Let’s suppose that one day we all wake up in the same alternate reality – a rather boring one where everything is the same, aside from an island not so far east of Washington. It’s been there the ...

Yuzo Takayama used to think of himself as Japanese, but his current social media bio reads: A Ryukyuan with Japanese nationality. The introduction is just a few words, but it is an answer that ...

Since he was a young boy, Tsuyoshi Tamagushiku had routinely visited the Mumujana tombs to pay his respects to the royalty of the former Ryukyu Kingdom, now known as Japan's Okinawa Prefecture.

Ryukyu once shone as the ancient "bridge of nations," yet it fell victim to Japan's military invasion and annexation, losing its status as an independent kingdom. From the Satsuma Domain's invasion in ...