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Songs of War and Peace: Music and Memory in Okinawa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

James E. Roberson
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This essay develops McCormack and Norimatsu's point that memories of the past impact contemporary Okinawa and shape the identities of Okinawans. Roberson shows how memories of the Battle of Okinawa are a powerful presence in contemporary Okinawan popular music. In Roberson's words: “Early songs reflect the dynamics and contradictions of assimilationist pressures and desires that led Okinawans to participate … in Japan's wars and empire building. Later songs give witness to personal and cultural ambivalences and to the profound injuries suffered by Okinawans during the battle. As a result of their experiences in war, Okinawans have since that time sung of peace, first in terms of desiring to return to what they think of as a long-ago peaceful homeland, and later imagined in response to American military control and to the promise offered by Japan's ‘Peace Constitution.’” Popular songs in Okinawa, in short, can serve as a fascinating lens through which to observe the way in which Okinawans’ historical experiences have shaped contemporary Okinawan culture and politics.

Type
Part II: Contemporary Okinawan Society and Culture
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 12 , Special Issue S12: Course Reader No. 12. Putting Okinawa at the Center , January 2014 , pp. 173 - 195
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014

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