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Afterword: Traces of the Ryukyu Kingdom

Mamoru Akamine

Robert Huey (ed.)

in The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia

The author summarizes Ryukyu’s historical position in East Asia, noting how its own changes reflected the broader changes East Asian was going through. He argues that, though part of Japan today, ... More

The author summarizes Ryukyu’s historical position in East Asia, noting how its own changes reflected the broader changes East Asian was going through. He argues that, though part of Japan today, Okinawa is still different, and he calls that difference the “its heritage from the Ryukyu Kingdom and its ‘Asian experience.’” Chinese elements in Okinawan culture, for example, are not just the result of centuries of trade and diplomatic contact, but also come from the Kingdom’s conscious effort to “sinify” in the seventeenth century. As for Okinawan’s status today, the author notes that Okinawa’s sovereignty is still seen as an open question by China.Less

Modern Okinawan Transnationality: Colonialism, Diaspora, and “Return”

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This chapter outlines the modern history of the Okinawan diaspora in three sections: (i) the history of Okinawan immigration to Bolivia in the prewar and postwar periods; (ii) the foundation and ... More

This chapter outlines the modern history of the Okinawan diaspora in three sections: (i) the history of Okinawan immigration to Bolivia in the prewar and postwar periods; (ii) the foundation and transformation of Colonia Okinawa in eastern Bolivia; and (iii) the factors and processes of Okinawan-Bolivians' dekasegi migration to urban Japan since the 1980s. It shows that Okinawan immigration and settlement in Colonia Okinawa and dekasegi migration to Yokohama are not merely population movements driven by local and global political economies but an illuminating case of the continuing displacement and struggle of colonial and postcolonial subjects. The chapter contextualizes the prewar and postwar waves of Okinawan emigration to Bolivia within this turbulent history of Okinawa and the Okinawan diaspora, and describes in detail the postwar Okinawan migration to Bolivia, which was planned and sponsored by the US military administration and the US-backed Okinawan government during the occupation. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Okinawan settlers in Colonia Okinawa increasingly defined themselves as “Japanese,” rather than “Okinawan,” subjects, vis-à-vis non-Nikkei “Bolivians,” as they asserted themselves as powerful upper-class patrones (large-scale farm owners). The chapter ends with a discussion of various contributing factors to the dekasegi migration since the 1980s, despite the Okinawan-Bolivians' privileged class position in Colonia Okinawa, against the backdrop of changing socioeconomic conditions surrounding Colonia Okinawa, Bolivia in general, and Japan.Less

Being Okinawan in Japan Today (1972–)

Steve Rabson

in The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within

This chapter focuses on Okinawa and its relations with mainland Japan during the postwar years up to the present. The end of American military occupation marking the first Reversion Day in 1972, at a ... More

This chapter focuses on Okinawa and its relations with mainland Japan during the postwar years up to the present. The end of American military occupation marking the first Reversion Day in 1972, at a time when Japan's so-called miracle of super-high growth was starting belatedly to show effects in Okinawan communities on the mainland, instilled greater self-confidence among residents and jumpstarted economic and cultural developments, culminating in an “Okinawan Boom”—the increasing mainland fascination with Okinawa. The chapter recounts the mixed blessings arising from these developments, and comments on the lingering discrimination in postwar Japan, the responses to this prejudice—particularly from the children of Okinawan migrants—as well as the connections established between Okinawa and the mainland and the changing social relations between Okinawans and mainland Japanese concurrent with these events.Less

Colonial Labor: The Disciplinary Power of Ethnicity

Elyssa Faison

in Managing Women: Disciplining Labor in Modern Japan

This chapter explores issues of ethnicity, status, and citizenship in Japan's textile factories. Beginning in 1920, a number of mills began to employ increasingly large numbers of Korean and Okinawan ... More

