March 31- April 1, 2024
Altogether, we will eventually have 7 stops in Japan, but divided by a few other countries.
Ishigaki is not a common cruise port. We made the mistake of paying the $27pp shuttle from Royal to town – it would have been a $6 taxi ride each way. The island is famous for beef – the home of wagyu.
In Naha, Okinawa, I made a beeline for Shuri Castle – even though it was in the midst of being reconstructed for the third time. Originally built in 1429, it housed Ryukyu Kingdom’s royal family until 1879 when it was abandoned, and then almost completely destroyed in 1945 by allied bombing. A new building for the University took its place until 1992, when a project to reconstruct the castle under its original design based on historical records commenced and was completed 7 years later. In 2019, a fire destroyed the building.
A Brief HIstory of Okinawa:
Okinawa was long an independent kingdom – The Ryukyu dynasty held the area, sometimes as vassals of Japan and sometimes with China – from 1429 until 1879. Its status during those years as an independent nation with its own language, culture and religion, provided a trade bridge between China and Japan (as well as the Dutch) during those times when Japan closed its ports in an attempt to remain isolated from the world. President Ulysses S. Grant attempted to prevent the annexation of Okinawa into Japan at the behest of the Chinese, but could not prevent the unification of the islands. The Ryukyuans resisted, but over a couple of generations accepted being known as Japanese.
The Battle of Okinawa in 1945 was one of the only WWII land battles in Japan and the bloodiest of all battles in the Pacific Theater. 49,000 US troop casualties (12000 deaths) paled in comparison to the 110,000 Japanese and Okinawan soldiers and close to 300,000 civilians that lost their lives. The ferocity of the Japanese and the Okinawans’ in defense of their lands likely contributed to the US’s decision to use the atomic bomb.