Original subtitles

What does it mean to be strong?

It implies hardness, inflexibility.

Okinawa is a place with a fighting tradition.

A history of ferocious resistance.

But it's nothing like what you might think.

Not at all.

♪ I took a walk through this beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good in this beautiful world ♪

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ Sha la la la la ♪

♪ Sha la la la la la ♪

♪ Sha la la la la ♪

♪ Sha la la la la la la ♪

This is Okinawa.

Just south of mainland Japan.

For all the relative rigidity of the mainland,

Okinawa answers in its own unique way.

Don't eat the same thing each day. That's boring.

There's even an Okinawan term for it,

"chanpuru," something mixed.

Bits borrowed from all over, served up for anyone to eat.

But maybe you're more familiar with the name, Okinawa,

from this, as the setting

for some of the most horrifyingly bloody battles

of the Second World War. How horrifying?

For the Allies, there were more than 50,000 casualties

with around 12,000 killed or missing in action,

over nearly three months of fighting.

More than 100,000 Japanese soldiers

and Okinawan conscripts were killed defending the island.

Civilians were stuck in the middle of the two armies

and got crushed.

No one will know for sure,

but historians estimate 150,000 men, women, and children

lost their lives during the battle.

What most don't know is that Okinawa had only

become Japan fairly recently.

That to a great extent, Okinawans didn't even consider

themselves really Japanese, or vice versa.

That Okinawans and Japanese considered themselves

to be different ethnicities, spoke two different languages

and culturally, culinarily, and in many other ways

looked in different directions.

Yet, Okinawans were asked to make the ultimate sacrifice,

and they did.

That's not just ancient history.

It informs the present, still.

Okinawa is the largest of over 100 islands

making up the Ryukyu island chain.

It's just over 300 miles from the mainland, but worlds apart.

Okinawa is different.

It's tropical. Clear waters.

Some of the best beaches in Asia,

with a decidedly more laid back, less frenetic,

self-serious attitude than the mainland.

You can feel it. You can see it.

It's just different here.

2,000 pounds of heavily muscled beef enters the arena.

You can feel the ground shake under its heavy hooves.

His opponent awaits.

Togyu, also known as ushi-zumo

sumo, yes, but bull sumo.

These are professionals,

and like Jake LaMotta and Chuck Wepner before them,

they shall live to fight, or do other stuff, another day.

Having shed decidedly less blood than either

of those two gentlemen.

Two animals, two handlers.

And they do, like, the Burgess Meredith job in Rocky.

Like fighters in sumo, the bulls are ranked

by their ability, their record in the ring.

The highest being yokozuna.

This is Kenny Aman. He lives up the road.

Is there a time limit or do they go till somebody gives up?

I think they pretty much go until somebody gives up.

When it gets... -A points system?

No, no, there's no points system.

Basically, when the other one turns around and runs away,

that's the winner.

Few times one bull will actually get around to the side

and actually be able to flip the bull over.

Right. Win, lose or survive? Both?

Once in a while, you'll have injuries,

but most of the time the bulls go home.

They go home to be happy. -They do.

Nobody's turned into steak or cutlets.

No.

Togyu started as early as the 17th century

with farmers pitting bull against bull.

They love it in agricultural communities like this,

so much so that it was briefly banned

in some places because farmers were spending too much time

at the fights and not enough time growing sugarcane.

Like Cus D'Amato and the young Tyson,

their handlers raise these beasts from calves,

caring for them on one hand,

and training them, conditioning them

to be monsters in the ring on the other.

Oh! -Oh!

Yeah. Does one wager on this?

I guess the official answer would be

that gambling's illegal in Japan, but...

Intermission.

Time for a corndog, some funnel cake, curly fries?

No. Better. Much better. Yakitori.

Yes, they have that. But when in Okinawa,

do as the Okinawans do. Yakisoba.

Start with pork belly, as one always should.

