Hamilton Library’s Okinawan Collection
The World’s Best Collections of Ryukyan Materials
UHM’s Hamilton Library houses one of the world’s best collections of Ryukyuan / Okinawan materials in the world. The Sakamaki/Hawley Collection holds over 5,000 items. Some may be the only known extant copies, as many of Okinawa’s resources were destroyed during World War II. The Sakamaki/Hawley Collection consists mostly of Ryukyuan source materials.
The Ryukyuan materials (over 2,000 copies/936 titles) were collected by the late English journalist Frank Hawley (1906-1961) and was acquired by the University of Hawaii after his death. The collection was purchased through the efforts of Shunzo Sakamaki, with assistance from the local Okinawan community in Hawaii. Enough money was gathered by the Okinawan community to make this purchase and it has been housed in the University of Hawaii Library since. The collection is complemented by the addition of the personal collection of former University of Hawaii professor Shunzo Sakamaki. Hence, the collection is called the Sakamaki/Hawley Collection.
View the Sakamaki/Hawley Collection
Hawaii Karate Museum Collection
Hamilton Library is also home to the Hawaii Karate Museum Collection. This collection was donated by the Hawaii Karate Museum and includes over 260 rare books. It contains books, magazines, and multimedia resources on Okinawan/Japanese martial arts.
View the Hawaii Karate Museum Collection
Okinawa Collection
Hamilton Library continues to develop its collection of Okinawa-related materials. It supports the research efforts of our students, faculty, as well as national/international scholars and researchers. Please take a look to see what we have in the splendid collection at Hamilton Library:
The Asia Collection of the University of Hawaii
Images of Okinawa after World War II
The site provides over 250 images digitized from the Kupfer Slide Collection donated in July 2010 and the US Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) photos, which were part of Dr. Douglas Haring’s
personal materials.
If images are used for non-commercial educational purposes such as use of the images in class lectures, students’ presentations, and academic conference presentations, no permission is necessary. Please credit the images with the sentence: “From the Images of Okinawa after World War II, courtesy of “the UHM Library Okinawa Collection” However if the images are planned to be used in books, newspapers, documentaries, films, and other forms of media and print, the users must write to the UHM Library Okinawa Collection to request permission. In the request, please explain the topic, image reference number, and the type of media/print.
