When Kazufumi Miyazawa, vocalist of the Japanese rock band The Boom wrote the song titled "Shima-uta" about 15 years ago, no one imagined the path it would take, starting as a huge domestic hit and then gaining a life of its own abroad.
Shima-uta is a generic term for Okinawan folk songs. Miyazawa took it as the title of his song, which poetically addresses the tragedies suffered on the southern islands during World War II. In 1993, the song recorded more than 1 million singles sales with its memorable chorus:
Uji no mori de anata to deai,