A Rock and
a Hard Place
By: Yuki Allyson Honjo
To
most non-Japanese, Okinawa is merely part of Japan. To Japanese,
Okinawa is part of Japan but at the same time, a different place.
Affectionately
called "The Rock" by locals, Okinawa is caught in its proverbial
hard place. The island economy revolves around the US bases, but
they are also reminders of a devastating war. Nearly one fourth
of the civilian population died in the Battle of Okinawa, and fighting
left the island a wasteland. Islanders also bear suspicions toward
Japan as the central government was content to leave the US bases
on the islands after the 1972 reversion.
In
September of 1995, Okinawa became impossible to ignore. Three US
servicemen rented a car and proceeded to abduct, beat, and rape
a twelve year old Okinawan girl. The US military authorities mishandled
the affair. The New York Times reported that Admiral Richard
C. Marke stated the entire affair could have been avoided as the
assailants should have hired a prostitute for the price of the car
rental. The nature of the crime gave Okinawan protests a moral weight
and a new urgency.
Women
of Okinawa: Nine Voices from a Garrison Island, is a book that
examines Okinawa's relationship with Japan and the US bases through
the experiences of nine Okinawan women of three different generations.
Ruth Ann Keyso interviewed women ranging from a housewife, a secretary
at one of the US bases, to the former Miss Okinawa. The political
is intimately the personal: the war, the reversion to Japan, the
US bases-these issues are all part of these women's daily lives.
Each of the women has a distinct voice, and her personality and
character flow out from each of the stories. Some are particularly
affecting: Fumiko Nakamura, a documentary filmmaker and peace activist,
recounts how a relative had to bury Nakamura's mother on the side
of the road while fleeing during the war. After the war, when US
military came with bulldozers to widen the roads, twenty graves
were uprooted. Her family tried to recover the body, but was told
that their search would disrupt construction-Nakamura's mother still
lies buried in an unknown location under one of the Okinawa's roads.
The women's ambivalence toward the mainland and US bases is present
in all three generations. None of the women particularly dislikes
Americans, even those who survived the Battle of Okinawa. Keyso
states that one of reasons why she chose to concentrate on women
was the fact that they had the most contact with GI's as maids,
girlfriends, waitresses, cashiers, as well as objects of physical
violence. All of the women acknowledge that the island's fortunes
are tied to the bases: without them, the already poor prefecture
would be even poorer. Also interesting are the experiences of these
women on the mainland. Younger women complained that mainland Japanese
assumed that they spoke English, were "half" or Phillippena, or
were too poor to afford shoes. Ironically, many of these women's
identity was "Okinawan" was forged by their time on the mainland.
Older women expressed their disappointment in a central government
that they felt turned their back on Okinawa after the US occupation.
Less
insightful are Keyso's remarks at the start of each chapter. One
gets the uncomfortable feeling that she is partaking in some cultural
rubber necking: she writes about "stretching my neck around animatedly"
when she visited the red light district of Naha. The author inserts
herself into the situation: Keyso fears, Keyso has "selfish desires,"
Keyso "saunters" rather than walks. Far be it from focusing on the
interviewee's background and activities, we are forced to hear about
Ms Keyso's "brown hair and green eyes". For that matter, the author
seems obsessed with hair: Junko Isa's "was the color of coal save
for a few snow white strands", another has "shoulder length sable-black
hair," "jet black hair," "raven black hair," "inky black hair in
a ponytail": after the ninth description of hair (whilst using every
available synonym for black), one wants to scream, "Enough with
the hair already". Not only are her descriptions clunky and overly
dramatic, they verge on the annoying.
Aside
from Keyso's commentary, the book is highly readable and serves
as a nuanced guide through the uncomfortable triangular relationship
between the US, Japan, and Okinawa. Their voices and their experiences
are unique, their stories memorable. But in the end, the women of
Okinawa have stories that deserve to be told. But after all, isn't
that what really matters? 
"Keyso
states that one of reasons why she chose to concentrate on women
was the fact that they had the most contact with GI's as maids,
girlfriends, waitresses, cashiers, as well as objects of physical
violence."
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