Some hacked up sausage, cabbage, carrots,

fry that stuff up on the griddle, add some noodles,

and sauce, soy, mirin, brown sugar, vinegar,

and a bit of sake. Top with seaweed powder,

some pickled ginger garnish, and eat. Now.

Oh, he looks impressive.

Oh, yeah. -Oh, he's ready to go.

This guy I think is going to win this one.

We haven't seen his opponent.

Oh, yeah.

My money's on him.

♪

Pretty decisive winner there.

I'm not accusing anybody of gambling,

but I see some money changing hands.

He can do it, I can do it, goddamn it.

♪

If you're looking for sushi or kaiseki or ramen,

you will, of course, find them in Okinawa.

But what you need to know, what you must know,

is that in Okinawa pork is king.

Okay, they got tofu, too.

Here at Urizun, they do specifically Okinawan food

the Okinawan way.

This is the tofu, which you eat a little at a time.

Is it that strong? -It is a little strong, yeah.

It has, like, a cheese type of texture.

It's good. -Not bad, right?

It is like blue cheese.

Ah, pork belly? -Yes.

Okinawans love pork.

Every part of the magical animal, the pig.

At Urizun, the pork belly is slowly cooked in stock

heavily infused with bonito flakes and awa-bori.

The ears are simmered until tender, thinly sliced

and dressed in rice wine vinaigrette.

And the ribs, after brining in sake and seasonings,

are slowly roasted.

So you grew up in New Jersey.

How did you find your way to Okinawa?

Well, my mom was from here. My dad was in the Navy.

Mm-hm. -He was stationed here.

Met my mom and wound up back in New Jersey

because that's where my dad was from, Paterson.

And I was born and raised there.

The school I went to was predominantly Caucasian kids.

There wasn't many Asian-Americans at all.

Right. -And I always had

this kind of, like, identity complex.

There would be, like, times where people would come

to the house. They'd say, "Oh, where's your mom from?

"- Is she from China?" -Oh, God, right.

Open the refrigerator and there would be some weird food.

"Hey, what's that?" Every time I heard that,

I was like, wow, am I, like, am I different?

So one day my mom says

we're going back to Okinawa on a family trip.

I was 17 years old. -You'd never been

up to that point? -No, but when I got off

the plane, I don't know what it was.

It was like, I'm here, this is my home.

Being able to connect to my heritage, I felt something.

I was like, wow, I belong here.

How about the food? What was in that refrigerator?

Because I know a lot of kids who grew up with that same sort

of uncertainty

when they brought their friends home from school

to their house and opened the refrigerator.

You know, kimchee, or cabbage, or fish sauce.

They were aware of it when they visited their friends.

And they were acutely uncomfortable with it

when their friends came over. Man, have things changed,

as far as attitudes,

pretty much the engine of the new American cuisine,

are kids with childhoods like yours.

I don't mean what's hip, what's the next new thing.

I mean, literally redefining what is American cuisine.

Let's put it this way.

The central irony of this story is that, you know,

your mom would have been, like, hipster hero.

Still another American invasion

in the Pacific. The objective is Okinawa,

one of the ring of island fortresses protecting Japan

300 miles away.

On April 1st, 1945,

a U.S. invasion fleet of nearly 1,500 ships,

a landing force of 182,000 people,

that's 75,000 more than Normandy, approached Okinawa.

What came next was what Okinawans called

a typhoon of steel.

Having island hopped across the Pacific,

Allied forces saw Okinawa as a key base for fleet anchorage,

troop staging and air operations for the final push

into the Japanese mainland and victory.

The fighting was brutal for both sides.

The cost in lives and resources for the Allied forces

was tremendous. And when it was over,

military planners looked at the mainland,

looked at what Okinawa had cost them,

and projected even more appalling losses.

What came next, we all know.

What is not widely known is that more people died

during the Battle of Okinawa than all those killed

during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Right. -So they had to

keep the U.S. military forces as long as possible

in Okinawa, so that they could prepare defense

to protect mainland Japan.

So ever since the Battle of Okinawa,

Okinawan people say we were sort of...

What do you call it? -Sacrifice?

