Snow Monkey, An Eclectic Journal (Volume 4, Issue 1)

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Snow Monkey: An Eclectic Journal: The Bullet-Showered Island by Yamanoguchi Baku, translated by Gene Van Troyer

The Bullet-Showered Island

Yamanoguchi Baku (translated by Gene Van Troyer)

As soon as I stepped on the Island's soil,
Ganjui, I greeted in my native Okinawan.
Hai, okagesamade genki desu, came his Japanese reply.
"Yes, I'm fine, thanks." My nostalgia shaken,
Uchina-guchi madin muru
iku sa ni sattaru basui, said I. "So even
Okinawan was a casualty of war."
The Islander grinned. "You speak Okinawan
very well," he said in Japanese.

NOTE: Until the mid-1800's Okinawa was the independent Kingdom of the Ryuukyuus. The Japanese immediately annexed the islands after Admiral Perry's Black Ships called on Tokyo with overwhelming naval firepower, and through the early decades of the 20th century most Okinawans did not speak Japanese as a first language. Today the native Ryukyuan languages have nearly been erased.

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