The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments This study owes much to information and guidance from sociologist and Osaka resident Kaneshiro Munekazu, along with his articles (see bibliography ) and public lectures on the Okinawan community. His advice was crucial in designing the questionnaire and conducting interviews. Higa Fujiko, a schoolteacher in Osaka, introduced me to numerous interviewees, helped distribute questionnaires, and provided timely suggestions for conducting the interviews. For directing me to essential sources, I am grateful to Nagamine Mana and the staff at the Hyōgo Okinawa Prefectural Association, Nakama Keiko of the Osaka Human Rights Museum, Kinjō Kaoru of the Okinawa Bunko culture center, Nago City historian Higa Michiko, and Miyagi Kimiko of Okinawa University. I learned much about daily life in the community from regular conversations with my neighbors in our homes, over morning coffee, and at various eating and drinking establishments in the evenings. For their generous financial support of the two-year study, I am grateful to the Fulbright Commission, the Japan Foundation, and Brown University. Finally, I am indebted to Jose Itzigsohn, Robert Marsh, and Hilary Silver, sociology professors at Brown, and to George Feifer, author of Tennōzan: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1992), for their valuable advice and critiques of the text. All translations are mine, unless otherwise credited. ...