1st Edition

Okinawan Women's Stories of Migration From War Brides to Issei

112 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

112 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

112 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations

by Routledge

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Description

The phenomenon of “war brides” from Japan moving to the West has been quite widely discussed, but this book tells the stories of women whose lives followed a rather different path after they married foreign occupiers. During Okinawa’s Occupation by the Allies from 1945 to 1972, many Okinawan women met and had relationships with non-Western men who were stationed in Okinawa as soldiers and base... Read more

List of photos

Acknowledgements

Notes on Japanese words and names

1 War brides’ silent journeys

1.1 War brides as a category of migrants

1.2 Japanese war brides

1.3 Images of war brides in Japan

1.4 War brides in the Global South

1.5 Towards a life-course approach in analysing war bride migration

1.6 Meaningful encounters: notes on methodology

1.7 The book

2 Memories of war and its aftermath: the Battle of Okinawa and the American Occupation

2.1 Katsuko’s memories

2.2 Through a woman’s eyes: the Battle of Okinawa

2.3 When they came: the American Occupation of Okinawa

2.3.1 Marrying the enemy? International marriages during the Occupation

3 Okinawan women’s journey to the Philippines

3.1 The Philippine Okinawan Society

3.2 Crossing the seas to the Philippines

3.3 “Haponesa”: ethnicized identity as stigma

3.3.1 Inheriting the stigma: children of the “Haponesa”

3.4 “We are Issei”: reclaiming an identity

3.5 Issei stories

3.6 Choosing to stay: Okinawan women in the Philippines

3.6.1 Yoko’s story

3.6.2 Taeko’s story

3.6.3 Fusae’s story

3.6.4 Those who remained

4 Homecomings: the return to Okinawa

4.1 Return in later life

4.2 The Issei’s “return”: fulfilling a mother’s obligation

4.3 The Catholic Church in the lives of the Issei

4.4 The question of home

5 Migration and the end-of-life: when death becomes her question

5.1 Death and migration

5.2 Death, religion, and tradition in Okinawa

5.3 Catholic rites and the Issei

5.4 “And to dust you shall return”: perceptions on the end-of-life, home, and return

5.5 Death and the life course

6 War brides and the life course: a conclusion

6.1 Re-locating Okinawa beyond the U.S.-Japan Nexus

6.2 Migration and/in the life course

Index