This chapter explores issues of ethnicity, status, and citizenship in Japan's textile factories. Beginning in 1920, a number of mills began to employ increasingly large numbers of Korean and Okinawan women and girls. Partly this move was tied to wage-cutting strategies involved in the process of rationalization and as such reflected the globalization of Japan's capitalist system. But it also signaled company strategies for preempting labor conflict associated with the better organized and more demanding workers who traditionally came from Japan's countryside. This chapter offers a more detailed analysis of how ethnicity functioned in the construction of various “womanhoods” (Japanese and colonial) in the textile industry, and how the taxonomies of race, class, and gender produced through colonial policy and ideology were vital to such constructions. It examines companies, such as Kishiwada Cotton Spinning, that employed large numbers of Korean or Okinawan workers.Less

The Okinawans

Ryokichi Higashionna, Gilbert Ikehara, and Leslie Matsukawa

in People and Cultures of Hawai'i: The Evolution of Culture and Ethnicity

This chapter features the lives of Okinawans in Hawaiʻi. Though the evolution of the Okinawan people of Hawaiʻi has occurred, there is evidence of the persistence of possibly hardwired biological ... More

This chapter features the lives of Okinawans in Hawaiʻi. Though the evolution of the Okinawan people of Hawaiʻi has occurred, there is evidence of the persistence of possibly hardwired biological characteristics, traits, and behaviors that have been retained, leading to hardiness and a resilience of body, mind, and spirit. Okinawans are known for their longevity and good health into their old age. Yuimaru, a spirit of working together for the benefit of all, and ichariba chode, seeing everyone as brothers and sisters, are two of the persisting values that are very similar to Hawaiian values that opened doors for the Okinawans settling in the Islands and hold them in good stead today.Less

Conclusion

Annmaria M. Shimabuku

in Alegal: Biopolitics and the Unintelligibility of Okinawan Life

The Conclusion re-engages the words of the so-called “father of Okinawan studies,” Ifa Fuyū, who wrote shortly before his death in 1947 that he was not in a position to “command [his] descendants to ... More

The Conclusion re-engages the words of the so-called “father of Okinawan studies,” Ifa Fuyū, who wrote shortly before his death in 1947 that he was not in a position to “command [his] descendants to be in possession” of the ability to “determine their own fate.” Although this text is usually read as a lamentation of Okinawa’s inability to exercise self-determination, the Conclusion instead repositions it as a problem of how to think about the Okinawa’s alegality, or life unintelligible to the state. Specifically, it considers mixed-race life that was targeted as inimical to the monoethnic Japanese state (Chapter 1), and along with the contention surrounding the circumstances of its birth, continued to haunt Okinawa’s struggle with political representation from 1945 to 2015. It examines Ariko Ikehara’s essay on a mixed-race story in which a grandmother, by proxy of her daughter, claims her mixed granddaughter as a child of Okinawa. She exercises an autonomy irrespective of state recognition, and by doing so, reclaims an Okinawan life that matters.Less

Multiraciality and Migration: Mixed-Race American Okinawans, 1945–1972

Lily Anne Yumi Welty

in Global Mixed Race

This chapter examines the multiracial American Japanese who grew up in Okinawa and the U.S. during the post-World War II period through to the 1970s. Multiracial Okinawans did not fit into the ... More

This chapter examines the multiracial American Japanese who grew up in Okinawa and the U.S. during the post-World War II period through to the 1970s. Multiracial Okinawans did not fit into the available racial categories in Okinawa because they were not accepted as Japanese, nor as Okinawans, even though many could not even speak English, but rather spoke Uchinaguchi (the Okinawan-Ryûkyûan indigenous language) or Japanese. These people were considered as an unsettling reminder to other Okinawans of the ever-present U.S. occupation, and as such they occupied a cultural third space that could be defined either on or off of the military bases. Within this third space, there were two tiers: those who could speak English and might have connections to the military bases, and those without access to the opportunities English and the bases provided.Less

