May 15, 2022 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘reversion’ of Okinawa to Japan by the United States. To commemorate this historic event the UW Japan Studies Program has invited an interdisciplinary and international group of Okinawa Studies scholars to present research that reflects on the reversion movement and its aftermath at a two-day workshop entitled “Okinawa Reversion 50 Years On” May 13-14, 2022. These scholars—from North America, Europe, and Japan—will also consider the ongoing legacies of Okinawa’s colonial history, which began in the early 1700s with the Satsuma clan’s invasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and was followed by imperial Japan’s annexation of the region in 1879, the trauma of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, decades of American occupation, continuing today in the form of a massive concentration of U.S. military bases in Japan’s poorest prefecture.
This workshop is by invitation only. For information contact Japan@uw.edu.
Sponsored by:
UW Japan Studies Program in partnership with:
Department of American Ethnic Studies
Department of Asian Languages and Literature
East Asia Center, a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Center