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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: July 31, 2020 at 10:15:56 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Migration]: Dresner on Matsuda, 'Liminality of the > Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Hiroko Matsuda. Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings > from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan. Perspectives on the Global Past > Series. Honolulu University of Hawai'i Press, 2018. Illustrations, > maps, tables. 220 pp. $68.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8248-6756-0. > > Reviewed by Jonathan Dresner (Pittsburgh State University) > Published on H-Migration (July, 2020) > Commissioned by Nicholas B. Miller > > Dresner on Matsuda, 'Liminality of the Japanese Empire: Border > Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial Taiwan' (2018) > > The experience of Okinawans in Taiwan was unquestionably complicated, > legally, socially, and personally, but "liminal" requires more than > the failure of binary categories to encapsulate reality. Similarly, > "agency" is not just people making choices within their historical > context, but it is hard to tell from Hiroko Matsuda's presentation > that either of these terms carry more subtle and critical meanings. > Nevertheless, this is a clearly written and reasonably efficient book > for anyone interested in the histories of Japan, China, Taiwan, > Okinawa, diaspora, or empire, and would work well in both graduate > and undergraduate courses. > > The westernmost islands of Okinawa are about two hundred kilometers > from Taiwan, and the main island groups Matsuda focuses on are > roughly equidistant between Taiwan and the main island of Okinawa. > This raises what my advisor, Albert Craig, called "the propinquity > principle," which is a fancy way of saying that people interact more > with people who are physically closer. These geographic neighbors > certainly interacted in the premodern past, but more anthropological > and archaeological work will be necessary to reveal those > connections. > > The modern relationship between Taiwan and Okinawa was complicated by > dramatic changes in status and sovereignty over the last century and > a half. The Ryūkyū kingdom was a sovereign, tributary state of both > China and Japan for centuries, treated as a sub-domain of a Japanese > daimyō lord in premodern Japan and then absorbed into Japan > administratively in the 1870s through manipulation of the > international treaty system, backed up by substantial military force, > eventually becoming Okinawa Prefecture. The Yaeyama island cluster in > the southwest, nearest to Taiwan, could have been under Qing > sovereignty had the Chinese ratified the agreement but ultimately was > integrated into Japanese Okinawa without open conflict. After World > War II, Okinawa was a US military protectorate until most of it was > reverted to Japanese control, against the will of many Okinawans, in > the early 1970s. > > Taiwan was largely independent of established states, though part was > controlled by Dutch interests, before the Qing dynasty conquered it > as part of the Manchu pacification of China. After two centuries of > being a Chinese periphery with substantial indigenous populations, > Taiwan was turned over to Japan as part of the settlement of the > first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). Suppression of Han Chinese and > indigenous Taiwanese resistance to Japanese rule involved > considerable violence. After World War II, Taiwan became a > Nationalist (Pinyin: Guomindang; Wade-Giles: Kuomintang) stronghold, > defied the unification of mainland China under Communist rule, and > still occupies a nearly unique unofficial autonomy. > > Matsuda expands this context to include geographic and ethnic > divisions in Okinawan society that affected identity formation and > group cohesion of Okinawan migrants, and Japanese policy toward > Okinawa that sometimes treated it like a colonial territory and > sometimes like a rural part of mainland Japan. Okinawa is well known > for having a high rate of modern emigration but is better known for > the overseas diaspora communities that persisted after World War II > than colonials. Okinawa is well known for having suffered greatly > during the Battle of Okinawa but not for its postwar repatriates who > had different wartime experiences, including a surprisingly large > contingent of Okinawans evacuated to Taiwan and mainland Japan prior > to the battle. > > It is, then, perhaps no surprise that the unifying theme of this > history is liminality, emphasizing the inability of binary categories > to capture the status or experience of Okinawan Japanese moving to > and within Taiwan under Japanese rule. A lot of this discussion takes > place through the lens of empire, to problematize ruler-ruled > dichotomies in multiethnic societies with nationalistic discourses; > Prasenjit Duara is cited in the very first footnote. Though there is > a solid theoretical foundation overall, there is little attention to > comparative cases, which leaves gaps in the analysis. Engagement with > other diaspora histories regarding "middleman minorities"--Chinese > communities in Southeast Asia, Korean shopkeepers in the United > States, Jewish populations almost anywhere, etc.--might alleviate the > binary nature of the argument. Similarly, contrasts with other > peripheral regions as studied by geographers would bring productive > issues into play. There is an intriguing comparison made early in the > book to Irish migrants in the context of the British Empire, and a > brief discussion of Hokkaido as a possible parallel (see page 157n12 > on Tessa Morris-Suzuki), but Matsuda never returns to either > question, otherwise treating Okinawans migrating to Taiwan as _sui > generis_. > > Matsuda notes the diversity of Okinawans and the ways it was > reflected in Taiwan. Okinawans went to Taiwan as soon as Japan > claimed it, rather than waiting for the commercial or official labor > agents who facilitated and homogenized so many other modern > migrations. The ratio of commercial and white-collar workers was not > typical of Okinawa socioeconomics generally, though it was largely > consistent with Japanese colonial populations. Okinawans were about 4 > percent of the Japanese population in Taiwan at a time when they were > about 1 percent of the population of Japan proper, but the only > fields they dominated were fishery and domestic service, where they > were about one-quarter of Japanese workers (see figure 1.4 on page > 37; additional figures from the Statistics Bureau of Japan; Matsuda > often gives absolute population numbers but not percentages). Fishers > constituted about 10 percent of the Okinawan presence, but the > stereotype of Okinawans