Exchange Networks and the Lure of Tropical Shells

Richard Pearson

in Ancient Ryukyu: An Archaeological Study of Island Communities

This chapter discusses the development of exchange systems in the Amami and Okinawa Islands. Kinoshita Naoko proposed four stages—Yayoi Period, Kofun Period, the seventh to ninth centuries AD, and ... More

This chapter discusses the development of exchange systems in the Amami and Okinawa Islands. Kinoshita Naoko proposed four stages—Yayoi Period, Kofun Period, the seventh to ninth centuries AD, and the ninth to fifteenth centuries AD—of exchange of Ryukyu shells. She said that abundant cowrie shells, particularly Cypraea moneta, especially abundant in the Shang dynasty of north China but also found in sites from various time periods, were collected from the Ryukyus by traders from China. Such contact would explain the development of Okinawan bone ornaments decorated with bilaterally symmetrical motifs not found in the Jōmon or Yayoi cultures of the Japanese main islands. Dating to the first and second millennia BC, these artifacts have always been a puzzle in Okinawan archaeology.Less

Introduction: Racializing Culture and Class in a Transnational Field

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book examines the racialized belongings of Okinawan-Bolivians in a transnational context. It considers multiple ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book examines the racialized belongings of Okinawan-Bolivians in a transnational context. It considers multiple contradictions that Okinawan-Bolivians (Okinawan settlers, or Issei, and their offspring in Colonia Okinawa, and Okinawan-Bolivian dekasegi migrants in urban Japan) faced in Bolivia and Japan. First, how did Okinawan-Bolivians experience and make sense of paradoxical socioeconomic class positions they occupied in a transnational social field? Second, how did educational institutions, such as community schools in Colonia Okinawa, shape Nisei and Sansei (third-generation) Okinawan-Bolivian youth's identities and behaviors? Finally, how did Okinawan-Bolivians interpret and negotiate their historical and cultural distinctiveness as Okinawans, whose past as the colonized subjects under imperial Japan still stirred ambivalent feelings toward Japan among Okinawans in Okinawa Prefecture and the Okinawan diaspora abroad? This study, then, is an attempt to understand the contradictory processes of class and cultural identity formation of transmigrants; an ethnography of postcolonial subjects in diaspora; and an effort to theorize race, class, and culture in a transnational context.Less

The Making of Patrones Japonesas and Dekasegi Migrants

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This chapter examines the visible signs of Okinawan-Bolivians' economic and social status in Colonia Okinawa and Tsurumi. It focuses on the labor market and the workplace as “critical sites” of ... More

This chapter examines the visible signs of Okinawan-Bolivians' economic and social status in Colonia Okinawa and Tsurumi. It focuses on the labor market and the workplace as “critical sites” of racialization, in which Okinawan-Bolivians' ambiguous belonging in Colonia Okinawa and urban Japan were embodied and performed. It sketches the labor market structures in Bolivia and interventions by state institutions, such as JICA and the government of Okinawa Prefecture, both of which played critical roles in shaping Okinawan-Bolivians' subject positions. It portrays everyday encounters between Okinawan-Bolivians and non-Nikkei Bolivians and Japanese Naichi-jin at their workplaces, such as farm fields and cattle ranches, in Colonia Okinawa. Okinawan-Bolivians' contradictory class positions in the rural Colonia Okinawa community and in the larger (urban) Bolivian society are reflected in their racialized stereotypes of themselves and various non-Nikkei Bolivian groups within and outside Colonia Okinawa.Less

From Patrón to Nikkei-Jin Rōdōsha : Class Transformations

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This chapter describes the experiences of Okinawan-Bolivian dekasegi migrants in Japan, most of whom were Nisei children of affluent Issei farm owners in Colonia Okinawa. It outlines the labor market ... More

