Born Again Uchinanchu:
Celebrating Hawai‘i’s Chibariyo! Story
Publication date: March 2025
Pages: 352 pages
Net proceeds will be donated to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Center for Okinawan Studies
For more information, contact Edward Kuba kubaedward@gmail.com
Limited Number of Copies Available!
CHAPTERS
- Foreword by former Governor John D. Waihe‘e, III
- Prologue: The Dawning of An Okinawan
- Chapter 1 Going Home
- Chapter 2 Planting New Seeds in Hawai‘i
- Chapter 3 Okinawan Festival … Sharing Uchinanchu Aloha
- Chapter 4 Home Sweet Home
- Chapter 5 Gifts of Chimugukuru
- Chapter 6 Maui’s Chibariyo! Story
- Chapter 7 Okage Sama De: The 1990 Okinawan Celebration
- Chapter 8 A Century of Okinawans in Hawai‘i
- Chapter 9 Generation Next: The Young Ambassadors
- Chapter 10 Living the Culture
- Afterword: Former Governor David Y. Ige
- Epilogue
- Endnotes
- Index
In 1980, thirty-seven Uchinanchu Sansei from Hawai‘i traveled to Okinawa at the invitation of the Village and Town Mayors Association and the Okinawa Prefectural Government. Although they knew that their grandparents had emigrated from Okinawa, most knew very little about their Okinawan heritage. That changed during their twelve-day trip. The warmth of Okinawa’s people touched them deeply and a homestay with their relatives brought them even
closer to their roots. As they walked the land where their grandparents had once walked, they began to feel a connection to Okinawa. Despite their initial apprehension about the homestay, a heart-to-heart bond formed with their Okinawa families and they became “born again Uchinanchu.”
were invited to Okinawa to learn about their ancestral homeland.
After twelve days in Okinawa, they returned to Hawai‘i
as “born again Uchinanchu.”
Back in Hawai‘i, they got involved in the Okinawan community and in their own sonjinkai, learning that through good times and bad, these clubs had been their extended family, all with ties to a common ancestral village. They got other young people involved — those of Okinawan ancestry and others who were Okinawan at heart. A few pioneered the community’s most visible projects — the Okinawan Festival and the building of the Hawaii Okinawa Center. Neighbor
island Okinawan clubs developed their own projects.
Born Again Uchinanchu revisits the important milestones and cultural movements that contributed to the Okinawan community’s phenomenal growth between 1980 and 2000. It encourages us to reflect on four cornerstone values that have guided the Uchinanchu community for over a century: yaaninju (family), yuimaaru (working together), ukaji deebiru (with deep gratitude) and chibariyo! (to persevere). They are the inspiration behind Born Again Uchinanchu: Celebrating Hawai‘i’s Chibariyo! Story.
The book was written by Karleen Chinen, retired editor of The Hawai‘i Herald, and is being published by Pacific Travelogue, Inc. As a writer and editor of the Herald — and a longtime volunteer in the Okinawan community — she was an eyewitness to many of the events detailed in Born Again Uchinanchu: Celebrating Hawai‘i’s Chibariyo! Story. Proceeds from the sales of the book will benefit the Center for Okinawan Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
path for the first Okinawan Issei to come to Hawai‘i.
FEATURED IN BORN AGAIN UCHINANCHU ARE THE MEMORIES AND VOICES OF . . .
Yeiko “Tony” Arakaki (Maui)
Karen Fuse
Stanley Gima (Maui)
Ellen Higa
Hanae (Gushiken) Higa
Mark Higa
Milton Higa
Isaac Hokama
Governor David Y. Ige
Dwight Ikehara
Grant Kagimoto
Eugene “Gene” Kaneshiro
Roy Kaneshiro
Stacy Kawamura
Ken Kiyabu
June Konno (Maui)
Darren Konno (Maui)
Barbara “Bobbi” Kuba
Edward Kuba
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka (Kaua‘i)
Gayle (Takamine) Lau
Geraldine “Gerri” Maeda
Gary Mijo
Bonnie Miyashiro
Chikako Murata-Sensei
Grant “Masanduu” Murata-Sensei
Maxine Nagamine
Dennis Nago
Frances Nakachi-Sensei
Cassie Nakagawa
Masaru Nakama
Ryan Nakamatsu-Sensei
Lisa Nakandakari-Sensei
Norman Nakasone
Ryler Nielsen
Kenton Odo-Sensei
Julia Okamura-Sensei
Keith Oshiro-Sensei
Mindy Oumi
Akira Sakima
Peter Sapasap
Cyrus Tamashiro
Louise Tamashiro
Drusilla Tanaka
John Tasato
Linda (Nakama) Tsutsui
Ben Tuitele
June Uyeunten-Sensei
Louis Wai
Governor John D. Waihe‘e, III
Lynne (Kobashigawa) Waihe‘e
Wesley Waniya
Wreyn Waniya
Marlene Yafuso (Hawai‘i Island)
Tom Yamamoto
Maurice Yamasato
Roy Yonahara (Maui)
and more …
Born Again Uchinanchu Steering Committee
Edward Kuba, Coordinator
Karleen Chinen, Masato Ishida, Bob Nakasone, Chris Pearce, Shiori Yamauchi Masuda and Harry Masuda (Yomitan, Okinawa), and John Tasato.