Kodokai

• Japanese: 公動会 (Koudoukai)
• Founded: 1896
• Dissolved: ?

The Kôdôkai, or "Society for Public Unity", was an organization formed in 1896 by former Ryukyuan prince Shô En and a number of others, in opposition to Japanese assimilationist policies in Okinawa.

The formal founding of the organization was preceded by numerous events of a similar nature, stretching back several decades. In 1875, Japanese statesman Ôkubo Toshimichi suggested that the governorship of Okinawa Prefecture be a hereditary post held by members of the former royal family.

The movement's chief aims were that the Ryukyuan royal government and aristocracy be restored, healing the "spirit" of Okinawa, and that then the Ryukyuan system could lead the islands, gradually, into assimilation with Japan. To these ends,they petitioned that Governor Narahara Shigeru recalled to the mainland, and replaced with Marquis Shô Tai, former King of Ryûkyû. Their proposal would have also restored the yukatchu to their government positions; for this reason, much of the Kôdôkai's support came from low-ranking, unstipended, yukatchu.

Nine representatives of the group traveled to Tokyo and submitted a petition with 72,767 signatures to Matsukata Masayoshi, Minister of the Interior. He rejected it immediately.

Some in the Meiji government saw the petitions as accusations of grave misrule in Okinawa and as attacks on the good judgment of the Emperor. Most Okinawans are said to have believed in the inevitability, and benefits, of assimilation with Japan, and so the organization quickly fell apart.

References

• Kerr, George. Okinawa: the History of an Island People. (revised ed.) Boston: Tuttle Publishing, 2000. p425.
• Smits, Gregory. Visions of Ryukyu. University of Hawaii Press, 1999. pp148-149.