Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power

Exploring contemporary Okinawan culture, politics and historical memory, this book argues that the long Japanese tradition of defining Okinawa as a subordinate and peripheral part of Japan means that all claims of Okinawan distinctiveness necessarily become part of the larger debate over contemporary identity. The contributors trace the renaissance of the debate in the burst of cultural and political expression that has flowered in the past decade, with the rapid growth of local museums and memorials and the huge increase in popularity of distinctive Okinawan music and literature, as well as in political movements targeting both US military bases and Japanese national policy on ecological, developmental and equity grounds. A key strategy for claiming and shaping Okinawan identity is the mobilisation of historical memory of the recent past, particularly of the violent subordination of Okinawan interests to those of the Japanese and American governments in war and occupation. Its intertwining themes of historical memory, nationality, ethnicity and cultural conflict in contemporary society address central issues in anthropology, sociology, contemporary history, Asian studies, international relations, cultural studies and post-colonial studies.