as fishers was strong: Matsuda opens the book > with the recent dedication in Taiwan of a statue in honor of Okinawan > fishers as a symbol of peaceful Taiwan-Okinawa relations. The > opportunity to send remittances back home was not always a factor, as > many migrants explained their movement as a desire for a "more > civilized" environment, reflecting the image of Yaeyama as a backward > region, Taiwan as urbanized. Matsuda makes a lot out of "not always" > points regarding common historical tropes such as emigrant > remittances; it can be a useful corrective, but it is often unclear > who she is refuting (see also the discussion of Matayoshi on page 11, > "bitterness" on page 70, racism on page 76ff.). > > Okinawans were affected by the expansion of nationalist rhetoric > across the empire, which privileged a mainland-normative homogenized > culture, including educational and cultural initiatives directed at > Japan's own rural society. Japanese discrimination against Okinawans > shows up in many ways in this history, including underinvestment in > Okinawan education, which is highlighted by Okinawans using Taiwanese > colonial institutions. Matsuda introduces the concept of "imperial > schooling" to describe this mechanism of advancement and notes how > acculturation with the new Japanese mainstream in language and > culture served both to assimilate Okinawans into Japanese mainland > culture and to distinguish them from Taiwanese (p. 19). Matsuda uses > "contact zone" theory to explain interactions between Okinawans, > Japanese institutions that were often _de facto_ segregated, and > Taiwanese locals. Okinawans often worked and studied in positions > technically open to Taiwanese but that privileged Okinawans with > normative Japanese-language skills. > > Japanese imperialism was hindered by tropical diseases, as so often > happens, so despite rising modern standards and professionalism in > Japanese medicine generally, Taiwan and other colonial territories > needed infectious disease specialists and built schools to supply > them, often at much lower cost and with easier entry requirements > than Okinawan or mainland education. A lot of Okinawans with medical > training were conscripted in the 1930s and served in military > capacities in China and the South Seas. Imperial schooling, as well > as frequent job changing, are used as evidence of the personal agency > of Okinawans. Sayaka Chatani's _Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural > Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies_ (2018) addresses > similar questions and sources but with a subtler approach to agency > in the imperial context. > > Two-thirds of Miyako Islands students who went to medical school did > so through colonial institutions but many Okinawans considered them > second-rate (p. 96). Inafuku Zenshin (b. 1909), for example, is > quoted as saying, "Having been a precocious and ambitious boy, I was > disappointed when my relatives encouraged me to go to Taiwan Medical > College. I had never imagined that I would end up as a humble town > doctor. However my family was poor, and my father was already dead. I > had no choice but to rely on relatives to go to a school" (p. 95). > The frankness of Matsuda's interviews is quite bracing, at times. > Matsuda resists the label "racist" being applied to Okinawans in > Taiwan who objected to being educated with Taiwanese, though it is > unclear what other term would fit, or why it is brought up at all (p. > 114). > > The last chapters bring questions of identity into sharper focus, > detailing how Okinawans in Taiwan adopted a range of tactics and > self-descriptions. On one extreme were migrants who changed names, > assimilated mainland language, and changed personal registries to > obscure their Okinawan origin, as well as children born to Okinawan > parents in Taiwan who considered themselves Japanese rather than > ethnic Okinawan. Matsuda uses both assimilation and creolization > (though the latter term is never defined) in analyzing the > multigenerational process, as in "their imperial Japanese identity > was not naturally constructed but shaped by their parents' > concealment of their Okinawan heritage and active assimilation into > the culture of Mainland Japan. In other words, the assimilation and > creolization of Okinawan migrants are both distinct and entangled" > (p. 108). On the other extreme was an Okinawan pride movement whose > leadership included anthropologically informed mainlanders with an > interest in folklore. > > The repatriation of colonial Japanese after World War II affected > high-emigration regions like Okinawa particularly strongly, but the > combination of the distinct experience of the Battle of Okinawa and > the diversity of Okinawans in Taiwan resulted in complicated, > emotional interactions. Matsuda's recounting also makes clear how > confused and drawn-out repatriation was, simply as a mass > displacement. Rural Okinawans considered returnees to have had > sophisticated experiences that culturally changed the migrants into > outsiders; Okinawans who lived through the war on the main island > considered returnees to lack the experience necessary to be fully > Okinawan; and many returnees had reservations about Okinawan > ethnicity after living as assimilated Japanese. Matsuda also argues > that Okinawan postwar history needs to be understood in the light of > the educational and professional development of Taiwan migrants: "the > life histories of repatriates from Taiwan demonstrate the extent to > which postwar Okinawan society was built on Japanese colonial rule in > Taiwan. For instance, many of the repatriates from Taiwan took > leading roles in politics and industries in Okinawa" (p. 141). This > is obscured, she suggests, by discourses of historical memory in > Okinawa that privilege the wartime experience in Okinawa itself, as > well as labor migration flows to overseas communities, especially in > the Americas. > > Despite some overreach and underdevelopment of theory, this is a > valuable, accessible work illuminating a fascinating set of > interactions and reactions. The book clearly and deliberately sits at > the intersection of many current lines of scholarly inquiry, and > should be taken seriously by people working on modern Pacific > history, empires, geography, ethnicity, and migrations. > > Citation: Jonathan Dresner. Review of Matsuda, Hiroko, _Liminality of > the Japanese Empire: Border Crossings from Okinawa to Colonial > Taiwan_. H-Migration, H-Net Reviews. July, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54890 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#118): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/118 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/75908755/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
