Podcast with Gregory Smits, “The Ryuku Islands”
Most people only know one of the Ryukyu Islands: the island of Okinawa, home to sandy beaches and one of the United States’ most important bases in Asia. There are lots of myths about this island chain, which stretch from southern Japan down to the island of Taiwan: That it owed loyalty to China, given its place in the imperial tribute trade; that it was a pacifist kingdom; that it was quasi-sovereign even within Japan.
Gregory Smits tackles a lot of these myths in his expansive history of the islands, titled The Ryukyu Islands: A New History from the Stone Age to the Present (University of Chicago Press, December 2025). His book, and today’s conversation, dives into all the ways that the Ryukyu Islands will frustrate anyone trying to fit this place into an easy historical or political narrative.
Gregory Smits is professor of history and Asian Studies at Penn State University. He is the author of several books, including Early Ryukyuan History: A New Mode, Maritime Ryukyu, 1050-1650 and Visions of Ryukyu: Identity and Ideology in Early-Modern Thought and Politics.
