Lee Tonouchi

Why Okinawans Don’t Want
So Many U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa

His Secret Name

My Jiji’s name wuz Taketa Tonouchi.
Das da name my Grandma told me
Das da name he told all his friends in da cane fields.
Das da name everybody on Maui knew him by.

Thirty years aftah 
his death
I learn 
when looking through 
historical documents
that his name wuz actually 
Unta.
Sometimes 
spelled
Nta.

Both versions sound
waaay more Okinawan.

I wondah how he even got da name Taketa.

Did he give ʻem to himself
cuz Taketa sounds more Japanese?

Or did somebody give it to him?

Like how my Grandma’s name wuz Shizue
But her friend in da plantation camp
decided for give her da name Agnes.
So she grew up as Agnes, and nevah boddah her,
until aftah she retired.
Das when she revealed how much 
she hated
da name Agnes.

Did somebody randomly give Jiji da name Taketa?
But why one Japanese name and not one Haole name?

And how come Jiji nevah evah 
renounced 
his fake name?
Till da day he died
he let all of us great grand children believe
his name wuz really...
Taketa.

Lee A. Tonouchi stay da Hawai‘i State Poet Laureate. He one 100% Okinawan yonsei born and raise in Hawai‘i. His poetry collection Significant Moments in da Life of Oriental Faddah and Son: One Hawai'i Okinawan Journal won da Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. His latest book stay Chiburu: Anthology of Hawaiʻi Okinawan Literature. In Fall 2026, his community play Our Okinawan Ohana: Stories We Share from Hawai‘i’s Uchinaanchu Community going come out from Playbuilders of Hawai‘i.