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Okinawan Treasure

Okinawan Diaspora
Y, Nakasone
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

The first Okinawan immigrants arrived in Honolulu in January 1900 to work as contract laborers on Hawai'i's sugar plantations. Over time, Okinawans would continue migrating east to the continental U.S., Canada, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba, Paraguay, New Caledonia, and the islands of Micronesia. The essays in this volume commemorate these diasporic experiences within the geopolitical context of East Asia.

Using primary sources and oral history, individual contributors examine how Okinawan identity was constructed in the various countries to which Okinawans migrated, and how their experiences were shaped by the Japanese nation-building project and by globalization. Essays explore the return to Okinawan sovereignty, or what Nobel Laureate Oe Kenzaburo called an "impossible possibility," and the role of the Okinawan labor diaspora in Japan's imperial expansion into the Philippines and Micronesia.

Of particular interest is the exploration of the plight of Okinawan Latin Americans, deported and then interned in U.S. camps in the early years of World War II. This chapter highlights the tenuous existence of a people with a hybrid identity in a world of nation states that insists on essentialized identities. Using a different approach, another contributor draws on postmodern theory to describe the use of the popular eisaa, originally a religious dance, to protest the U.S. military presence in Okinawa. Another proposes a pan-Okinawan identity to link the widely scattered diasporic communities. The final essay weaves together memory and imagination to tell the mythic tale of the Agari-umaai (Eastern pilgrimage), the original diaspora that brought the first settlers to the Ryukyu Islands.

Customer Reviews:

Okinawan Treasure.......2003-10-27

Okinawan Diaspora, in a collection of illuminating essays, recounts lost and found Okinawan treasure: from ancient kingdom relics to a people's identity subsumed and redefined to their history largely under-known. It depicts the Okinawans persevering through the fall of their ancient kingdom, Japanese colonialism, the hardships of emigration, World War II internment, and U.S. military occupation of their homeland. Each contributor enlightens the reader regarding Okinawan perseverance. One uses oral history to describe, for example, how World War II internees made traditional instruments out of tin cans in the camps, creatively living their heritage with limited means in oppressive environments. Another focuses on the endurance of Okinawan culture and resistance through the eisaa dance. From the positive ramifications of Okinawan (Uchinanchu) spirit to the atrocity of World War II internees welcomed to America with insecticide, the Okinawan experience finds a riveting portrayal in this book.

As Okinawa held a unique place in the Asian Pacific as "the bridge to all nations," Nakasone and the book's contributors provide a bridge between the Okinawan experience and the disparate reader-the scholar, Okinawans scattered throughout the world seeking connection to their heritage, as well as any person interested in a fascinating account of an oppressed, resilient people. Okinawan Diaspora serves as a model of the fluidity of national identity and of how transnational forces affect the diasporic experience. It also emphasizes the importance of maintaining one's cultural identity through pilgrimage. Nakasone, in the final essay, takes the reader along with him and family elders to Okinawa's sacred sites. The reader finishes the book with a strong sense that Okinawans, with as much as they have lost throughout history, continue to maintain the ancient Uchinanchu spirit of helping others, living as a cooperative community, and sparking the greatness of their lost kingdom through remembrance of their diasporic story.

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