Alegal

Okinawan life, at the crossroads of American militarism and Japanese capitalism, embodies a fundamental contradiction to the myth of the monoethnic state. Suspended in a state of exception, Okinawans have never been officially classified as colonial subjects of the Japanese empire or the United Stat...

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Huvudupphov: Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
Materialtyp: Online
Språk:engelska
Utgiven: Fordham University Press 2023
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Länkar:ONIX_20231005_9780823282685_191
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author Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
author_browse Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
author_facet Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
author_sort Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Okinawan life, at the crossroads of American militarism and Japanese capitalism, embodies a fundamental contradiction to the myth of the monoethnic state. Suspended in a state of exception, Okinawans have never been officially classified as colonial subjects of the Japanese empire or the United States, nor have they ever been treated as equal citizens of Japan. As a result, they live amid one of the densest concentrations of U.S. military bases in the world. By bringing Foucauldian biopolitics into conversation with Japanese Marxian theorizations of capitalism, Alegal uncovers Japan's determination to protect its middle class from the racialized sexual contact around its mainland bases by displacing them onto Okinawa, while simultaneously upholding Okinawa as a symbol of the infringement of Japanese sovereignty figured in terms of a patriarchal monoethnic state. This symbolism, however, has provoked ambivalence within Okinawa. In base towns that facilitated encounters between G.I.s and Okinawan women, the racial politics of the United States collided with the postcolonial politics of the Asia Pacific. Through close readings of poetry, reportage, film, and memoir on base-town life since 1945, Shimabuku traces a continuing failure to "become Japanese." What she discerns instead is a complex politics surrounding sex work, tipping with volatility along the razor's edge between insurgency and collaboration. At stake in sovereign power's attempt to secure Okinawa as a military fortress was the need to contain alegality itself-that is, a life force irreducible to the legal order. If biopolitics is the state's attempt to monopolize life, then Alegal is a story about how borderland actors reclaimed the power of life for themselves. In addition to scholars of Japan and Okinawa, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in postcolonialism, militarism, mixed-race studies, gender and sexuality, or the production of sovereignty in the modern world. Alegal is available from the publisher on an open-access basis.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1144072024-03-29T04:24:58Z Alegal Shimabuku, Annmaria M. Sociology History Asian Studies Political Science Language & Literature thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory Okinawan life, at the crossroads of American militarism and Japanese capitalism, embodies a fundamental contradiction to the myth of the monoethnic state. Suspended in a state of exception, Okinawans have never been officially classified as colonial subjects of the Japanese empire or the United States, nor have they ever been treated as equal citizens of Japan. As a result, they live amid one of the densest concentrations of U.S. military bases in the world. By bringing Foucauldian biopolitics into conversation with Japanese Marxian theorizations of capitalism, Alegal uncovers Japan's determination to protect its middle class from the racialized sexual contact around its mainland bases by displacing them onto Okinawa, while simultaneously upholding Okinawa as a symbol of the infringement of Japanese sovereignty figured in terms of a patriarchal monoethnic state. This symbolism, however, has provoked ambivalence within Okinawa. In base towns that facilitated encounters between G.I.s and Okinawan women, the racial politics of the United States collided with the postcolonial politics of the Asia Pacific. Through close readings of poetry, reportage, film, and memoir on base-town life since 1945, Shimabuku traces a continuing failure to "become Japanese." What she discerns instead is a complex politics surrounding sex work, tipping with volatility along the razor's edge between insurgency and collaboration. At stake in sovereign power's attempt to secure Okinawa as a military fortress was the need to contain alegality itself-that is, a life force irreducible to the legal order. If biopolitics is the state's attempt to monopolize life, then Alegal is a story about how borderland actors reclaimed the power of life for themselves. In addition to scholars of Japan and Okinawa, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in postcolonialism, militarism, mixed-race studies, gender and sexuality, or the production of sovereignty in the modern world. Alegal is available from the publisher on an open-access basis. 2023-10-05T10:05:08Z 2023-10-05T10:05:08Z 2019 book ONIX_20231005_9780823282685_191 9780823282685 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/114407 eng image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctv75db00 Fordham University Press 10.2307/j.ctv75db00 10.2307/j.ctv75db00 37ec2b5e-0d2c-4625-aaec-dd64680a22fe b9f2d7ab-6fda-4ad4-969d-810eac4c06c2 9780823282685 [...] open access
spellingShingle Sociology
History
Asian Studies
Political Science
Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
Shimabuku, Annmaria M.
Alegal
title Alegal
title_full Alegal
title_fullStr Alegal
title_full_unstemmed Alegal
title_short Alegal
title_sort alegal
topic Sociology
History
Asian Studies
Political Science
Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
topic_facet Sociology
History
Asian Studies
Political Science
Language & Literature
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHF Asian history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHT History: specific events and topics::NHTQ Colonialism and imperialism
thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory
url ONIX_20231005_9780823282685_191
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