Rethinking Postwar Okinawa

Beyond American Occupation

Edited by Pedro Iacobelli and Hiroko Matsuda - Contributions by Pedro Iacobelli; Ariko S. Ikehara; Laura Kina; Asako Masubuchi; Hiroko Matsuda; Hidekazu Sensui; Shinnosuke Takahashi; Ayako Takamori; Ryan Masaaki Yokota and Johanna O. Zulueta

This edited volume presents the latest multidisciplinary research that delves into developments related to contemporary Okinawa (a.k.a Ryukyu Islands), and also engages with contemporary debates on American hegemony and Empire in a larger geographical context. Okinawa, long viewed as a marginalized territory in larger historical processes, has been characterized solely by the U.S. military presence in the islands, despite having embraced a multiplicity of social and cultural transformations since the end of the Pacific War. In this timely academic revision of Okinawa, occurring at the time of numerous debates over the building of yet another military base in the island, this volume's contributors tell a story that situates Okinawa in the context of other militarized territories and thus, goes beyond the limits of Okinawa prefecture. Indeed, the book examines the ways in which studies on Okinawa have evolved, moving away from the direct problems brought by the establishment of foreign military bases. Previous studies have explicated how Okinawa has fallen prey to power politics of more dominant nations. In expanding on these themes, this volume examines the unique social and cultural dynamics of Okinawa and its people that had never been intended by the political authorities.

Lexington Books

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3311-9 • Hardback • November 2017 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-3313-3 • Paperback • September 2019 • $50.99 • (£39.00)

978-1-4985-3312-6 • eBook • November 2017 • $48.00 • (£37.00)

Subjects: History / Asia / Japan, Political Science / World / Asian, Social Science / World / Asia

Rethinking Postwar Okinawa

Beyond American Occupation

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This edited volume presents the latest multidisciplinary research that delves into developments related to contemporary Okinawa (a.k.a Ryukyu Islands), and also engages with contemporary debates on American hegemony and Empire in a larger geographical context. Okinawa, long viewed as a marginalized territory in larger historical processes, has been characterized solely by the U.S. military presence in the islands, despite having embraced a multiplicity of social and cultural transformations since the end of the Pacific War. In this timely academic revision of Okinawa, occurring at the time of numerous debates over the building of yet another military base in the island, this volume's contributors tell a story that situates Okinawa in the context of other militarized territories and thus, goes beyond the limits of Okinawa prefecture. Indeed, the book examines the ways in which studies on Okinawa have evolved, moving away from the direct problems brought by the establishment of foreign military bases. Previous studies have explicated how Okinawa has fallen prey to power politics of more dominant nations. In expanding on these themes, this volume examines the unique social and cultural dynamics of Okinawa and its people that had never been intended by the political authorities.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 212 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3311-9 • Hardback • November 2017 • $111.00 • (£85.00)

978-1-4985-3313-3 • Paperback • September 2019 • $50.99 • (£39.00)

978-1-4985-3312-6 • eBook • November 2017 • $48.00 • (£37.00)

Subjects: History / Asia / Japan, Political Science / World / Asian, Social Science / World / Asia

Author

Hiroko Matsuda is associate professor in the Department of Contemporary Social Studies at Kobe Gakuin University.

Pedro Iacobelli is assistant professor in the Institute of History at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Rethinking Postwar Okinawa, Hiroko Matsuda and Pedro Iacobelli
Chapter 1: History as a Mirror of Self: A Note on Post-war Okinawan Historiography, Hidekazu Sensui
Chapter 2: Nursing the U.S. Occupation: Okinawan Public Health Nurses in U.S.-Occupied Okinawa, Asako Masubuchi
Chapter 3: The Occupying Other: Third-Country Nationals and the U.S. Bases in Okinawa, Johanna O. Zulueta
Chapter 4: Reversion-Era Proposals for Okinawan Regional Autonomy, Ryan Masaaki Yokota
Chapter 5: Beyond Minority History: Okinawa Korea People’s Solidarity and Internationalization of the Okinawa Struggle, Shinnosuke Takahashi
Chapter 6: Fault Lines of Occupation, Limits of Hybridity: Race, Class and Transnationalism in Okinawa and Japan, Ayako Takamori
Chapter 7: Champurū Text: Decolonial Okinawan Writing, Ariko S. Ikehara
Chapter 8: The Black Pacific through Okinawan Eyes: Photographer Mao Ishikawa’s “Hot Days in Camp Hansen!!” and “Life in Philly,” Laura Kina

Reviews

Rethinking Postwar Okinawa views familiar issues from different angles and challenges the paradigms usually associated with them. . . . The advantage of this collection is its innovative analyses of several issues confronting Okinawans since World War II.
— The Journal of Japanese Studies

This excellent collection places Okinawa in a transnational frame, linking events in Okinawa within broader Asia–Pacific processes, with the parallel and connected histories of places like the Philippines and Hawai'i and with the movements of people between these places.
— Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong