Okinawa’s ‘Reversion’ 50 Years On

Okinawa’s ‘Reversion’ 50 Years On

A Workshop May 12-14, 2022

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. 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.

See the agenda and participants’ information in the links below. This workshop is by invitation only.

Agenda

Participants

LINDA ISAKO ANGST Ph.D. Portland Oregon

DAVINDER BHOWMIK – University of Washington

ALAN CHRISTY – University of California Santa Cruz

IKUE KINAUniversity of the Ryūkyūs

LAURA KINADePaul 

WENDY MATSUMURA – University of California San Diego

CHRISTOPHER T. NELSON – University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

YUICHIRO ONISHIUniversity of Minnesota Twin Cities

VICTORIA YOUNGUniversity of Cambridge

Sponsors

UW Japan Studies Program in partnership with:

Department of American Ethnic Studies

       Department of Art History

Department of Asian Languages and Literature

East Asia Center, a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Center

Department of History

Simpson Center for the Humanities

Musical Artist: Mako