God bless the Ryukyu Islands

Hello and うがみんせーら,
this server is an international-oriented group for everyone who lives in and associates with the Ryukyu Island chain that is located and administered south of Japan to this day. If you like this group, feel free to join and maybe even encourage your friends to join, as this community is meant not only for Ryukyuan/Japanese people, but also for foreigners.

Although its history and even the existence of Ryukyu are not known to many people, even in the Asian region, it is actually subject to a rather rich history and culture that spans back many hundreds of years in various forms and states of existence.

The first ever mentioning of Ryukyu comes from Chinese writings, more specifically from a book written in 607 AD. While it is disputed when exactly humans first set foot on the Ryukyu Islands, evidence seems to point to the theory that humans arrived there some 32.000 years ago, since that is how old the oldest found bones on Okinawa are.
The exact course of Ryukyu's old monarchist succession is likewise disputed, but according to Mythology the very first king of the islands was a man named Tenson, whose ruling position and belongings were upsurped by one of his direct descendants named Riyu.
After that, in a period that Ryukyu is perhaps best known for, is the era of the Three-Kingdoms, which is more commonly called the Three-Mountains period in the West. This saw the continuous rise in power under the ruling Sho dynasty. Sho Hashi steadily conquered the rivalling kingdoms of Chuzan, Hokuzan and Nanzan, in 1404, 1416, and 1429 respectively.
After this, the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Ryukyu was formally recognized by the Ming Dynasty (basically China), and Ryukyu quickly became a tributary under Ming.

In 1609, the Japanese invaded and defeated the Ryuakyuan people, establishing them as vassal. Because of this, Ryukyu became a loophole in Japan's period of undisturbed isolation, where they completely closed foreign trade. As such, it was one of only three trading ports in the Japanese realm at the time.

In early 1879, Japan openly announced that they wanted to annex Ryukyu. After some failed negotiations with the Chinese, who were still one of Ryukyu's overlords, Japan annexed the whole archipelago on March 11 1879.
As time went on, the people in what used to be Ryukyu started growing increasingly hostile to Japan, since Ryukyuan traditions, language and culture were not only frowned upon, but almost systematically eliminated in an attempt to japanify the region.

Then, in the late stages of WW2, one of the last main battles there was took place on Okinawa from April 1 - June 22 1945. The Japanese were defeated, though the battles took a hefty toll on human lives, both in regards to civilians and military.

Following the tragic events of the second World War, Okinawa was continunously occupied by the Americans in various forms from 1445 until May 12 1772, when it was handed back to Japan.