Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
@jonmitchell.bsky.social
1K followers 510 following 130 posts
Author, investigative journalist with Okinawa Times. "Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026). 沖縄タイムス特約通信員。米国環境ジャーナリスト協会 出版賞。石橋湛山記念 早稲田ジャーナリズム大賞。著書「『情報自由法』で社会を変える!」岩波書店, etc https://www.jonmitchellinjapan.com
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jonmitchell.bsky.social
Yesterday, my publisher @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social revealed the cover for my new book, "Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence." Feeling super honoured that artist, Yuken Teruya, designed an obi wrap for it. Release date set for February 2026!

www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-are-w...
Book cover featuring the text, Jon Mitchell - Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence and Bloomsbury. The off-white cover features a sky blue obi belt which includes a swallow, red hibiscus and two jet fighters.
jonmitchell.bsky.social
Yesterday, my publisher @bloomsburyacad.bsky.social revealed the cover for my new book, "Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence." Feeling super honoured that artist, Yuken Teruya, designed an obi wrap for it. Release date set for February 2026!

www.bloomsbury.com/us/why-are-w...
Book cover featuring the text, Jon Mitchell - Why are we in Okinawa? A History of Violence and Bloomsbury. The off-white cover features a sky blue obi belt which includes a swallow, red hibiscus and two jet fighters.
jonmitchell.bsky.social
Thanks for the recommendation - I hadn't heard of it so ordered it!
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
fijabyron.bsky.social
2/2

よそ3〜8世紀頃に分岐という学説が、世界では定説です。

It is the established view worldwide that Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages diverged from a parent language around the 3rd to 8th centuries.
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
fijabyron.bsky.social
1/2

うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)は方言ではなく「言語」やいびーん(です)!

Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) is not a dialect but a language!

うちなーぐちを含む琉球諸島の言葉「琉球諸語」は日本語の方言ではなく、日本語とは姉妹言語です。

The languages of the Ryukyu Islands, including Uchinaaguchi, are not dialects of Japanese but sister languages of Japanese.

日本語と琉球諸語は元は一つの「祖語」から、お

jonmitchell.bsky.social
Much-needed break from book editing = sunset run along Tokyo’s Tama River. (Finally sounds/smells of an end to summer’s heat).
Orange skies over Tamagawa, Tokyo. On the left, three apartment blocks (and Mt Fuji) then a long roaded bridge. The foreground reflects the above.
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
fijabyron.bsky.social
うちなーんちゅの皆様、もうすぐ御精霊(うそーろー。旧盆)やいびーん(です)。

心から手を合わせれば言葉は関係ないと思います。

しかし、うちなーぐち(おきなわ語)で仏壇などへ「我達(私達)家内(ちねー。家族)見守(みーまん)てぃ呉みそーち、御拝(にふぇー)でーびる」と言えると、もっと先祖の方々と繋がることができるかも知れません。

うちなーぐち習てぃ見(んー)じゃびらに(おきなわ語を学んで見ませんか)。
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
archive.org
The calm pace of our livestreamed microfiche scanning may not show the scope of the work, so here’s a time-lapse revealing how many pages we can digitize in just one hour.

📡 Watch the real-time stream ⤵️
www.youtube.com/live/aPg2V5R...

#Preservation #Digitization #InternetArchive
jonmitchell.bsky.social
The Memorial to Fallen Journalists (戦没新聞人の碑) in Naha.
Around the anniversary of WW2’s end, Okinawan media workers gather here to pledge not to glorify militarism or romanticize state violence.

「戦争のために二度とペンは取らない」
A teardrop shaped stone memorial in an Okinawan park engraved with the names of journalists who died in the Battle of Okinawa.
jonmitchell.bsky.social
Surfers beneath the flight path to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
martinfackler.bsky.social
Here's one of the first: the February 1975 press conference given by Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese army lieutenant who hid in the jungles of the Philippines for thirty years without knowing World War II was over.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2U...
FCCJ & A+E Networks Collaboration: 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda (2/171975) - English Subtitles
YouTube video by 日本外国特派員協会 オフィシャルサイトFCCJchannel
m.youtube.com
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
martinfackler.bsky.social
The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan is working with the History Channel to make available recordings of historic press conferences from the Club's archive.
FCCJ & A+E Networks Collaboration: 2nd Lt. Hiroo Onoda (2/171975) - English Subtitles
YouTube video by 日本外国特派員協会 オフィシャルサイトFCCJchannel
m.youtube.com
jonmitchell.bsky.social
Super stoked to be featured in this forthcoming documentary, Unai, about PFAS contamination in Okinawa and around the world.

It will debut in cinemas in Naha on 26 July then in Tokyo from 16 August. Hopefully an international release in the near future, too.

#ウナイ 

unai-pfas.jp
映画『ウナイ 透明な闇 PFAS汚染に立ち向かう』公式サイト
水が、あぶない―― PFAS汚染に立ち向かう女性たちによる未来のための物語
unai-pfas.jp
Reposted by Jon Mitchell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ジョン・ミッチェル
islandsocialist.bsky.social
"The Pacific is not empty. The Pacific is not paradise. The Pacific is not a wasteland. The Pacific is not already postcolonial. The Pacific is not dependent. The Pacific is not the tip of someone else’s spear. The Pacific is not someone else’s borderland."

-Sasha Davis
jonmitchell.bsky.social
After giving a two-hour lecture at Waseda Uni about investigative journalism, the only thing to recharge my batteries was a bowl of spicy vegan tantan noodles from the legendary Sora no Iro. Highly recommended!
A red porcelain bowl filled with vegan tantan noodles topped with moyashi, chingensai and soy mince.
jonmitchell.bsky.social
On and off the bases, US military violence is rampant. And because 70% bases are concentrated in Okinawa, the violence is concentrated there, too.
jonmitchell.bsky.social
Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the (official) end of the Battle of Okinawa - and here is today's news: "US marine jailed for seven years for sexual assault in Japan (Okinawa)."
It's no mystery why Okinawans want the bases moved off their islands.
bbc.com/news/article...
US marine jailed for seven years for sexual assault in Japan
Jamel Clayton was given seven years, with a judge describing the physical attack as "vicious".
bbc.com
jonmitchell.bsky.social
On the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, @okinawatimes.co.jp has started publishing the names of 242, 567 victims; they'll continue printing them from today until 22 June, the day the Japanese Army commanders killed themselves. (But the official Japanese surrender was not until September).