Gender and Structural Violence in U.S. Relocation Camps: Okinawa and Canada in Comparative Perspective

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K18300
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 80030:Gender studies-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University of Economics and Law
• Principal Investigator: HONG YUNSHIN 大阪経済法科大学, 公私立大学の部局等, 研究員 (80751057)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 沖縄戦 / 米軍収容所 / 慰安婦 / 辻遊郭 / 戦時性暴力 / 構造的な暴力 / 飢餓 / 戦後民主主義

Outline of Final Research Achievements

During the Battle of Okinawa, Japanese prisoners of war, Okinawans, and Koreans were interned in U.S. military relocation camps. This research examines Okinawa’s "internment camp" experience from a gender perspective, focusing on an empirical analysis of military control and violence during and after World War II. The author chooses the immediate postwar situation on Miyako Island as a case study. Miyakojima was not invaded by U.S. forces during the war, and Okinawan studies have generally ignored this "concentration camp without barbed wire.” I argue that the camps raise not only questions of military control, but equally important speak to issues of community, including the freedom of movement. Furthermore, I stress that the camps were transnational spaces where Okinawans, Japanese POWs, and Koreans lived together under American military rule.

Free Research Field

国際関係学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

沖縄の戦後意識を考える際に、沖縄戦体験を抜きにして考えることは出来ない。沖縄上陸と共に米軍が設置した収容所は、占領する側の米軍が住民を収容した側面だけでなく、米軍が意図したわけではないが、住民を日本軍から保護した側面を合わせ持つ。同時に、女性がはじめて参政権を得た沖縄社会の「民主主義」の場でもあった。国家や階級などによって綺麗に分類し切れない人々が集まり「戦後」をスタートした空間が沖縄の収容所であった。本研究は学術的には、収容所の中でも最も脆弱な位置に置かれた女性の体験を中心軸に分析したジェンダー研究の幅を拡張した点、社会的には占領が続くなかでの民主主義とは何かの問いとなり得る点で意義を持つ。