Yes. Uh-huh.

Masahide Ota is a former governor of Okinawa.

In 1945, he was a young conscript

in the Japanese imperial army.

He fought hard and bravely against the Allies

until he saw Japanese soldiers murdering Okinawans

for food and water, and his faith melted away.

Getowan is a private home turned restaurant

serving very traditional Okinawan dishes.

In honor of their outspoken former governor,

the restaurant has prepared a dish typically served

to royals and VIPs in what was one the Ryukyu Kingdom.

It's called tundabun, after the lacquered dish

the multi bite-sized portions are presented in.

Let's eat.

Very good.

There's some squid,

swordfish wrapped in seaweed and simmered in stock

and fermented sake.

Dried sea snake wrapped in kombu and slow simmered.

Burdock root wrapped in pork loin and slow cooked

in tatsuo stock.

Okinawan taro, flash-fried,

then dressed with sugar and soy.

And pork shoulder dredged in black sesame then steamed.

You have described that, uh,

you were shocked and surprised to see the Japanese soldiers,

their treatment of Okinawans was not good during the battle.

And if you use the Okinawan language,

you will be killed as a spy, you know?

Right. -But Okinawan people

could not understand standard language.

So when Japanese soldiers killed lots of local people...

Particularly given the experience of the war,

how Japanese do you think most people feel here?

There's a fundamental difference between

Japanese culture and Okinawan culture.

Japanese culture is war culture,

but Okinawan culture is absence of militarism.

Okinawan people are happy-go-lucky people.

Do you think that easygoing...

that reputation, that tradition of being happy-go-lucky,

do you think this has led

to Okinawans being taken advantage of?

I mean, for instance, the U.S. military bases.

Okinawa is one percent of the landmass of Japan,

and yet what percentage of the military bases

are here on Okinawa? Almost all of them.

Okinawa seems to be asked to make a lot of sacrifices,

uh, for the mainland. Will that ever step?

You are talking about NIMBY.

"Not in my backyard." -Yes, yes.

For a place with as bloody a history,

Okinawa is today noticeably more laid back

than the mainland, but that does not mean

everybody's forgotten their warrior traditions.

When the feudal Satsuma empire from the mainland

invaded Okinawa in 1609, they banned the carrying,

manufacture or use of weapons of any kind.

The ban was later reinforced in 1879

when Japan formally annexed the island.

It's believed these prohibitions

led directly to the development of a new style of martial art,

undisputedly born in Okinawa,

karate, or empty hands technique.

♪

And its even more vicious cousin, kobudo,

a form that uses farm and fishing tools

to lethal effect.

Hard and soft. Balance.

For everything soft, there must be something hard.

Goju-ryu is one of the main traditional styles of karate,

featuring a combination of hard and soft techniques.

"Go" means hard linear attacks.

Closed hand strikes and kicks.

"Ju" means soft, open hand, circular,

blocking, sweeping, and takedown moves.

Sensei Tesuhiro Hokama is a legendary master of goju-ryu.

People come from all over the world to study at his dojo.

And the training they get is hardcore.

I've been invited to watch Hokama Sensei's

students warm up.

Let me repeat: this is only the warm-up.

That does not look like fun.

The exercises are designed

to repeatedly punish your hands and feet,

building up stronger, larger,

more protective deposits around the bones,

basically weaponizing even your weakest

and smallest extremities, and it hurts even to watch.

Ooh.

This is bad.

James Pankovich, Brit and black belt

in shorin-ryu karate, moved to Okinawa in 2009

to study budo, or the way of martial arts.

He acts as translator for most of the karate sensei

on the island.

Earlier I met James and Hokama Sensei

at Makishi Public Market, in Okinawa's largest city, Naha.

That's the tasty one. We'll take that one.

What are these? -These are puffer fish.

So we got some deep-fried fish for us.

Gurukun, the unofficial national fish

of Okinawa, and porcupine fish, both battered and deep-fried.

They're gonna do sashimi.

