Historical memory in Okinawa Prefecture: Regional specifics

Abstract

Okinawa Prefecture takes a special place among Japan’s regions. Until the 19th century, its territory was occupied by the Kingdom of Ryukyu, which was dependent on and influenced by both Japan and China. In 1879, it was incorporated into the Japanese Empire and for a long time was a de-facto colony. In 1945, the island of Okinawa became the arena of fierce ground fighting, which claimed the lives of almost 200,000 people. The article studies the most widespread narrative about the history of the prefecture and, particularly, the tragedy of World War II. It shows that, in the pre-war period, the status of Okinawans in the Japanese Empire was ambiguous. On the one hand, from the point of view of Japanese authorities and Japanese society as a whole, they were separate from the residents of the rest of the country, which was solidified both by the economic backwardness of the region and the fact that, in terms of the administrative and political system, its status was different from that of other prefectures even several decades after the annexation. On the other hand, it is shown that Okinawans were not necessarily considered a separate people and were often perceived as a “branch” of the Japanese. In this sense, their status was radically different from that of the people of Taiwan and Korea. Such an ambiguous status of Okinawans in the public discourse of Japan before 1945 influenced the way in which, in the post-war period, they were perceiving the experience of World War II. Memorials and other commemorative objects promote the narrative according to which Okinawans were only and exclusively victims of the war, with key culprits of their suffering often being not even Americans or the abstract “calamity of war,” but rather the Japanese military. This narrative continues to define the identity of Okinawans to this day, influencing their attitude to central authorities, the Japan-U.S. military-political alliance, and the problem of U.S. bases in Okinawa.