Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル

Book cover featuring the text, Jon Mitchell - Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence and Bloomsbury. The off-white cover features a sky blue obi belt which includes a swallow, red hibiscus and two jet fighters.

Yesterday, my publisher @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social revealed the cover for my new book, "Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence." Feeling super honoured that artist, Yuken Teruya, designed an obi wrap for it. Release date set for February 2026!

www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-are-w...

Thanks for the recommendation - I hadn't heard of it so ordered it!

2/2

よそ3〜8世紀頃に分岐という学説が、世界では定説です。

It is the established view worldwide that Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages diverged from a parent language around the 3rd to 8th centuries.

1/2

うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)は方言ではなく「言語」やいびーん(です)！

Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) is not a dialect but a language!

うちなーぐちを含む琉球諸島の言葉「琉球諸語」は日本語の方言ではなく、日本語とは姉妹言語です。

The languages of the Ryukyu Islands, including Uchinaaguchi, are not dialects of Japanese but sister languages of Japanese.

日本語と琉球諸語は元は一つの「祖語」から、お

→

For sure!

Looks great - can't wait to read the interview!

Orange skies over Tamagawa, Tokyo. On the left, three apartment blocks (and Mt Fuji) then a long roaded bridge. The foreground reflects the above.

Much-needed break from book editing = sunset run along Tokyo’s Tama River. (Finally sounds/smells of an end to summer’s heat).

Pre-reversion Okinawa was major hub for CIA airlines’ anti-communist – and commercial – operations 2025年09月05日　17時08分

Pre-reversion Okinawa was major hub for CIA airlines’ anti-communist – and commercial – operations

うちなーんちゅの皆様、もうすぐ御精霊(うそーろー。旧盆)やいびーん(です)。

心から手を合わせれば言葉は関係ないと思います。

しかし、うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)で仏壇などへ「我達(私達)家内(ちねー。家族)見守(みーまん)てぃ呉みそーち、御拝(にふぇー)でーびる」と言えると、もっと先祖の方々と繋がることができるかも知れません。

うちなーぐち習てぃ見(んー)じゃびらに(おきなわ語を学んで見ませんか)。

【速報】沖縄尚学、夏の甲子園V　日大三に3―1 県勢15年ぶり | 沖縄タイムス＋プラス 【甲子園取材班】第１０７回全国高校野球選手権大会最終日は２３日、甲子園球場で決勝を行い、沖縄尚学は日大三（西東京）を３―１で退け、夏の大会初の優勝を果たした。

Huge congratulations to Okinawa Shogaku for taking first place in the summer high school baseball tournament!!!

www.okinawatimes.co.jp/articles/-/1...

The calm pace of our livestreamed microfiche scanning may not show the scope of the work, so here’s a time-lapse revealing how many pages we can digitize in just one hour.

📡 Watch the real-time stream ⤵️
www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5R...

#Preservation #Digitization #InternetArchive

A teardrop shaped stone memorial in an Okinawan park engraved with the names of journalists who died in the Battle of Okinawa.

The Memorial to Fallen Journalists (戦没新聞人の碑) in Naha.
Around the anniversary of WW2’s end, Okinawan media workers gather here to pledge not to glorify militarism or romanticize state violence.

「戦争のために二度とペンは取らない」

FPF’s Top 10 most urgent FOIA requests Why these disclosures would help fight threats to the press, help fight expanding surveillance, and more

Read the full article by @freedom.press’ @laurenleharper.bsky.social: FPF’s Top 10 most urgent FOIA requests

Surfers beneath the flight path to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

YouTube video by 日本外国特派員協会 オフィシャルサイトFCCJchannel FCCJ & A+E Networks Collaboration: 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda (2/171975) - English Subtitles

Here's one of the first: the February 1975 press conference given by Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese army lieutenant who hid in the jungles of the Philippines for thirty years without knowing World War II was over.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2U...

YouTube video by 日本外国特派員協会 オフィシャルサイトFCCJchannel FCCJ & A+E Networks Collaboration: 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda (2/171975) - English Subtitles

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan is working with the History Channel to make available recordings of historic press conferences from the Club's archive.

映画『ウナイ 透明な闇 PFAS汚染に立ち向かう』公式サイト 水が、あぶない――　PFAS汚染に立ち向かう女性たちによる未来のための物語

Super stoked to be featured in this forthcoming documentary, Unai, about PFAS contamination in Okinawa and around the world.

It will debut in cinemas in Naha on 26 July then in Tokyo from 16 August. Hopefully an international release in the near future, too.

#ウナイ　

unai-pfas.jp

"The Pacific is not empty. The Pacific is not paradise. The Pacific is not a wasteland. The Pacific is not already postcolonial. The Pacific is not dependent. The Pacific is not the tip of someone else’s spear. The Pacific is not someone else’s borderland."

-Sasha Davis

A red porcelain bowl filled with vegan tantan noodles topped with moyashi, chingensai and soy mince.

After giving a two-hour lecture at Waseda Uni about investigative journalism, the only thing to recharge my batteries was a bowl of spicy vegan tantan noodles from the legendary Sora no Iro. Highly recommended!

What a stunning photo!

Absolutely beautiful!

On and off the bases, US military violence is rampant. And because 70% bases are concentrated in Okinawa, the violence is concentrated there, too.

US marine jailed for seven years for sexual assault in Japan Jamel Clayton was given seven years, with a judge describing the physical attack as "vicious".

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the (official) end of the Battle of Okinawa - and here is today's news: "US marine jailed for seven years for sexual assault in Japan (Okinawa)."
It's no mystery why Okinawans want the bases moved off their islands.
bbc.com/news/article...

YouTube video by 【琉球放送】RBC NEWS 「戦争になれば民間人が犠牲になる」報道カメラマン石川文洋さん（87）【＃あなたの623】

Great news report on one of my heroes, Ishikawa Bunyo, the Okinawan photographer who chronicled the Vietnam War.

youtu.be/gRsOprzT6uM?...

On the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, @okinawatimes.co.jp has started publishing the names of 242, 567 victims; they'll continue printing them from today until 22 June, the day the Japanese Army commanders killed themselves. (But the official Japanese surrender was not until September).

New Books on Japan: "The Translocal Island of Okinawa: Anti-Base Activism & Grassroots Regionalism" YouTube video by Modern Japan History Association

Thank you, @modernjapanhist.bsky.social, for offering me a chance to talk about my recent publication. Your very generous invitation was much appreciated.

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Wow - sounds super exciting. Please post lots of photos!

Just finished a perfect book too full of too many perfect things, and now I have to wander the halls of my home and the streets of my city, lost for all eternity. How can I continue a life outside of the book? Is there even life outside of the book? What will become of me now?

YouTube video by Urdd Gobaith Cymru Neges Heddwch ac Ewyllys Da yr Urdd 2025 | #Heddwch2025 | The Urdd's 2025 Peace and Goodwill Message

Was delighted to help with the Spanish and Catalan translation of this year's Urdd Peace and Goodwill Message: Poverty. A message so important but one which should not be needed. No young person should experience or live in poverty.
#Heddwch2025
youtu.be/adLSv8ACkWc

YouTube video by Urdd Gobaith Cymru Neges Heddwch ac Ewyllys Da yr Urdd 2025 | #Heddwch2025 | The Urdd's 2025 Peace and Goodwill Message

InterPol is happy to support Urdd Gobaith Cymru in their #Heddwch2025 message - focusing on poverty- both globally/locally- for 1 in 3 children live in poverty in Wales. Urdd calls for community action, empowerment and creating thinking from our leaders! 🙌https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adLSv8ACkWc