Okinawans eat just about

any kind of fish sashimi style.

For us, snapper and parrotfish.

And lobster. -'Cause one must,

served raw and still twitching in the shell.

We're gonna get some sea grapes as well.

Good, good, that's super traditional.

Sea grapes, the classic regional side dish

dressed in rice vinegar.

What you buy downstairs from vendors, for a small fee,

restaurants will cook it for you upstairs.

Wow.

Wow.

So, Okinawa's most famous export, perhaps, is karate.

Uh-huh. -When most of us think

of karate, we think of striking. Exclusively.

Is that an accurate representation

of what you're doing? -The basis of Okinawan karate

is that it was used primarily as a defensive art.

In other words, being able to, you know,

control and subdue the opponent.

Usually if you could, in a humane way,

but then if you had to finish them,

then you had the ability to finish them.

The striking is important,

but a lot of the technique is not about striking.

It's about submission techniques.

Some of that is to do with kyushu, attacking nervepoints.

And Hokama Sensei, in particular,

is extremely skilled at dealing with, you know,

bigger, stronger opponents. -Human engineering.

Very important.

Point, point, point, point, point,

Point, point, point, point,

then this point.

No... No... open.

The demonstration of Hokama Sensei's open-hand

kyushu technique becomes a little too real for my taste.

Awful.

Human engineering with a terrifying logic,

one attacks the weak point.

All I know how to do in this situation, by the way,

is pull guard and look for something to choke or lock.

Nope. Apparently, they don't know

what tapping out means here. I was tapping

like Western goddamn Union.

I thought he was going to push that 71-year-old finger

right into my brain pan.

There was a saying in the old days if there was a fight

happening somewhere in town, people would go have a look

and they'd say, are they fighting

with fists or open hands? If they're fighting with fists,

they'd say, don't bother, it's an amateur fight.

If they were fighting with open hands,

they knew they were masters.

On the eastern coast of Okinawa

Yanks enter the village of Kin.

The U.S. military came ashore in 1945,

and to Okinawans, it must seem like they never left.

Today, there are roughly 30,000 troops stationed on the island.

Put that many Americans in a place, especially young,

mostly male Americans, many of them homesick,

and it tends to change the environment.

♪

Kintown, just outside of Naha, right by Camp Hansen,

one of the larger bases.

Yanks have fought inch by inch

to conquer this island.

Kin is a small slice of Americana.

Both the mainstream American and its dark underbelly.

The Okinawans have made the kind of adjustments

that people do when saddled with neighbors

like thousands of Marines, and sometime in the '80s,

adjusted food as we knew it to this,

a mutant classic: taco rice.

Taco and rice. That's taco rice.

Wow. -It's big.

Is this chili sauce or ketchup?

It's original taco. -Oh, it's taco sauce.

Taco rice sauce. It's a bit spicy.

Oh, good. -But not super spicy.

Vivian Takushi has lived in both the U.S.

and Okinawa, and her aunt, Sumiko,

an entertainer who began singing in American bases

after the war.

Wow, that's good.

There are dueling claims as to how taco rice

might have morphed into existence,

but Saluri Shima Bakudo is certain.

In the 1980s American servicemen introduced

the standard taco to Okinawans,

and her grandfather, Matsuzo Gibo,

decided to tweak them,

dumping the fillings straight onto rice

for the late-night crowd of Marines

coming back from the bars.

This unholy, greasy, starchy,

probably really unhealthy delight,

a booze mop turned classic, caught on big-time,

for both Americans missing home and locals.

So I consider myself a pretty pro-military guy,

but why are the Marines here?

I like marines, but, you know, I'm not Robert McNamara.

But it seems to me, if you go to war with China,

sending in the Marines is probably not

what you're gonna be doing.

People of your generation,

what do you think the attitude is

towards the military bases?

As long as we're not living near the base,

it doesn't affect us that much.

Near the base, it makes a difference.

Right. I mean, near...

It... you know right away.

Tattoo parlors, strip clubs, vape shops.

