The soul that pledges 60 part i Chikau kokoro no Victory! Or Death!1 Isamashisa. There were many more stanzas, but I can only remember parts here and there. Being children, we didn’t really know what we were doing, singing the “loyal, peerless soldiers” off to war, a place of violence where people killed one another. Kohatsu Heitoku, from Kouri Jima, who boarded at our house through his upper elementary school years, lost an uncle in the war, and I remember going out to that island with Father to pay our respects. The night we heard that the war had ended, we took our lighted lanterns and milled through the village streets. There was no formal victory celebration that night; we just gathered together willy-nilly. There was some kind of ceremony in Nago, though, that I went to with friends. I remember wearing my ebichabakama school uniform to it. A group of women from Kunchan danced an ushideku, a slow dance of that region. Lining up abreast in one row, they danced to the accompaniment of a handheld drum. In the summer of 1905, to celebrate the victory of the Russo-Japanese War, there was going to be an athletic meet in Naha, with all the upper elementary schools of Okinawa participating. The students were supposed to pay for food, lodging, boat fare for the return trip, and for the people who were along to cook for us. Over one hundred students from Nakijin Township were going and, of course, I expected to go, too. Neither the teachers nor my family wanted me to make the trip, because it was a difficult fifty miles or so south. At eleven, I would have been the youngest in the group and the only one from my village. But after coaxing and arguing that my brother Chushichiro, at that time married to Taira Machi and still teaching at Nago, would look out for me because he would be making the trip from his school, too, the elders agreed. Led by two teachers, we girls left earlier than the boys and were met by them the following day in Nago. Bayard Taylor, of the Perry expedition, described Nago as “the very pretty town of Nugah [Nago] situated in a deep bay with several junks at victory celebration 61 harbor in front. The town is beautiful, with green openings, over which, and along its streets, noble trees were casting their shadows, while the streets themselves, as is the case in most of the Lew Chew towns, were remarkable for cleanliness and neatness.”2 One of the “noble trees” is the famous gajimaru banyan tree, more than three hundred years old and still standing. The Sage of Nago, Tei Junsoku, of the second golden age of Okinawa, is said to have rescued a young girl deluded by a snake under that banyan tree. Junsoku noticed that the girl seemed to be trying to get past the tree, yet confusedly shuttled back and forth. On closer observation he saw that she was mesmerized by a snake writing in the sand with its tail. He quickly whisked her away to his home, returned to the banyan tree, and drove the snake off. He then stamped out the writings of the snake but never revealed the text as it could only, he said, lead society astray.3 From Nago we made the trip to Naha in three nights, putting up each night at a village school. The students walked the undulating white-sand, shell, and pebble beaches renowned for their scenic beauty as “The Seven Curves of Nago.” Today the seven curves have been eased to accommodate the automobile, but the oceans and heavens, glowering or benign, remain the same. Puffs of white clouds may float by in the tropical blue skies and the ocean sparkle aquamarine, or China blue, or...