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DRAMATURGY NOTES

About the Playwright and the Play

Chinen Seishin (1941-2013) is a playwright and director from Okinawa.

Born in Koza, now Okinawa City, Chinen graduated from Koza High School and went on to Nishōgakusha University in Tokyo to further his education. However, he withdrew before graduating to return to his native Okinawa and join the Creation Theater Troupe. His most important plays include The Human Pavilion (1976), The Lower Depths: Koza Version (1986), Waiting for Godot: Koza Version (1988), and The Phantom of the X-survey Corps (1997).

The Human Pavilion premiered in 1976 in Okinawa City, during the politically charged post-Reversion period. Between 1945-1972, Okinawa was under U.S. Occupation. In 1972, its administrative control reverted back to Japan. The Human Pavilion first appeared in print in the magazine New Okinawa Literature, No. 33 in 1976. It won the Kishida Prize for Drama in 1978. The play’s English translation by Robert T. Tierney appeared in Steve Rabson and Davinder Bhowmik’s Islands of Protest: Japanese Literature from Okinawa (2016), University of Hawai’i Press, pp. 231-292.

Chinen’s The Human Pavilion is very much a time- and site-specific play, reflecting Okinawa and Koza of the 1960-1970s. It is a play that deals with trauma and grief. What matters, though, is how it addresses them: it relies on comedy, farce, satire, and a thoughtful engagement with the absurd – the only thing that explodes in the play is actually a sweet potato.

However, I was struck recently by the poem of a 17-year-old high-school student from Okinawa, named Chinen Masaru (no relation to the playwright to my knowledge). Unable to shake off the sound of American fighter jets crisscrossing the skies of Okinawa, literally shaking the neighborhoods they fly over, he asks the question “Do we have peace now?” on the day commemorating the 70

th anniversary since the Battle of Okinawa.

November 22, 2021

Maggie Ivanova

The Human Pavilion By Chinen Seishin

English Translation by Robert T. Tierney

Directed by Maggie Ivanova

The Late Night Theatre Company

Department of Theatre + Dance

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Streams on Demand 11/26-12/5, 2021

The Legacy of the Battle of Okinawa (April 1 – June 22, 1945)

By far, the Battle of Okinawa was the bloodiest of the Pacific War. The loss of human life was stagger-ing on all sides, but particularly among the civilian population. His-torical sources estimate that be-tween 100,000-150,000 civilians lost their lives, exceeding the num-ber of casualties among both the American and Japanese military personnel combined.

Particularly appalling is the fact that the Japanese military used local children to support the war effort: the Himeyuri Student Corps (high school girls) and Blood and Iron Student Corps (high school boys) are a case in point. More than half of the two thousand students mobi-lized lost their lives.

Himeyuri-no-to Monument

Photo: ©Okinawa Convention＆Visitors Bureau

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What we hear in Chinen Masaru question “Do we

have peace now?” are two resonant echoes. The

first reverberates with King Sho Tai’s words of wis-

dom “Nuchi du takara” – “Life is precious,” spoken

on the occasion of his kingdom’s formal loss of sov-

ereignty and integration into the Japanese state. As

the last Ryūkyū monarch, the King expressed con-

cern first and foremost for his people. The second

reminds us of Queen Lili‘uokalani, Hawai‘i’s last sov-

ereign monarch: as she signed her letter of abdica-

tion under severe coercion, her primary motivation

The Base Issue

Another very important context shapes the play and the creative team’s pro-cess: though the United Nations does, the Japanese government does not recognize the inhabitants of Okinawa as Indigenous. This becomes particu-larly important when one considers land ownership, the Base Issue, blocked access to sacred ancestral sites, and land reclamation. The small archipela-go -- approx. 1,44 million people and comparable to the population of Ha-wai‘i -- “hosts” 31 American military bases and more than 70% of the Ameri-can military personnel stationed in Japan and their dependents.

Koza Riot of Dec 1970. [US] Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands Report for the Period 1 July 1970-30 June 1971, RCS CSCAMG-5, Vol. XIX, 1971. Photo: George

Contrary to expectations, the bases’ contribution to the local economy is not

particularly strong: approximately 5% (2013 data), compared to more than

30% in the 1960s (1965 data). According to the Okinawa Prefectural Gov-

ernment, between 1972-2015 almost 680 aircraft-related accidents occurred

in Okinawa. Live ammunition exercises were accountable for forest fires that

obliterated almost 3,800 hectares of vegetation. And toxic substances on for-

mer military bases continue to act as serious pollutants on returned land.

The military bases are also one of the contributing factors to rapid loss of bi-

odiversity -- Hawai‘i can certainly relate to this problem as well! A case in

point is the decision to move the notorious MCAS Futenma. Currently situat-

ed in the densely populated Ginowan and responsible for the crash of a CH-

53 transport helicopter on the campus of the Okinawa International Universi-

ty, Futenma is being moved to Henoko and Oura bays in northern Okinawa,

where endemic species, like the rare Okinawa Manatee (dugong), must die

out to make room for the new Henoko-Oura military base.

MCAS Futenma is situated at the very heart of residential Ginowan, home to some 95,000 inhabitants.

Photo credit: ©Okinawa Convention＆Visitors Bureau.

Particularly disturbing for the local residents is the crime rate involving Amer-

ican military personnel: the local government has documented almost 5,900

criminal offences of this kind since 1972, 574 of which are deemed heinous

crimes.