And also, you know, it's very loud. That's a big issue.

Tourism is probably the future of Okinawa. Yes?

I mean, beautiful weather. Beaches.

If the bases leave, it's going to be big hotels and resorts

and golf courses. Which is worse?

Chinese tourists or American Marines?

I'll stick with the Marines. -

Semper fi.

Not everybody here agrees with Vivian,

by a long shot. Okinawans may be easygoing and laid back,

but the island is also a relative hot bed

of political activism, largely inspired or provoked

by what Okinawans see as high-handed treatment

from a central government with different cultural

and historical traditions, who don't consider

their needs or priorities.

Their hugely disproportionate shouldering

of the U.S. military presence for the entire country.

Currently there are close to 30 military installations

on Okinawa, and even though it's one of the smallest

Japanese prefectures in terms of livable area,

they accommodate more than half

of the foreign military presence.

Even more problematic, much of Okinawa's arable land

suitable for farming on an island whose whole

traditional identity was built around farming

is eaten up by military bases.

The military base issue, is this more important

for older people or younger people?

- It's for older people. - It's for the older people.

Yes. So when you actually go to a place where they have, like,

a protest going on, I will say over 80 percent of the people

- are all retired persons. - Why do you think that is?

This is only my opinion, but Japanese imperial army

did a lot of brutal stuff on this island

and war never ended for some people.

And the feelings that they got suppressed,

all of a sudden, after they retired,

they kind of burst and they wanted to kind of...

Act out. -Act out.

This is Keji Yota,

he's an Okinawan farmer,

and this is Nishimachi,

a small noodle shop that bears only the owner's name

and serves only Okinawan-style soba.

Pork belly or ribs is the meat.

The broth a mix of fish, chicken, pork,

and vegetable stocks.

Okinawan soba differs greatly

from what we know from the mainland.

They use wheat noodles instead of buckwheat,

a nod perhaps to the spaghetti eating Marines they lived with

all these years.

Garnishes are spring onion, fish cake

and slices of omelet. Add your pickled ginger,

and togarashi hot sauce, and hoo-rah.

It seems the anti-base sentiment also coincides

with an anti-central government sentiment.

You do bear a hugely disproportionate

burden of bases. Isn't some activism called for here?

I think the young generation should decide what to do

for our future instead of the old people just fighting

for their beliefs.

To me, I really feel a strong need to forgive.

Mm-hm. -And then forget.

Long before the war, the Americans arrived.

Long before the Satsuma invaded from the mainland,

Okinawa was a kingdom. The Ryukyu Kingdom.

A prosperous and peaceful island chain

with no standing army.

They were farmers, traders, and necessarily diplomats

whose eyes, more often than not, looked west to China

rather than to the more isolated mainland.

While Japan as it existed then was isolationist,

racially and ethnically, culturally,

and in every other way, the Ryukyu Kingdom was not.

They were more open, more multicultural,

more used to and predisposed to dealing with the outside world

and its influences.

Today, just a short ferry ride from the main island,

a sense, a feeling of that long-gone empire remains.

Kumejima is a small island that has been largely untouched

by the changes in the world.

People farm and fish as they always did.

The war never came here? -No.

This is Bunshiro Nagame and Yohina Tomohiro,

Kumejima residents and friends of James.

They suffered very little damage in the war.

And no military bases. No American presence.

Up until '72, there was an American base.

There was. -

But then in '72, the base was taken away.

Now nothing. -

Only the Japanese self-defense forces now.

What do people do here? Agriculture?

Growing sugarcane. -I saw.

Tourism. Fishing. -Fishing.

Have there been attempts to develop here and have the locals

been able to resist that impulse?

He's saying in Kumejima, they have rich lives.

They have everything they need. They have produce from the land,

the sea. They don't need much else.

I've been invited to a beach barbecue,

Kumejima style.

Go big, or go home.

To eat some fresh caught tuna that comes straight

from the market to be butchered into sashimi.

Also caught this morning, some sea snails for the grill,

and mozuku, seaweed which can be cooked,

but today is enjoyed raw.