This chapter describes the experiences of Okinawan-Bolivian dekasegi migrants in Japan, most of whom were Nisei children of affluent Issei farm owners in Colonia Okinawa. It outlines the labor market structure in the construction industry in Japan and locates the dekasegi migrant workers within it. Ethnographic snapshots of the dekasegi workers' working conditions at construction sites; the physically demanding tasks they performed in a hazardous environment; the spatial isolation (and autonomy) they maintained; and the interactions among themselves and with other workers, such as Japanese Naichi-jin and Nikkei-jin migrants from other South American countries, indicate how their subject positions in Japan were shaped and experienced. The dekasegi migrants often interpreted and performed their subject positions within the larger economic structures and daily working situations in Japan through racialized stereotyping of others and themselves. Their various narratives on their structural positions within the Japanese labor market and the ways in which different groups of workers act and interact were reminiscent of Issei's and Nisei's racialized (overgeneralized and naturalized) explanations of the labor relations between non-Nikkei Bolivian laborers and Okinawan-Bolivian farm owners in Colonia Okinawa and of the economic structure of Bolivia at large.Less

Educating “Good” Nikkei and Okinawan Subjects

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This chapter focuses on educational institutions that actively sought to foster Okinawan-Bolivians as culturally hybrid subjects by infusing them with objectified and naturalized cultures. ... More

This chapter focuses on educational institutions that actively sought to foster Okinawan-Bolivians as culturally hybrid subjects by infusing them with objectified and naturalized cultures. Specifically, it examines Okinawan-Bolivian schools in Colonia Okinawa, where most Nisei and Sansei children received Japanese language education and learned about the Japanese and Okinawan cultures. In portraying the various school events in Colonia Okinawa, such as the school track meet and Japanese-language speech contest, the chapter demonstrates the ways in which these educational institutions enabled, even encouraged, Okinawan-Bolivian youth to form, nurture, and embody their identities through the terms and images of essentialized and naturalized (Japanese, Okinawan, and Bolivian) cultures. These educational institutions in effect shaped Okinawan-Bolivian youth into transnational subjects who have developed an ambiguous sense of belonging in either Bolivia or Japan.Less

Gendering Transnationality: Marriage, Family, and Dekasgi

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This chapter turns to gender and family relationships among Okinawan-Bolivians, which often underwent drastic transformations during their migrations between Colonia Okinawa and urban Japan. In ... More

This chapter turns to gender and family relationships among Okinawan-Bolivians, which often underwent drastic transformations during their migrations between Colonia Okinawa and urban Japan. In Colonia Okinawa, gender relationships among Okinawan-Bolivians were defined and practiced in the public, communal, and domestic spheres through subtly yet strictly defined male and female gender roles and codes of behaviors at workplaces, in community functions, and in homes. The gender division was further complicated by sociospatial segregation of Okinawan-Bolivians and non-Nikkei Bolivian men and women coexisting in these settings. Once Okinawan-Bolivians moved to a Japanese city, the gender divergence among Okinawan-Bolivians was often challenged by the radically different economic and social responsibilities assigned to the migrants in these urban settings, where both men and women worked as manual laborers and often earned a comparable amount of income. The chapter also sheds light on intermarriages between Okinawan-Bolivians and non-Nikkei Bolivians, and between Okinawan-Bolivians and Japanese Naichi-jin. These couples not only faced changing gender roles and codes of behavior in Colonia Okinawa and urban Japan, but also dealt with highly racialized and sexualized stereotypes of “Bolivians” held by other Okinawan-Bolivians and of “South Americans” held by Japanese Naichi-jin in-laws.Less

Conclusion: Embodiment of Local Belonging

Taku Suzuki

in Embodying Belonging: Racializing Okinawan Diaspora in Bolivia and Japan

This concluding chapter draws together the data on Okinawan-Bolivians' contradictory subject positions in Bolivia and Japan in order to theorize the meaning of racialization in a transnational ... More

