I met with Mr. Chosei Kabira, who served as the first President of Okinawa Hoso Kyokai (OHK) [Okinawa Public Broadcasting System] from 1967 to 1972. He told me about the history of Okinawa after the Second World War from his long career in the broadcasting industry.
His family are the descendants of the Kabira family who served the Ryukyu Dynasty. He was born in Taiwan in 1927, and after the Second World War ended in 1945, his family returned to Okinawa. In 1950, he assisted his eldest brother in starting Ryukyu Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) for the people of Okinawa. After he obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration (M.B.A.) at Michigan State University in 1957, he worked for RBC as an executive director. He played a major role in establishing OHK, and served as President from 1967 to 1972. Along with OHK’s merging with NHK, he transferred to NHK, and served mainly as a management executive director in charge of international cooperation until 1992. Simultaneously, he became Professor at Showa Women’s University and later Vice President of the university and Vice President of its Board of Directors. Currently, he serves as Professor Emeritus and Honorary Director of the Board.
Mr. Kabira talked about Taiwan, China, pre-war and post-war Japan, and the US from the standpoint of Okinawa. He made his desperate efforts to live through the turbulent times in Japan before and after the Second World War.
Mr. Kabira is now 93 years old, and still vigorous. He has a big dream of building a good relationship between the mainland of Japan and Okinawa Islands. He has been engaged in various kinds of occupations in his life, and whenever he was given an occupation, he considered it as a calling or a vocation, and devoted himself to each of those occupations.
Jon Kabira and Jay Kabira (in the center), both well known as TV personalities, are Mr. Chosei Kabira’s sons.
