380 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1947 



Kyukyus do not exist. Although many Americans have observed 

 the war's effect upon the Ryukyuans and their culture, no one has 

 published a full account. In the following summary, therefore, we 

 have had to do our best with the information at hand.^ 



THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT 



The Ryukyu islands form a curving chain extending 775 miles 

 southwest from southern Japan to within sight of Formosa off the 

 China coast. Consequently cultural influences and political pressures 

 from China and Japan have bulked large in the Ryukyus' destiny. 

 The Ryukyuan chain consists of 11 island groups and numerous scat- 

 tered islets totaling a land area smaller than Delaware, larger than 

 Rhode Island, but housing almost as many people as the two States 

 together. Geologically the islands are the tops of three submerged 

 mountain chains closely ranged together as if they were the strands 

 of a necklace. 



Ryukyu waters are warmed by the Japanese current, intensifying the 

 heat of the southern monsoonal winds in the summer and ameliorating 

 the cold of the northern monsoons in the winter. In this way seasonal 

 climatic variation is less in the south than in the northern part of the 

 chain. Rainfall is sufficiently heavy to stimulate lush natural vegeta- 

 tion on most of the islands, but the scarcity of natural reservoirs and 

 the great depth of the ground-water table render the water supply a 

 major problem on most of the islands. In addition, typhoons are 

 frequent between May and October. Ryukyu homes and other build- 

 ings are built with the destructive forces of these storms in mind, but 

 great property damage still results. Since typhoons usually strike 

 in the growing season, crops are often destroyed. 



The islands themselves have such varied terrains that they defy 

 description as a group. Except for some of the low-lying islets, few 

 have much flat land. Some have narrow coastal plains of clayey loam 

 or sandy soil, overlying limestone deposits. These soils are rather 

 fertile, but low-lying strips near the shore are frequently ruined for 

 agriculture by tidal waves. Most shore lines show signs of submer- 

 gence and the larger islands have bays suitable for anchorage. Where 

 the coral reefs have not provided protection along the slowly sinking 

 coasts, the sea has attacked the shore and cut cliffs and headlands. 



^ The best source material is in the Navy Department's Civil Affairs Handbook — Ryukyu 

 (Loochoo) Islands. It vs^as compiled before the invasion by a Navy Research Group at 

 Yale University headed by Prof. George P. Murdock. Yale's Cross-Cultural Survey was 

 the major source of information, but data provided by various Federal intelligence agencies 

 were also used. We have leaned very heavily upon the Civil Affairs Handbook and the 

 Cross-Cultural Survey, and are especially indebted to Professor Murdock for the large part 

 he played in both of them. 



We wish to thank Professor Murdock for his cogent criticisms of the manuscript, and 

 Dr. Gordon R. Willey for helpful suggestions on organization. We are grateful to the 

 U. S. Navy, J. Allen Chase, Dr. Leon Lewis, and Dr. A. C. P. Bakes for the use of their 

 photographs. 



