Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

In this interdisciplinary course, students will investigate a topic relating to the histories, societies, cultures, knowledges, geographies, and/or ecologies of Japan, Japanese-speaking people, and/or people of Japanese descent in Asia and beyond. May be repeated for credit only when a different topic is taught.

COURSE DETAILS:

While tremendously diverse, “Japan Studies” tends to conjure up an unsurprising list of subjects: anime/otaku/fan sub-culture, soft power and global influence (e.g., via fashion/consumer goods), and the postwar economic “boom”. Far less common is a concern with the Indigenous histories and politics of Japan’s remote peripheries. Located in Japan’s southernmost region, the Ryūkyū Archipelago is one of the most dynamic regions for study of Japan’s Indigenous present.

This course examines the human and political ecologies of contemporary Okinawa under various regimes of militarism and colonialism. Our learning will focus largely on a selection of social movements of the post WWII era that together have shaped contemporary Okinawan life. We will be particularly attentive to: the “All-Island” Land Movement (1949-55); Koza Uprising (1970); Reversion Movement (1960-70); and the Peace, Indigenous, and Women’s movements that have challenged militarism and colonial control in Okinawa since the mid-1990s.

There are important questions that engaging with these social movements will help students answer. What are the historical conditions underlying Okinawan cultures of protest? How does the study of Okinawa complicate common perceptions of Japan as a cosmopolitan techno-state? How do Okinawans stand to benefit from national and global frameworks of Indigenous recognition? What do Okinawans have to teach us about peace and justice in the current moment of geopolitical unrest?

We will engage with a range of learning materials beyond traditional academic work. These will include political documents, poetry and plays, newspaper archives and recorded panels from social movement organizations. Students will be asked to demonstrate their understanding of these materials and the course content in general through a combination of discussion- and activity-based participation, quizzes, and a single thesis-based research essay developed with the instructor over the course of the term.

Upon completing the course, students will have a broad understanding of how Okinawans themselves have worked to shape their own history and sense of place from the Ryūkyū Kingdom era to the present.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: