The GRI’s Migration Mission and the Making of Postwar Okinawan Migration to South America

As a result of the end of the Pacific War (1941-1945), Okinawa prefecture was severed from the rest of the country and remained controlled by U.S. military forces for 27 years. During the period that Okinawan scholars call the American era (amerikayo) (1945-1972), the Government of the Ryukyu Islands (GRI) was established as a modest counterpart to the United States’ civil administration of the islands (USCAR).  While closely controlled by the American military authorities, the GRI became the only organ in the administration of the territory that could represent Okinawan people’s aspirations for higher level of autonomy.  One of these early aspiration was to resume state-led emigration programs, which had sent tens of thousands Okinawans overseas during the first half of the twentieth century as part of the wider Japanese migration program. This paper departs from accounts of postwar Okinawan migrations that emphasize the role played by the U.S. and mainland Japan in the formation of the postwar migratory flow. Rather, this paper examined the role played by the GRI in the re-establishment of an (out)migration flow from Okinawa to South America in the early 1950s. In particular, this paper delves into the fact-finding trip called Migration Mission (imin shisetsu) where Inamine Ichirō (1905–1986) and Senaga Hiroshi (1922–1997) toured several American nations with the purpose to “investigate emigration possibilities in South America and to solicit funds from former Ryukyuan emigrants which will be used to support future migration”. What started as a technical mission ended up being a political one; Inamine and Senaga met heads of states and high ranking politicians from several countries and eventually bypassed the USCAR authority.  The significance of the Migration Mission and the GRI’s involvement in this transnational venture is central in this paper.