Islands of Discontent

Reviews / Votes

Okinawa's brutal history has produced a unique new culture, an Asian example of what Luis Bunuel called Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones). This brilliant collection by Hein and Selden tries to ensure that Okinawans will not be forgotten much longer. -- Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire This book is a collection of essays that explores the importance of the remembrance and (re) interpretation of historical experiences for Japanese national minorities. Specifically, it deals with the people of Okinawa and their struggle to challenge their marginalized status with Japanese society and reassert their history and culture. The value of this book is its multidimensional approach to Okinawa's cultural/identity politics, and its attention to the diversity of ways in which local politics and culture have in fact emerged. As a whole, this book is successful in systematically presenting the diversity and complexity of the cultural and political movement in Okinawa at the turn of the twenty-first century, especially in the face of national majorities' disinterest toward and inability to recognize the distinctive history of Okinawans and the negative role of the United States military bases on these islands. This book provides a very useful platform for examining the complex tension between the various identities being promoted in contemporary Okinawa. -- Keisuke Enokido, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada * Pacific Affairs * The contributors [are] a veritable Who's Who of Okinawan Studies. . . . [The] broad range of subjects, but also the way in which they are successfully interconnected in this one volume, will command a broad readership. . . . Simply put, there is something for everyone here. * The Ryukyuanist * Interdisciplinary in approach but coherent in focus, Islands of Discontent provides a rich collection of ideas and materials to scholars with interests in Okinawa and Japan, as well as an insightful case for sociologists with interests in war, occupation, race, ethnicity, and postcoloniality elsewhere. * Contemporary Sociology * [A] fine collection of essays. * Journal of Asian Studies * Rich in scope and coherent in its intellectual agenda, Islands of Discontent is essential reading for anyone interested in the present and future of Okinawa, and of Japan as a whole. -- Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Australian National University