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The Japanese translates into a word play on the V-22 Osprey: Osprey, miss-play, crash-play (game). The Osprey is a U.S. Marine Corps tiltrotor aircraft with both vertical take-off and landing. It is also known to have a high malfunction rate leading to crashes. The Osprey is stationed at bases throughout Okinawa. Photo credit: CPH IVAW - Okinawa Solidarity - Ash Kyrie. CC BY 2.0 license.

Okinawa and Hawai’i: Cross-Pacific Resonances

Hawaii and Okinawa share considerable commonalities in their Asia-Pacific

identities. For various reasons, including colonial practices of settlement and

resettlement, both are now examples of what people in Okinawa call chan-

purū culture – “something mixed,” a living culture made of layers of traditional

Okinawa culture, Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian, and American. The

latter is just the Okinawan mix. Hawaii’s is even more diverse. Both island

communities have struggled with educational policies and practices that are

geared towards assimilation. This is one of the reasons why issues surround-

ing the use of Indigenous languages, local dialects, and national languages

continue to hold relevance in both Hawai‘i and Okinawa.

In light of the American military presence in Okinawa, the resonances with

Hawaii’s experiences would be perhaps self-evident for local audiences; they

include issues pertaining to environmental pollutants, limited access to sa-

cred sites, and stewardship of ancestral lands. The fate of O‘ahu’s Mākua

Valley as a former live-fire training ground for the U.S. military comes readily

to mind. The cost of the 65-year lease which the State of Hawaii granted to

the U.S. Army in 1964? $1. Home to 121 cultural heritage sites, Mākua Val-

ley is a prime example of the importance of cultural access for communal

healing and regeneration.

We are reminded in this context also of recent reports that Joint Base Pearl

Harbor-Hickam alone released 540,000 lb of nitrate compounds (present in

explosives) in the Pacific Ocean in 2019. Also, the frequent fuel leaks from

the 75-year-old Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility have been posing serious

concerns for public health and communal sustainability as they are tied di-

rectly to the health of groundwater aquifers and the environment. And the is-

sue extends to other field-constructed tanks, like those at Kūāhua Peninsula,

Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, and Hickam Pol Annex.

The Human Pavilion, rehearsal photos. Asian Dance Studio and Earle Ernst Lab, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Left image: Mandy Sugihara (left), Clarissa de Smet (center), and Seiya Sawada (right). Right image: Clarissa de Smet (Woman). Photo credit: Maggie Ivanova and Allan Zablocki.

Asadoya Yunta: Colonizing and Decolonizing a Song

Originally a folk song from Taketomi Island (Yaeyama District) in the south-

ern part of the Ryūkyū Archipelago, Asadoya yunta developed into one of

those polyvalent cultural artefacts which came to represent traditional Okina-

wan music, Japanese popular music from the 1930s, a 1944 war song, and,

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in our Hawaiian context, the song for a obon dance, a favorite among the

participants in the Kaua‘i Okinawan Festival. The last is clearly associated

with the Okinawan immigration to Hawai’i, which marked its 120th anniver-

sary in 2020.

In the lyrics of the original version, Asadoya nu Kuyama (1722-1799) rejects

the advances of a government official. Since she is a young and beautiful

peasant woman and he a man from Shuri Castle who’s unaccustomed to

rejection, the song eventually acquired various allegorical meanings – a re-

bellion of sorts against government oppression and, later, a lament for the

Ryūkyūs’ loss of agency and self-determination.

In 1934, however, Nippon Columbia had Hoshi Katsu compose new lyrics

to the song in standard Japanese, while Miyara Chōhō re-arranged the mu-

sic. The new modern version, often called Shin Asadoya Yunta, contains

four rather than thirty-two verses which are accompanied by piano and vio-

lin, rather than sanshin and taiko. It was released to a national audience

and quickly gained popularity all over Japan as a love song.

Audience members with discerning ears would hear a fragment from

Asadoya yunta played on sanshin in the first part of The Human Pavilion.

Shortly after that, we hear another fragment played on shamisen. At the

same time, in a visual layer, the Woman on Display (Clarissa de Smet) per-

forms for us a section of the obon dance popular on Kaua‘i. We’ve been for-

tunate that Mandy Sugihara, our videographer and editor, who comes from

Kaua‘i, learned the dance from her mother and community members and

was able to teach it to us.

These intersecting audio and visual layers allow us to create subtle reso-

nances between Okinawan diasporic communities in Kansai (in Chinen’s

play) and living Okinawa traditions in Hawai’i. Through its cast of three – the

Trainer, Woman on Display, and Man on Display – The Human Pavilion ex-

plores multiple, superimposing, and interweaving timelines and locations.

Asadoya yunta, as well as the rich photographic imagery we integrated in

the projection design, make it possible for us to take this exploration a step

further, extending it to cross-Pacific Okinawa identities.

Further Media Resources:

George Lane, “Ryukyuans During the American Occupation 1945 -1975,”

170 photos. Flickr URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/

albums/72157662974068509

George Lane, “Ryukyu Islands 1967-1972,” 109 photos. Flickr URL: https://

www.flickr.com/photos/ssave/albums/72157660532150833

“Historical Documents,” Be.Okinawa. Okinawa Story Media Library Media

Library, Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau. URL: https://

medialibrary.okinawastory.jp/site/welcome.me

The Late Night Theatre Company

Department of Theatre + Dance

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

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The Human Pavilion, a short break from recording in Earle Ernst Lab, Clarissa De Smet (left) and Mandy Sugihara (right). Photo credit: Maggie Ivanova