Okinawa!

We arrived in Okinawa during the summer. It was steamy like a jungle, and I could not wait to explore the neighborhood we lived in. The first thing we had to do was get a military I.D card. This card allowed us to enter any facility that was run by the Military. We not only used them on Air Force bases, but we could use them on the Army base as well. The base was an interesting facility as well. We would be attending school on the base and they would provide transportation for us.

We soon discovered that almost every house in our neighborhood held a military family. Oki Sho Housing was the first stop for families who had to get in line and wait for base housing. My father was stationed at Naha. We stayed 2 years in that village. There were non-military families there as well. I made friends with some of the Okinawan children, but the majority of our friends were military. When we visited the base, my father showed us the swimming pool, bowling alley, and the school.

After we left the base, he showed us around Okinawa. I remember seeing trucks with three wheels! How was that possible? We visited some exotic stores, and fish markets. The people looked at us as if we were an oddity. Okinwans did not resemble the Japanese people in their facial features. Closely resembling the Japanese in physique, the Ryukyuans are of mixed racial ancestry, and of this, the aboriginal Ainus is predominant to the Malayan and Mongoloid stock (got this info off the back of the above folder). Okinawans speak the Japanese that has been taught in their schools for over 120 years. Their own language, forbidden by Imperial Japanese edict, has nearly been forgotten, except in some of the outlying islands (wow, I never knew Okinawans had their own language).

Everything was so foreign and exciting! I remember the island as being lush with big plants and really big snails. Here I was, a nine year old child in this foreign country ready for an adventure. I was an avid reader of the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew books, so I was ready to create my own adventures! I would drag my little brother with me on my adventures. He was six years old.