Okinawa, known for the rich beauty of its diverse islands, offers visitors a tropical climate, broad beaches and coral reefs.

Patrinia scabiosifolia, or Ominaeshi, is a perennial herb found in all parts of Japan except Okinawa. Tiny yellow flowers appear atop their slender stems in the late summer and early autumn.

It was painful to see the world “rape” over and over and over. But that’s Okinawa’s reality. In autumn 1995, the rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl triggered prefecture-wide protests of ...