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EXPO’70

TIME CAPSULE

OKINAWA -you can’t go any further
south in Japan, but is it still Japan?
Who recalls the archipelago of the
Ryukyus, which you’ll find beneath
its ancient name of Liou-Tchou in
the Memoirs of Chateaubriand? The
kingdom was successively annexed
by the emperor of China, by the lords
of Nagoya, and finally by the Mikado.
It is said that its inhabitants « bore
no arms, » but its aristocracy (and
not the people, as the legend says)
invented karate, and its sailors went
as far as Scotland on their slim boats
with cat’s head prows. They have their
own culture, their literature, their music.

Here, a few portraits
gleaned from a map
with no territory.