“We Are Okinawans But of a Different Kind”

Abstract

Focusing on the socalled offshorebase dispute after the 1995 rape incident, this article examines the intricacies of Okinawan resistance in the context of the nationstate and the larger processes of global history. In so doing, it aims to advance the potentialities of the newsocialmovements literature (concerning everyday practices of culture, identity, and difference) by explicitly restoring old politicoeconomic questions (class structure and the material conditions of life, along with the unity of agendas and actors) to contemporary social criticism. Showing that a particular Okinawan identity has been produced in the context of improved material conditions of life, it ethnographically examines the articulation of Okinawas historical unity and contemporary diversity. Attention is given to Okinawas endeavors to ground its collective consciousness not so much in the notion of a poor, oppressed people as in the notion of confident, affluent citizens of diverse backgrounds awakened to globally disseminated ideas concerning ecology, peace, womens issues, and human rights. The paper concludes by reclaiming the romance of resistance from the somewhat excessive concern of the newsocialmovements literature with issues of everyday power and resistance.

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