Ryukyuan Americans are

Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ame ...

who are fully or partially of Ryukyuan descent. The vast majority of them trace their family history to the

Okinawa Islands The Okinawa Islands ( or ) are an island group in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan and are the principal island group of the prefecture. The Okinawa Islands are part of the larger Ryukyu Islands group and are located between the Amami Islands of Ka ...

History

Immigration

The first Ryukyuans to migrate to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

were 26 Okinawan contract laborers led by Kyuzo Toyama. They arrived at the

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...

on January 8, 1900, in order to work on the sugar plantations there. In the following years, more Ryukyuans (mainly Okinawans) started to settle in Hawaii. Some of them would end up migrating to the continental U.S., with higher concentrations of them living on the West Coast.

Culture

Identity

A lot of Ryukyuan Americans view themselves to be distinct from the Japanese. This is especially true in Hawaii, where there are numerous Okinawan organizations, the largest one being the

Hawaii United Okinawa Association The Hawaii United Okinawa Association (HUOA, ja, ハワイ沖縄連合会, ''Hawai Okinawa Rengō-kai'') is a cultural organization for the Okinawan community of Hawaii. History The HUOA was founded in 1951 under the name “United Okinawan A ...

Language

The vast majority of Ryukyuan Americans speak

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

as a first language. There are also some who can speak one of the many

Ryukyuan languages The , also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. ...

, with the most common one being Okinawan. In Hawaii, many Okinawan locals speak an English-based

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

known as

Hawaiian Pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (alternately, Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE, known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a se ...

Notable Ryukyuan Americans

Politician

* Denny Tamaki

Singer

Olivia Lufkin Olivia Lufkin (born December 9, 1979), professionally known as Olivia, is a Japanese-American bilingual singer and songwriter.

References

{{Asian Americans Ryukyuan people Japanese people American people of Japanese descent American people of Okinawan descent Asian-American society