Portraying Okinawa in postwar ethnographic writing: A critical review of the English-language literature

* This essay is a revised and English-language version of Roberson (Forthcoming)

Abstract

This paper reviews changes and continuities in postwar English-language ethnographic descriptions of Okinawa, noting the contributions of both native and non-native English speakers. I argue that, especially prior to 1995, this research was generally complicit in obfuscating the everyday, lived consequences of war and military occupation in Okinawa. I also show that more politically critical, theoretically sophisticated and ethnographically diverse portrayals of Okinawa have emerged since 1995. And, I contend that in future critical ethnographies must also include those which describe the gendered experiences of everyday life in urbanized, dependent capitalist Okinawa.

Keywords:

• Okinawa
• postwar
• ethnography
• English

Notes

* This essay is a revised and English-language version of Roberson (Forthcoming)

1. For the sake of consistency and since this essay primarily introduces work written in English, all names are written in the order of given name followed by family name.

2. One reviewer suggests that (American) funding agencies may be complicit here. Another reviewer raises concerns about the capitalist logics of publishing at work in decisions to withhold Ph.D. dissertations from public circulation. Given the large number of unpublished Ph.D. dissertations about Okinawa informing this paper, lack of access to similar work in future would be unfortunate indeed.