Okinawa Amerasians fight educational, social isolation Th.

Okinawa Amerasians fight educational, social isolation The United States' postwar presence in Okinawa Prefecture amount Justin McCurry Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer Yomiuri NAHA The Amerasian School in Okinawa is a modest, two-story building set among private homes in the town of Ginowan. Every afternoon, its playground comes alive with the kind of melee that greets the end of classes in schools everywhere. But here, there are no organized club activities, no uniforms, no regimented chants or exhortations from overzealous coaches--just the chatter and laughter of children at play. The carefree atmosphere is just as one group of Japanese women intended when they opened the school two years ago to give their children the chance to explore both sides of their identity free from the bullying and constraints many had experienced at other schools. That the after-class chat proceeds in a mixture of English and Japanese is equally gratifying to the school's director, Midori Thayer. "When I see adult Amerasians who were born in the early 1970s during the Vietnam War, I feel there is something wrong with them," said Thayer, herself the mother of two Amerasian children. "Adults who graduate from Japanese public schools cannot speak English, but they don't look Japanese. …