Okinawa

The resources on Okinawa/Ryukyus at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) Library have been developed with the assistance from notable scholars such as Shunzō Sakamaki, Robert Sakai, Mitsugu Sakihara, William Lebra, and Masato Matsui since 1960s. From the very beginning, strong support from the local Okinawa community in Hawai‘i has contributed to the collection development efforts. In 2007 and 2008, a great number of materials on Okinawa/Ryukyus were donated by local Okinawa community members. Currently Okinawa is one of the prefectures in Japan. However, Okinawa was once a kingdom (the Ryukyu Kingdom) and had sovereignty. Okinawa’s unique history—being a kingdom, being part of Japan, and being part of the United States from 1952 to 1972—and the rare Okinawa materials housed in the Sakamaki/Hawley Collection make Okinawa Collection invaluable resources for scholars around the world.

In addition to the rare Okinawa resources, Okinawa Collection includes karate related materials (Hawaii Karate Collection). Karate Collection makes some out-of-copyrighted materials available in PDF from the eVols, which is an open-access, digital instructional repository. In addition to those special (non-circulated) materials, Okinawa Collection houses print and electronic resources as well as AV materials for both historical and contemporary research on multiple disciplines.

The focus on the resources are humanities, social sciences, performing arts, and linguistics. Okinawa Collection has both primary resources (mainly written in Japanese) and the secondary resources (both vernacular and English).

For more information, please visit Okinawa Collection Guide page.