Ryan Masaaki Yokota is a Yonsei/Shin-Nisei Japanese/Okinawan American who currently lives in Chicago, IL. He holds a PhD in East Asian History from the University of Chicago and an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA. His recently completed dissertation is titled "Okinawan Postwar Nationalism(s): Independence, Autonomy, and Indigenousness, 1945-2008." His previous academic writings have been on Okinawan Peruvians in Los Angeles, the history of Japanese and Okinawans in Cuba, and an interview with Pat Sumi, seminal figure in the Asian American Movement.