Examining contemporary Okinawan culture, politics, and historical memory, this book traces the dynamic reconstruction and reframing of Okinawan identity. The contributors explore the cultural and political expression that has flowered in the past decade with the vigorous growth of local museums and memorials and of the popularity of distinctive Okinawan music and literature, as well as of political movements targeting both U.S. military bases and Japanese national policy on ecological, developmental, and equity grounds. A key strategy has been the mobilization of historical memory, particularly recalling the violent subordination of Okinawan interests to those of the Japanese and American wartime and occupation governments. With its intertwining themes of memory, nationality, ethnicity, and cultural conflict in contemporary society, the book will be valuable reading for scholars and students across the social sciences and humanities.

Edited by Laura Hein and Mark Selden

Chapter 1: Introduction: Culture, Power and Identity in Contemporary Okinawa
Part I: Making Sense of the Past
Chapter 2: Wolves at the Back Door: Remembering the Kumejima Massacres
Chapter 3: Waging Peace on Okinawa
Chapter 4: Memories of Okinawa: Life and Times in the Greater Osaka Diaspora
Chapter 5: The Rape of a Schoolgirl, Discourses of Power and Women's Lives in Okinawa
Part II: Contemporary Culture, Identity, Resistance
Chapter 6: Medoruma Shun: The Writer as Public Intellectual in Okinawa Today
Chapter 7: Uchin¿ Pop: Place and Identity in Contemporary Okinawan Popular Music
Chapter 8: Okinawan Identity and Resistance to Militarization and Maldevelopment
Chapter 9: Future Assets, But At What Price? The Okinawa Initiative Debate
Chapter 10: From the National Gaze to Multiple Gazes: Representations of Okinawa in Recent Japanese Cinema