Reminder that the Ryukuan Islands (of which Okinawa is the largest) are under double colonization: they were initially colonized by the Japanese in 1879, and now the US actively reinforces that colonization. They have faced many of the classic effects of settler colonialism. Their language (the only extant relative of Japanese) [edit: Ryukyuan is actually a family of 6+ separate languages that exists within the larger Japonic family; Japanese is a separate branch] has been actively repressed and is on the decline. They are a marginalized minority. They are economically exploited by the mainland. And the US reinforces all of this through the very chaotic and violent military presence on the island.
I fucking love Okinawa, and the Okinawan people deserve independence. Japan sees that island as nothing more than a place where it can dump things it doesn't want to deal with including US military bases.
About the language: every island in the Okinawan chain has its own language (ex: Yonaguni-go) and there are several "dialects" on the mainland that are unintelligible to speakers of standard Japanese (ex: Fukui-ben and Tsugaru-ben).
If you define a language as mutually intelligible speech, there are easily over a dozen languages in Japan. Many of them are unfortunately dying, though.
You're absolutely right, Ryukyuan is a entire subfamily within Japonic. Thanks for pointing that it.
US soldiers regularly rape Okinawan women. That is, when they're not driving drunk and smashing into cars full of families at 90mph.
Unfortunately he chose the worst people to meet with regarding these issues
AOC: I consent
Okinawa: I consent
US military: isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?
Sad that foreign leaders like this guy and Lula have fallen into the social media hype and keep meeting with AOC. I'm sure she'll be labeled a firebrand once again if Trump manages to win and liberals are suddenly on board with her owning people on Twitter again.
"Getting Yakuza 3 vibes from this" ~Man who has only played Yakuza
