The Al-Qaeda USA that Destroyed the Bamyan of Okinawa
How one colonizer, Japan, proceeded to birth another colonizer, USA, that in its turn destroyed not only history but killed the identity of a people they lorded over.
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The Bamyan of the Ryukyu Isle
If China were compelled to retake Taiwan by military force on account the US declares Taiwan's independence, one of the first military bases we'd hit and turn into ash within two hours would be the Okinawa bases. It's for this, same reason -- that is, China's unwillingness to obliterate Okinawa and Taiwan (same reason Russia won't exterminate Ukraine) -- that US politician-stooges in Taiwan find the gumption to push the envelope. But, they also know China will not surrender to the White man a single inch of Chinese property (unlike 1841, 1859-1860, 1895-1900 and 1931-1945). Push comes to shove, we rather inherit ashes then repeat a history and live as slaves in our own land under US power, unlike Japanese.
Back to Okinawa. Its history now seems lost or non-existent to White people and their Anglophile underlings. For all of them that history, if any, began in 1945, earliest still was 1895 when Japan sailed from Okinawa to seize Taiwan then went the opposite, northerly direction to capture the Liaodong peninsula from Russia. Meanwhile the Germans took Qingdao, UK/US took Shanghai and Beijing, and so on.
One reason that western propaganda succeeds so well at home but not in, say, Asia is that world history is presumed to have been written by only the White man. If not written or read in English, then the White man presumes nothing of the sort exist.
But, ask yourself, from where had terms as Malacca (from manlajia 满剌加) and Cambodia (from zhanpo 占婆, latinized Champa/Kampuchea) come?
Because the Chinese were far ahead of any Asian nation (indeed the world, beating even the Greeks) in having a formal writing system, ink and paper to go with it, all Asian history had some Chinese record. Better yet, these records were not written years or decades after the fact. Instead, they were penned (then stored) daily as events unfolded because such was the demand of court etiquette and rules, all held together formally under a ministry since Zhou era (1027 BCE-221 BCE) called Ministry of Rites.
There were practical reasons to write things down. One, these daily records provided evidence of precedence: "So and so ruler in the Qin dynasty did such and such a thing, why not me?" Two, an oral proclamation does not become an edict, then morphed into law, until and unless that oral pronouncement is provided in black and white then given a stamped seal. Third reason, to prevent backtracking and corruption: Such and such a ruler visited from Java or a Persian state, bringing with him gold ornaments etc. These collections must be itemized and values annotated. The reasoning is, gift exchange. In Chinese (and Asian custom), no visitor must be allowed to return home empty-handed. But to know how much to give back in return, we must first know how much was received. Hence, tributary exchange always required the wealthier state, like the bigger brother, to give more: "We Chinese, as a bigger, richer state, ought to surpass their gifts. That, or we'd have to hang our heads in shame."
(This system of exchange has passed down through generations, from influencing individual, familial, kin relationships to international diplomacy. It also explains why China is the first to step in to help Afghans, Pakistanis, Indonesians and Cambodians in times of dire need, Covid-19 being case in point. But what do those evil, satanic White people say in their Press write-ups? Chinese are buying influence!)
If you were to visit the Beijing National Archives, among dozen others, you'd find two of the most extensive historical accounts in their original, two encyclopedia volume sets of the Hanshu 漢書, one the Shiji 史記 and then the Ming Shilu. They are extensive for the reason the Han (206 BCE-220 CE) and Ming (1368-1644) eras were two of the longest unbroken governments or reigns.
In the Ming Shilu 明實錄 are extensive accounts of Okinawa from Year 1. (See, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shilu, https://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/) But such historical text don't just give an account of events of the day. In writing them down the Chinese especially gave other peoples a national identity and, therefore, statehood -- and this is more than 1,500 years before Westphalia.
For Asian identities (Malay, Javanese, Afghans and so on) to be recognized so early on for their distinct national identities by a power as great as China is a matter more than mere historical interest. It especially provided statehood a sense of continuity that’s fundamental to Chinese (and Asian) sovereignty.
What, for example, was Cambodia life like 1,000 years ago? For the answer, go to the Chinese archives. Therein is found a slim volume, given today's title as 真臘風土記 zhēnlà fēngtǔ jì (also translated as A Record of Angkor: Land and Its People), written by the visiting, 1296-97, Ming envoy Zhou Daguan. Recall, that as an official, it was a part of his duties to record what he saw and experienced. That's what he did. Whether or not it's read, nobody cares.
This never-ending writing and filing provided, thus, the world's only written account of Cambodian life at the time. Same thing in Malaysia, written 1436 by Fei Xin, an Arab translator for admiral Zheng He. In its original draft, as a diary entry, it was nicely titled Starry Night from a Bamboo Raft 星槎勝覽 wherein he wrote observing the comings and goings of the villages in stilts, the massive 32,000-strong Chinese fleet parked in the background.
Want to know about the Buddha statutes of Afghanistan's Bamyan only years after construction finished? The Chinese have the world’s only description, written by Tang envoy Xuan Zang (c.602-664) who walked, but sometimes riding camels and donkeys, from the Tang capital Chang'an, passed Pakistan and onward to present day India, Nepal and Bangladesh. "Next morning wandering out of the inn, my eyes caught the flash of sunlight, reflected from the gold emblazoned in the Buddha statute carved into the mountain." Xuan wrote of millet, pomegranates, water melons, cashew nuts and those sweet, glorious persimmons, all in abundance in the markets, then given to him on orders of the ruler in quantities far more than he could carry onward to Pakistan.
But the Afghans today...? Those poor Afghans. We tear our hair wandering how to help! We see their suffering and hated American even more, more than as if the crimes and cruelties were inflicted on us.
For all the above reasons, we, too, laugh at US efforts to break Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia from China. Our relationship bonds go back a thousand years when White people were still living in caves, but today trying to teach us Asians about power politics and allegiance? On what basis and by what right America claims power over us? It has more money?
If all this seems like a digression from Okinawa, it is not. Take the above cases and examples then apply them to Okinawa and you will see, first and foremost, Chinese records of an Okinawan identity that isn't Japanese.
The first official account of “Okinawa” appeared during the Sui government (581-618), followed by the Tang (618-907), then most extensive of all in the Ming Shilu because trade relations, like relations between South East Asia and Ming China were at their height. There was nothing called Okinawa; it's purely a Japanese name. Instead, that which appeared on record, first in 605 CE, were about a collection of islands forming an archipelago chain than ran from the southern tip of Kyushu to next door Taiwan.
By the time of Ming Shilu, and until the present, the originally given name was retained. It’s called 流求 Liu Qiu, latinized Ryūkyū, after the local bird specie, the Ryukyu robin (or Larvivora komadori). And this is the name "Okinawans" recognise today and this is how they address each other ethnically and as a distinct group separate from Japan.
A 1392 Ming Shilu entry spoke of a delegation of Ming bureaucrats and scholar-officials sent from the court to the main island today called Okinawa. We only know why the delegation made the trip years later when another, 1429 entry mentioned one ruler Sho Hashi 尚巴志. He had united the three main tribes, built a palace, and adopted the Chinese governance institutions and system then visited Beijing!
After WWII, whether or not nations were reverted back to their histories were up to the White man to decide. All Southeast Asia were returned to their former colonizers. But Okinawa's colonizer was Japan. So the US took over Japan's role to become its new colonizer, sequestering Okinawa as a base.
The moral of this long, meandering tale: White man! Get the fuck out of our lands!
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One of these days we’ll fully restore our history that the White man has destroyed, along with our people killed and maimed…
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