Okinawa Under Occupation

This book examines classical and modern interpretations of education in the context of contemporary Okinawa as a site of neoliberal military-industrial development. Considering how media educate consumers to accept the plans and policies of the powerful, it questions current concepts of development and the ideology that informs national security policies. The book closely examines the signs, symbols, and rhetorical manipulations of language used in media to rationalize and justify a kind of development, which is the destruction of the environment in Henoko. Through careful analysis of public relations literature and public discourse, it challenges the presupposition that Okinawa is the Keystone of the Pacific and necessarily the only location in Japan to host U.S. military presence. Forced to co-operate in America’s military hegemony and global war-fighting action, Okinawa is at the very center of the growing tension between Beijing and Washington and its clients in Tokyo and Seoul. The book represents a case study of the discourse used in society to wield control over this larger project, which is a more developed and militarized Okinawa . Considering how history is given shape through external power structures and discourse practices that seek control over both historical and contemporary narratives, it reveals how public attitudes and perceptions are shaped through educational policies and media.

“Through a thoughtful presentation of post-WWII history and contemporary events, the authors describe and critically examine ongoing issues of the U.S. military base presence in Okinawa from an original perspective and within a novel analytical framework. The questions that arise from their wide-ranging in-depth analysis, however, are directed toward us Okinawans and should engender serious engagement.” (Hideki Yoshika, Synaesthesia: Communication across Cultures, 2018)

“Daniel Broudy’s outstanding, insightful work helps us understand the ravages of an imperialism that doesn’t speak its name.” (John Pilger, renowned journalist, author, and film-maker)

“Squarely within the venerable tradition of critical media scholarship, which puts front and center the suffering of marginalised peoples with the admirable aims of its exposure and amelioration, Tanji and Broudy expertly muckrake the scope and mechanics of neoliberal propaganda designed to deny Okinawan people their long-overdue relief from the complex forces of oppression equally besetting other forgotten places of colonial rule.” (Dr. Tabe Bergman, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China)

“With Okinawa under Occupation, Miyume Tanji and Daniel Broudy have made a powerful academic and political statement about the consequences of militarization and colonialism. And yet, this is not simply a book about the aftermath of a genocidal war, the appropriation of land for military use, the subordination of indigenous people, or the methodical intervention into local practices. Or, I should say, it is about all of these things and more. … At the same time, it is a hopeful book, attentive to moments where these same Okinawan people have resisted this transformation, struggling to live their lives on their own terms. It is an important argument, one to which readers who have benefitted from these processes of neoliberal domination—willingly or unwillingly—ought to be attentive and answerable.”(Christopher T. Nelson, Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA)

“Okinawa under Occupation, by Tanji and Broudy, represents a tour de force, a seminal book on media and political discourse in the context of Okinawa, caught in a maelstrom of global geopolitics and neoliberal economic policies. The book offers new perspectives on power and resistance in Okinawa. It analyses multiple (semantic) expressions of power; illustrating how they – through media and education – defend the (‘normal’) order of things and silence alternative visions.” (Firouz Gaini, Associate Professor in Anthropology, University of the Faroe Islands, Faroe Islands)

Miyume Tanji (Ph.D. in politics) is an honorary lecturer at the Australian National University. Miyume has written about social movements in Okinawa, and is the author of ‘Myth, Protest and Struggle in Okinawa’ (2006). Miyume has been a guest editor of Amerasia Journal’s special issue on ‘Indigenous Asias’ (volume 41, 2015), and contributed articles to academic journals such as Critical Asian Studies, Japan Focus: the Asia-Pacific Journal, and Asian Studies Review.

Daniel Broudy is Chair of the Graduate School of Intercultural Communication and Professor of Rhetoric and Applied Linguistics at Okinawa Christian University, Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in applied psycholinguistics from Deakin University and an M.A. in rhetoric from Norwich University. His research activities include analysis of textual and symbolic representations of power that dominate post-industrial culture.