Home Away From Home: How Okinawan-Americans with Okinawan Ancestry Built a Bridge with Their Home Country

Abstract

Are you curious where your ancestors came from? How do you define who you are? Okinawans in Hawai‘i have their own association, and have a strong sense of identity as “Uchinanchu (Okinawans in Okinawan).” Every year the Okinawan Festival is held in Honolulu, which draws attendees from neighboring Hawaiian Islands and even from Okinawa. For the first generation of Okinawans, their goal was to make a better life in Hawai‘i as immigrants. The second generation of Okinawans were American by law, yet they had relatives back in Okinawa. Among those who were assimilated to Hawai‘i, Okinawa remained as their home away from home. In my presentation, I would like to explain how I as an academic librarian became involved in the collaboration with a local Okinawan community’s genealogical society and a public library in Okinawa to streamline the process of accepting genealogy search requests and dividing the requests to best serve our patrons. My experience can be shared and modified by other ethnic groups to explore a collaboration among academic, public, and community services.