Akemi Johnson takes a look at Okinawa and analyzes its history as a "contact zone"-a place where cultures intersect through trade and conflict, by focusing the narrative via the perspectives of eleven women from the island in The American Village: Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa (2019). The first chapter, "Rina", is named after 20 year old Rina Shimabukuro who was raped and murdered by an ex-marine working as a civilian contractor on a base in 2016. Johnson states that she starts with this story because it represents the larger story of Okinawa and shows what many people get wrong about it-there is a long history of military sexual violence, but only big stories like this get reported. These personal stories allow Johnson look at them in context of the history since occupation after WWII. The second chapter "Eve" is named after a 29 year old receptionist who is obsessed with finding a black husband before she is too old to marry. This chapter gives Johnson an opportunity to look at some subcultures among women on the island. They are given the derogatory names such as "ame-jo" and koku-jo", I had assumed the "jo" meant women who like Americans or blacks. But it turns out that it comes from the Okinawan word "jogu" which means appetite for something with sexual connotations. In the third section, "Ashely", the focus is a wife of a Marines officer describes her life as being like an extension of college with parties and outings on the island. The fourth chapter is about "Sachiko" a WWII survivor who worked as a nurse in the caves on the island during the war. Johnson analyzes the last days of the war where many Japanese chose to kill themselves rather than be raped and tortured by the American devils. "Arisa" the subject of chapter five, grew up near a base and ended up marrying a soldier from the base. Thus, in this chapter Johnson looks at history of international marriages between Okinawan women and the soldiers on the base and how they evolved over time. It is clear that Arisa's stable marriage is something of an exception when you hear the stories of the support group that she volunteered with. The sixth chapter focuses on women's rights advocate "Suzuyo" Takazato and allows Johnson to delve into the other sensational military rape case that took place in 1995 when three marines abducted a 12 year old girl raped her and then dumped her in a trash can. The following chapter, "Daisy, is about a Philippine who came to the island as a hostess and managed to find a decent life outside of the red light district, but this is an opportunity for Johnston to analyze trafficking in Japan. Chapter eight focuses on "Miyo" daughter of an African American and Okinawan woman. Johnston explains that the term applied to Miyo: "hafu"-derived from the English word "half" is "a neutral or positive identifier for most mixed-race Japanese people." "Kiki", the subject of chapter nine, happily works on Futenma base, the most dangerous base in the world given its proximity to a densely populated town where crashes have narrowly avoided killing or injuring local people. Other factors such as pollution and prospects of what the spaces would be used for once a base closes are discussed in this section. "Chie", the main subject of chapter ten, was introduced in chapter four when Johnston focused on her mother "Sachiko." Chie is a lively free spirit and English teacher by trade but she is a leading base protester who devotes most of her free time to protesting the building of the new base Henko north of Nago on the island. This was one of the most interesting chapter for me since it focuses on the main issue of the day in Okinawa-moving Futenma to Henko. The last chapter focuses on the youngest generation by focusing on recent protester "Ai" who due to her family's urging has stopped protesting after she was outraged by the rape and murder of "Rina." There are few young people involved in the protest which suggests that the bases will probably live on in Okinawa as they have in the past. Despite the fact that Okinawa is unique in that "the U.S. military presence creates social spaces and opportunities otherwise hard to find in Japan, Johnson has arrived at a personal conclusion. She says:
But the more I learned about the situation and history, the more I felt the bases in Okinawa need to close. Knowing how Okinawans suffered through World War II; how the United States snatched their land; how mainlanders relegate bases to Okinawa to keep them out of their own backyards; how there's no tragic reason for such a heavy military concentration on one small island; how pervasive sexual assault is; and how Okinawans have demonstrated their opposition, time and time again, through democratic means, I know it's an injustice to have so many U.S. bases continue to exist in Okinawa.
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