Okinawa is a rich source of provocation for contemporary Japanese studies in English. From the view of modern area studies, Okinawa lies within Japan's borders yet is simultaneously other. Initiated in part by the larger shift within cultural studies and postcolonial studies toward the geographical, linguistic, and cultural margins, the steady increase in scholarly attention directed to Okinawa since the 1990s has created a space in which Okinawan voices can be heard. These voices challenge the myth of Japanese ethnic homogeneity and thereby permit an arguably more interesting view of Japan (and Japanese studies) as multicultural and diverse.1 However, that we increasingly come to Okinawa only by beginning with Japan betrays a context that relegates this region, its history, and its cultures to a subcategory unable to constitute the whole. The inescapability of this relationship to Japan is evident in the titles of anthologies of fiction by Okinawan writers...

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