Rethinking Postwar Okinawa: Beyond American Occupation

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Description

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.

Reviews

This excellent collection places Okinawa in a transnational frame, linking events in Okinawa within broader AsiaPacific 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

Author Bio

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.