Okinawa Memories Initiative

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This campaign ended on July 15, 2026, but you can still make a gift to University of California-Santa Cruz by clicking here!

About

Special thanks to Jackson Gross and OMI’s Media Production Team for creating this year's Giving Day video!

Your support directly funds these transformative opportunities:

$1,500 covers a trip to the Okinawa Association of America for community-focused research and events.
$2,500 sponsors one undergraduate’s monthlong research experience in Okinawa.

The Okinawa Memories Initiative (OMI) is a community history and dialogue project exploring how Okinawa’s people, culture, and stories are central to our understanding of the world today. Based at UC Santa Cruz, OMI brings together students, researchers, oral historians, and artists in collaboration with partners at CSU Monterey Bay, CSU East Bay, the University of the Ryukyus, and the Okinawa Association of America.

Last year’s Giving Day support funded a monthlong summer research trip to Okinawa, where undergraduates engaged in hands-on learning, visiting historical sites, and developing independent research projects on Okinawan food culture. Students presented their projects at a research symposium at the University of the Ryukyus.

The OMI Team at the University of the Ryukyus during the Summer 2025 Okinawa Trip. — *The OMI team at the University of the Ryukyus during the summer 2025 Okinawa trip.*

OMI’s current focus on Okinawan foodways grew from our partnership with Masterchef Tsukayama Keiko, a certified “Successor of Ryukyu Culinary Tradition.” Chef Keiko joined us in Santa Cruz for a three-week residency, co-curating the Recipes for Life: Cultures of Food and Sustainability in Okinawa exhibit at the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery at Cowell College. Building on that success, OMI is collaborating with Japan Past & Present (JPP) to create a digital exhibit featuring new materials from our summer 2025 research trip.

OMI undergraduate team members presenting traditional Ryukyuan (Okinawan) foods they made with KEMPI (Okinawan Emigrants’ Descendant and Asian Scholarship Program) students studying under Masterchef Tsukayama Keiko.

In addition to field research, OMI students document oral histories, curate photo exhibits, and assist with events through our partnership with the Okinawa Association of America—many experiencing humanities research for the first time.

Every gift helps OMI continue its mission of experiential learning, mentorship, and cross-cultural exchange empowering the next generation of scholars and storytellers. Thank you for helping us make this possible!