My wife is from a family that emigrated from Okinawa, although she has never been there, and she has expressed interest in learning more about Okinawa. We are hoping to visit in the next couple of years, but in the meantime I would like to buy her a book to learn more about the place, but not just a tourist guide.
Does anyone have any recommendations? I've done a bit of searching online and most of what I can find is either poorly reviewed, or relates to WWII (or its aftermath), which would interest me, but considering her family emigrated before WWII, I don't believe that it would have huge relevance or interest to her.
Thank you in advance.
by Mhulz
4 comments
I enjoyed the Habu Hunter if that is down your alley
As you have discovered , the vast majority of books center around WW2.
The best book I found and keep on reference is a book by George Kerr – Okinawa, the history of An Island People.
It was written awhile ago but has been updated a d revised since its original writing. I’m not sure when the last revision was.
It’s not a small or short book. The book covers a lot of ground going back centuries up to relatively modern times. Late 90s or early 2000s if I remember correctly.
If she’s really interested and sincere about learning more than casually, this is the book.
Books:
* Alegal: Biopolitics and the Unintelligibility of Okinawan Life by Annmaria Shimabuku
* Beachheads: War, Peace, and Tourism in Postwar Okinawa by Gerald Figal
* Cold War Encounters in US-Occupied Okinawa by Mirei Koikari
* Dancing with the Dead: Memory, Performance, and Everyday Life in Postwar Okinawa (Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society)
* Descent into Hell: Civilian Memories of the Battle of Okinawa by Ryukyu Shimpo
* Ecopsychology of Border Islands of Okinawa by Tatsuhiro Nakajima
* Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa’s Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000 by Tze May Loo
* Identity and Resistance in Okinawa by Matthew Allen
* In the Woods of Memory by Shun Medoruma
* Islands of Protest by Steve Rabson, Carolyn Anne Morley, Amy C. Franks, Shi Lin Loh, Aimee Mizuno, Takuma Sminkey, Kyoko Selden, Alisa Freedman, Victoria Young, Masaki Kinjo, Jon Holt, Robert Tierney
* Island Sustainability by Hiroshi Kazaku
* Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan by Hiroko Matsuda
* Essays on Okinawa Problems (2000) Ota Masahide
* Odori by Darcy Tamayose
* Resistant Islands by Satoko Oka Norimatsu
* Rethinking Postwar Okinawa: Beyond American Occupation
* shima (Poems) by Sho Yamagushiku
* The Boundaries of ‘the Japanese’: Volume 1: Okinawa 1818-1972 – Inclusion and Exclusion (Japanese Society Series) by Eiji Oguma
* The Girl with the White Flag by Tomiko Higa
* The Night Parade by Jami Lin Nakamura
* Transpacific Antiracism: Afro-Asian Solidarity in 20th-Century Black America, Japan, and Okinawa by Yuichiro Onishi
* The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia (2017) by Akamine Mamoru
* History of the Okinawans in North America (English and Japanese Edition)
* Uchinanchu: A History of Okinawans in Hawaii
* Chiburu: Anthology Of Hawaiʻi and Okinawan Literature
Are some books I’d suggest. I’ll try to think of other books.
My experience was similar, I wrote a book about the Castles of Okinawa I can DM you the Amazon link if you are interested
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