Seefa Utaki and Peace Prayer Memorial Park
Seefa Utaki and Peace Prayer Memorial Park
Reflection Paper
The two places I have chosen to reflect upon are Seefa Utaki and Peace Prayer Memorial Park. Both of these places are very significant throughout Okinawa’s history and still play a significant role in Okinawa culture today.
Seefa Utaki is considered to be probably the holiest of sites in all of Okinawa. It is where Okinawans believe that the goddess Amamikyo descended from heaven and created Okinawa. I have visited this site many times and have always felt a sense of deep reverence there. Visiting Seefa Utaki during this class really opened my eyes even more to the major role that it plays in many of the Okinawan people’s lives today. Seefa Utaki to Okinawans is much like a church is to a Christian person. It is the place Okinawans can go and commune or pray for their family, their ancestors, or to just find a sense of peace. It amazes me that even through all the battles that have been fought on Okinawa going back many centuries that Seefa Utaki remains virtually untouched and that the sense of peace and reverence still exudes from it. Seefa Utaki is where someone could go to start to understand the importance and relevance of the Okinawan hierarchy. It is also a place that helps us understand what an important role that the Okinawan women have held from the ancient times of the Ryukyu kingdom to even today. Women are still considered to be of very high stature in the family and in the community from the religious perspective. Okinawan women have always reveled in the understanding that their role was far more important than just living for this life. It established and maintained the religious connection between the past lives of their ancestors and their families’ lives today and the continued cycle of life for future generations.
Seefa Utaki provides much more than a glimpse to what life was like long ago. It provides outsiders an opportunity to see inside the heart and soul of Okinawans. Okinawans are a very proud people but also very humble. They respect the land and the oceans that were given to them and they treat them both with a sense of respect that is nothing but awe inspiring. The Okinawans understand that they must always take care of what was given to them but also to never take more than they need. Okinawans also tend to take better care of their neighbors and communities. I think all of this can be linked back to how they view themselves through Amamikyo’s eyes and what she would expect of them.
Seefa Utaki to me is much more than just the site we visited. The energy that I felt there can be felt throughout Okinawa if you take the time to quite yourself and listen. This place literally screams to me to be at peace with myself and with nature. That the harmony that is created when we allow ourselves to truly respect Mother Nature and everything that she provides is truly unbelievable.
Okinawa Peace Prayer Memorial Park has a very significant meaning to me. I usually visit this site at least once a year. I had several relatives who fought in the Battle of Okinawa both from my side of the family being American and from my wife’s side of the family being Japanese. This has provided me with a very unique perspective of the importance of this place. When I first came to Okinawa in 1993 I did not know much about the island or the history of it. I had not comprehension of the devastation that took place here long before I was born. I did not understand all the sacrifices that were made by the U.S. military, the Japanese military, or the Okinawan