Kayt O'Bibliophile's Reviews > Okinawa

An anthology of stories about both Okinawa during World War II, when it was commanded by the ruling Japanese mainlanders preparing for (and then taking action against) a US attack, which ended up being one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the entire Pacific war theater, themselves often seen as invaders. As an American, I didn't know anything about this history of Okinawa, knowing only that it's the southernmost of Japan's main islands, very tropical and humid, and that there's a lot of US military presence there due to bases.

So in this book, you get a nice crash course in Okinawan history: part of the Ryukyu Islands, which became a tributary to China and Japan in the 1600s, it was annexed by Japan in 1879, which then when on to try eliminating traditional Ryukyuan culture, language and religion. So to put that in perspective, during WWII, the older inhabitants--people you'd associate with being grandparent-aged--were often born before Japan officially claimed it. So this is not the story of how "Japan" dealt with part of WWII, it's the story of how a people faced threats from both outside (USA) and inside, or their neighbors (Japan).

It does not sugarcoat the war, which ended up killing around a quarter of the civilian population, but it's not gory. And to my surprise, it doesn't paint the Americans (particularly in the first half, during WWII) as one-dimensional evil invaders; soldiers on both sides feature, and if the book has a point I can sum up incredibly simplistically in this section, it would be "war is hell for everyone, particularly civilians."

The second half of the book is set closer to modern day--although these stories were originally published, individually, around the 1990s, which is needed to understand the setting. Something I learned was that after Japan's defeat in WWII, America didn't just build military bases in Okinawa (I knew that), but actually controlled Okinawa from 1945 until 1971, when the island (minus the bases, which amount to a substantial amount of land) was returned to Japanese administration.

The modern/then-modern bases cause their own problems: military jets crash or fly so low they disrupt everything; traditional land and religious practices is sectioned off or accessible only with advance American permission; the military pressures people into selling or long-term leasing their land to the US; there's little oversight or repercussions if Americans cause trouble off the bases, and the Japanese and Okinawans have no recourse for anything that happens on base.

This all sounds depressing, but this information is there in-between stories of traditional farmers who love their land too much to sell; locals who grave-rob to sell elsewhere in the country; modern people working as civilians on base contemplating their role in both cultures.

It is, overall, fascinating and informative.