And local prawns eaten either raw or grilled, or both.

That looks awesome. Off with the head?

There's more. Local beef grilled

and then tossed with moyashi, seasoned bean sprouts.

We will need our energy, it appears.

Takumi is as old school a martial art as it gets.

No ring, no octagon. The rules are simple.

Known as Okinawan sumo...

Ohh!

...it looks easy. It's not.

Your hands are wrapped in your opponent's belt.

Object is to get him onto his back,

both shoulders, before he does it to you.

Nice.

You land on your back for even a second,

you lose.

There, he got him. Yeah. Awesome.

Would you like to try? -

- Try. -Yeah, sure.

♪

♪

In the end, it's a less than smoothly executed

judo move, kosoto-gake, I believe,

that brings my opponent to the ground.

♪

Thank you for going easy on me.

Awesome.

So I've given up many vices in my life.

Many shameful, filthy, guilty pleasures

that I used to like that I will...

that I just don't do anymore.

Uh, cocaine, heroin, prostitutes,

the musical stylings of Steven Tyler.

I put aside these childish things, as it were.

In favor of a newer, more mature me.

But there is one shameful secret.

One thing I just can't give up.

One thing I keep coming back to every time I come back to Japan.

One thing that still has an unholy grip on me.

For no reason that I can gather.

It's the convenience store formerly of mere Akron, Ohio,

that mutated into a massive Japanese chain.

Behold the wonder that is Lawson.

What is it exactly about this place?

It's got its tentacles so deep into my heart and my soul.

♪

Where are you? I know you're around here somewhere.

Pillows of love.

Egg salad from Lawson.

Need a beverage.

♪

In Naha, you would be advised to avoid

International Avenue unless you're homesick

for fellow Americans.

Head down the side streets, shuttered storefronts

give way to packed izakayas.

A few beers, and somebody breaks out a shamisen,

and the good times begin.

People go out here. And after pounding your fists

and feet into hardened meat hooks

and shitting out bone chips, you can drop by Dojo Bar,

James' refuge where some of the island's most esteemed masters

and their students come for what's recognized

internationally as a cure

for all martial-arts related ailments: alcohol.

Would you like a drink? -I think I would like a beer

and maybe a shot of something.

I do have a little shot of something.

That's a big snake.

The sake is like the spirit of Okinawa.

Is this sake or whiskey? -This is sake.

This is Okinawa sake,

so like mainland Japanese sake

but then they distill it like whiskey.

So it becomes stronger and with a little age.

It's been in here with the snake maybe three years.

So all of the essence of the snake has gone into the alcohol.

♪

There seems to be a conflict of interest here.

You train karate very seriously.

Yeah. -Um, I mean,

should you people be drinking? This is what I'm asking.

Where is the point of diminishing returns?

There are many teachers who don't drink,

but Awamori is intrinsic to the Okinawan culture.

Right. -Most enjoy Awamori

as part of their lifestyle, in the same way karate

is part of our lifestyle.

They're saying, please eat. Less talking, more eating.

Sashimi of, well, let's just say

it's an animal you like.

This is horse meat. -Horse? All right.

Thank you. Good.

Good. And this? -Neigh.

Goat.

Oh, that's good.

Pure protein for people who need it and pork belly,

some pickled pigs ears, and baked yam.

I watch a lot of mixed martial arts.

I watch a lot of jujitsu. My daughter trains.

Mostly jujitsu, but some standup.

Some of the most exciting fighters that I've seen lately

who really show the most heart are women.

Is there... is there a future for women in karate?

Yeah, yeah.

He has a female student here tonight.

This is Yaya.

Tony is asking what's the future for women in traditional karate?

When I first started karate, I didn't know this world,

and now I'm learning karate,

as the performance and also life.

Everything is all about love.

And karate is showing you if you have this kind of power

and the ability to perfect yourself,

your family, you can be really kind.

That's about Okinawa.

Okinawa people, I think, always have this love to everybody.