The Ryukyu Islands are a chain of islands that extends between Kyushu, the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan, and Taiwan, marking the border between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea. They are part of Japan and they are formed by a series of small archipelagos, from north to south: the Ōsumi Islands, the Tokara Islands, the Amami Islands, the Okinawa Islands, the Miyako Islands, and the Yaeyama Islands. The Daitō Islands, located east of Okinawa, and the Senkaku Islands, located north of the Yaeyama Islands, are also sometimes considered part of the Ryukyu Archipelago.
The whole chain is also called Nansei Islands in Japanese, with the name Ryukyu only referring to the Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands, while the northern group is called Satsunan Islands. This is reflected in the administrative division of the archipelago, as the Satsunan Islands are part of the Kagoshima Prefecture, while the southern group forms the Okinawa Prefecture. Here we will use the name Ryukyu for the entire chain between Kyushu and Taiwan.
Map of the Ryukyu Islands.
Most of these islands have a volcanic origin and a sub-tropical climate, and they are known for their unique culture. The largest and most populated island of the archipelago is Okinawa, which was once the seat of the Ryukyu Kingdom. These islands have a unique history that has been mostly separate from that of Japan and the surrounding region, and some people still speak the local Ryukyuan languages, which are part of the Japonic group but are not mutually intelligible with Japanese.
The Ryukyu Islands were settled by humans in prehistoric times, but they are mentioned for the first time only in the third century BCE, in Chinese annals of the Qin dynasty. The Chinese sent expeditions to the archipelago during the seventh century, and the islands appear for the first time in Japanese history around the same time. These islands were strategically important for Japan, as they were along one of the main routes used by Japanese missions to reach China.
The northernmost of the Ryukyu Islands were integrated into Japan in the early 8th century and became more and more linked with the history and politics of Kyushu and the Japanese mainland. Instead, sedentary agriculture only reached the southern Ryukyu Islands in the following centuries, but they also became a trade center, and remained mostly independent, while their inhabitants were considered “barbarians” by the Japanese.
Three independent states emerged from smaller feudal domains on the island of Okinawa in the 14th century, known as Hokuzan, Chūzan, and Nanzan. During the so-called Sanzan (“three mountains”) period, the three kingdoms ruled over different parts of Okinawa, and competed to be recognized by Ming China as a trading partner. In 1429, King Shō Hashi of Chūzan conquered Hokuzan and Nanzan, unifying Okinawa and founding the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Map of Okinawa during the Sanzan period (Kallgan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
The Ryukyu Kingdom was recognized by the Ming dynasty and became a tributary state of China. The kingdom extended their domain to the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands to the south, and to the Amami Islands to the north. For centuries, the Ryukyu Kingdom flourished as a center of the maritime trade in East and Southeast Asia, and Ryukyuan ships reached not only Japan and China, but also Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
However, the importance of the Ryukyu Kingdom began to decline in the late 16th century. Around this time, the activity of the wokou pirates in the East China Sea reached its peak, while Portuguese traders took control of many maritime trading routes. In fact, the Portuguese had reached the island of Tanegashima, part of the Ōsumi Islands, in 1543, and introduced European firearms to Japan here.
Portrait of King Shō Shin of the Ryukyu Kingdom. He was the longest-reigning monarch in the history of the kingdom, holding the crown from 1477 to 1527, during the period of maximum prosperity for the Ryukyu Islands.
Meanwhile, the northern expansion of the Ryukyu Kingdom collided with the ambitions of the feudal lords of Kyushu, and this led to decades of tensions. Around 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi asked the Ryukyu Kingdom to help Japan in their invasion of Korea which, if successful, would have led to a campaign against China. The Ryukyu Kingdom refused and remained loyal to the Ming dynasty. The Japanese invasion of Korea failed, and soon afterwards, Japan was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.
In 1609, the shogunate authorized the Shimazu clan, the feudal lords of the Satsuma Domain on Kyushu, to send a punitive military expedition against the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Japanese army was too strong for the Ryukyuans, and the Ryukyu Kingdom became a vassal of the Satsuma Domain. This marked the start of a period of “dual subordination”, during which the Ryukyu Kingdom was a vassal of Japan and a tributary of China at the same time. However, this was only formalized in 1655, when Japan approved the tributary relation of the Ryukyu Kingdom with the Qing dynasty of China. The kingdom remained nominally independent, and this allowed them to continue trading with China, while Japan had almost completely cut off their relations with foreign countries. This was crucial for the Satsuma Domain, which became one of the most powerful domains of Japan.
The fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 led to abolition of the feudal system and the incorporation of the Ryukyu Islands into Japan. This process began with the Mudan incident of 1871, in which 54 shipwrecked Ryukyuan sailors were massacred in Qing-ruled Taiwan by local indigenous people. The following year, the Ryukyu Kingdom was reorganized into the Ryukyu Domain, and in 1874 Japan launched a punitive expedition to Taiwan. The Japanese army won, and this led to the abolition of the tributary relation between the Ryukyu Islands and Qing China. In 1879, the Japanese government announced the annexation of the Ryukyu archipelago and the establishment of the Okinawa Prefecture. The last Ryukyu king was deposed and forced to move to Tokyo.
After the annexation, the Japanese government tried to eliminate Ryukyuan culture and to integrate the islands into the rest of the country. However, one important part of the culture of Ryukyu, gained popularity across Japan: karate. Karate developed in Okinawa since at least the 15th century, under the influence of Chinese martial arts, and was introduced in mainland Japan in the early 20th century.
Meanwhile, Japan was expanding its rule over East Asia, and Okinawa became a battleground during the final stages of World War II. The brutal Battle of Okinawa lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945, and was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. The invasion of Okinawa was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and led to the death of around 50,000 Allied and 100,000 Japanese soldiers, as well as 150,000 Okinawan civilians, one quarter of the entire population of the island. The Allies won the battle, and planned to use Okinawa as a base to invade the main Japanese islands. However, this invasion never came as Japan surrendered after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The harsh battle and high casualties of the Battle of Okinawa might have been one of the factors that led the Americans to cancel the planned invasion of Japan and opt for the atomic bombings instead.
An American plane flies over Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, in May 1945. The city had been completely razed to the ground during the Battle of Okinawa.
After the end of the war, the Americans took control of the Ryukyu Islands, first with a military government, and then with a civil administration in 1950. This was formalized with the Treaty of San Francisco of 1952, which gave the United States control over the islands of the Okinawa Prefecture. The Ryukyu Islands were given back to Japan in 1972, but the United States retains a large military presence on Okinawa to this day, with around 26,000 troops and 31 areas under American control, which cover a quarter of the area of the island.
This has led to a lot of controversy and opposition from locals, as the activities of the U.S. military caused damage to the environment and the residents of the island, and many American soldiers who commited crimes in Okinawa remained unpunished. While some people advocate for the independence of Ryukyu from Japan and the closure of American bases, the islands have become more strategically important in the 21st century. Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has claimed the Senkaku Islands, which were incorporated into Japan along with the annexation of Taiwan in 1895. Fearing a possible attack from China, both Japan and the United States have expanded their military activities in the Ryukyu Islands.
Despite these concerning developments, the Ryukyu Islands remain a tourist destination known for its beautiful environment, sub-tropical climate, and unique culture, attracting millions of visitors every year from all over the world. Okinawa is also known as the birthplace of karate, which was popularized in the West during the period of the American administration. Karate became an Olympic sport at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and over 100 million people practice the sport around the world.