Rethinking Okinawa and Okinawan Studies: Three Perspectives - 40 Years since Reversion: Negotiating the Okinawan Difference in Japan Today and Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa's Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000 and The Limits of Okinawa: Japanese Capitalism, Living Labor, and Theorizations of Community

The three books under review focus on the modern history of Okinawa, retracing political, economic, and cultural dynamics that have informed the lives of the islanders since the late nineteenth century and illuminating the multiple and often conflicting processes through which the meaning of “Okinawa” has been negotiated. At first glance, these studies seem to share little in common, as the topics they cover range from Shuri Castle to peasant revolt to language and literature, and the methodologies they draw on reflect the disciplinary conventions of history, sociology, linguistics, and religion, among others. However, a closer examination reveals a number of themes that tie them together, suggesting a potential space of dialogue that exists despite their differences. First, all three studies examine Okinawa's entanglements with Japan or the United States, or both, situating the islands within the larger contexts of cross-cultural and cross-regional dynamics. Second, they raise the question of...