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 anthony: 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.
anthony: 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 anthony: 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
japanese culture and okinawan culture. japanese culture is warrior culture. but okinawan culture is absence of militarism. okinawan people are happy-go-lucky people. anthony: do you think that easy going, um, that reputation, that tradition of, uh, being happy-go-lucky. do you think that this has led to okinawans being taken advantage of? i mean, for instance, uh, the u.s. military bases. okinawa is 1% 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 stop? masahide: you are talking about nimby. anthony: not in my backyard? masahide: yes, yes. don t look down
anthony: 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 chukamen noodles and sauce, soy, mirin, brown sugar, vinegar, and a bit of sake. topped with seaweed powder, some pickled ginger garnish, and eat. now. oh, he looks aggressive. oh yeah. kenny: oh, he s ready to go. this guy i think is gonna win this one. anthony: all right, well, we haven t seen his opponent. oh yeah. my money s on him. el aggressor.
keep the u.s. military forces as long as possible in okinawa. so that they could prepare defense to protect mainland japan, you know? so, ever since that battle of okinawa. okinawan people say we were sort of, uh, what do you call it? anthony: sacrificed? masahide: yes, mm-hmm. anthony: 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. gettouan 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 v.i.ps in what was once the ryukyu kingdom.