Being More Okinawan in Hawaiʻi: Okinawan Identity Development Among Okinawan University and College Students Through Activities, Learning, Interactions, and Experiences in Hawaiʻi
Date
2019
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Abstract
Ryukyu was a former state in East Asia. The Ryukyuan royal government located on Okinawa Island ruled islands in the southwestern area of Japan. However, Japan annexed Ryukyu and established Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. In this position of Okinawa as part of Japan, residents in contemporary Okinawa have complex identities as Okinawan and Japanese. The purpose of this study was to investigate a process of Okinawan identity development among Okinawan university and college students in Hawaiʻi. I employed a grounded theory approach for my research inquiry. Nineteen Okinawan university and college students were interviewed about their self-descriptions, spaces where their Okinawan consciousness was provoked, and influences of activities and learning regarding Okinawa and Hawaiʻi on their Okinawan identity. The results showed the core category of “being more Okinawan in Hawaiʻi” subsumed all the other concepts regarding self-identification, consciousness, and identity as Okinawan, and the foundational and developmental phases, such as self-identification as Okinawan in Hawaiʻi, Okinawan identity consciousness and identity salience, and a strengthened sense of Okinawan identity. The interrelations of the constructed concepts and phases deleniated the process of Okinawan idetitity development among Okinawan universtiy and college students in Hawaiʻi. The results also revealed that the history, society, and culture of Okinawans in Hawaiʻi, as well as those of Hawaiians, were important aspects of Okinawan self-identification, consciousness, and identity development. Thus, some of the constructed concepts were integrated into the contexts of Okinawans in Hawaiʻi, as well as the historical, social, cultural, and political contexts in Hawai‘i, in order to make sociocultural influences explicit.
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Educational psychology, Social psychology, Developmental psychology, grounded theory, identity development, international students, Okinawan identity
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130 pages
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