This concluding chapter draws together the data on Okinawan-Bolivians' contradictory subject positions in Bolivia and Japan in order to theorize the meaning of racialization in a transnational context. The various subject-makings of Okinawan-Bolivians—as “Japanese” farm owners in Colonia Okinawa and as “South American” manual laborers in Yokohama, as “good Bolivians of Japanese descent” in educational institutions in Bolivia, and as part of an “Okinawan” diasporic brotherhood and sisterhood across the globe—exemplify a social process of citizenship, conferring individuals with different degrees and modes of belonging in the respective locales. This study reiterates that, in studying and theorizing race, class, and culture in the globally interconnected world today, anthropological techniques can be used to discern the ways in which political, economic, and social institutions and everyday practices of individuals shape and reshape the meanings and expressions of these concepts.Less

Introduction

Steve Rabson

in The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within

This introductory chapter presents a historical background of Okinawa's past in order to reveal the underlying tensions between the prefecture and mainland Japan. Like minorities elsewhere, Okinawans ... More

This introductory chapter presents a historical background of Okinawa's past in order to reveal the underlying tensions between the prefecture and mainland Japan. Like minorities elsewhere, Okinawans experienced prejudice and discrimination in Japan because differences—real and imagined—have caused them to be viewed as outsiders of inferior status. A history and culture distinct in many ways from the rest of the country has forced them to cope with a society in which such differences are often considered “strange” or “wrong,” and with a central government that has long imposed a monocultural standard in education, publicly priding itself on the nation's mythical “homogeneity.” Hence the chapter sets out the terms and methodology to be used in this research, at the same time employing these to debunk the fallacies employed in mainland discourse.Less

The Minority Experience in Japan: A Comparative Perspective

Steve Rabson

in The Okinawan Diaspora in Japan: Crossing the Borders Within

This chapter examines the minority experience in Japan as a whole, by putting the Okinawan experience of minority in comparison with that of other such marginalized groups in the country, such as the ... More

This chapter examines the minority experience in Japan as a whole, by putting the Okinawan experience of minority in comparison with that of other such marginalized groups in the country, such as the ethnic Koreans, the Ainu, and so forth. It argues that a hierarchy exists that valorizes certain minorities while ranking others lower, leading to efforts by some to conceal, or minimize, whatever puts them in a category currently out of favor, and to associate themselves, as much as possible, with the majority, or with a different, more favored minority. Perceived hierarchies of status can also operate within minorities. And finally, the assignment of status to minorities can reveal paradoxical results.Less

History/Fiction/Identity: Ōshiro Tatsuhiro and the Uncanny

Leith Morton

in The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature

This chapter explores a long historical novel that depicts the noro, female shamans who played an important role in the establishment of the independent Ryükyü kingdom in the fifteenth century. The ... More

This chapter explores a long historical novel that depicts the noro, female shamans who played an important role in the establishment of the independent Ryükyü kingdom in the fifteenth century. The novel deals with a famous noro and her romance with the Ryükyü king, along with the consequences this had for history. The novel also examines the role played bynoro, who are practitioners of uncanny arts and are objects of fear and awe for ordinary Okinawans. Öshiro Tatsuhiro again studies the nature of the exotic or the uncanny, in an attempt to define the identity not merely of the Okinawan people but also of the historic Ryükyü state.Less

From Demilitarization to Remilitarization: External and Internal Pressures on Japanese Security Policy

Glenn D. Hook

in Demilitarization in the Contemporary World

This chapter explores the transition from demilitarization to remilitarization following Japan's defeat in war and foreign occupation from 1945 to 1952. It focuses on the external and internal ... More

This chapter explores the transition from demilitarization to remilitarization following Japan's defeat in war and foreign occupation from 1945 to 1952. It focuses on the external and internal pressures on security policy at crucial historical junctures in the process of remilitarization. By revisiting the early postwar period, the chapter looks at two contested views of security policy. These views revolved around the option of a security treaty with the United States, on the one hand, and unarmed neutrality, on the other. The chapter then addresses the external pressures on Japanese policy makers arising from the major historical juncture represented by the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the internal pressures involve the costs to Okinawans arising from the concrete manifestation of the alliance with the United States: the basing of US military facilities.Less