Paper short abstract:

This research revisits the economic reform policies applied to post-war Okinawa and examines a process of proletarianisation of local citizens. It tries to untangle a triangle power relationship among the US, Japan, and Okinawa on the postwar economic reform policies and examine the responses.

Paper long abstract:

This research is a part of an interdisciplinary project, "Reeducation Revisited" which carries a transnational and comparative analysis on reeducation politics found in the Post-World War II period in the US, Japan, and Germany. My research takes into account the 1945-1972 Okinawa when it was under the control of the US. More specifically, the research tries to examine how the restoration of labor activity in Okinawa occurred and how local citizens experienced this transition of industrial structure in the Post-World War II period. The study tries to provide a new approach to the study of labour in Japan.

　The purpose of the proposed research is to untangle and understand a triangle political power relationship of the US, Japan, and Okinawa on how the postwar economic reform policies were planned, selected, and implemented. The study looks at materials of the US government, the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands and the Japanese government for historical analysis on the triangle politics. The study uses content analysis as a methodology and analyzes secondary sources of the life history of workers in Okinawa to examine their experiences. It tries to understand the process of proletarianisation of local citizens amid the social transition in the complicated power relationship.

　I have been interested in the history of proletarianisation of Okinawans and its relation to the development of the Japanese capitalist society. My interest developed through an issue of proliferation of non-regular workers in Okinawa. While there are studies on precarious workers of the developed countries, there is not much study done examining why Okinawa has such a particular number of them. Instead of using culturalism to explain such situation, I argue that labour issue in the study of Okinawa needs a historical analysis of the social structure of labour activity.

Although this will still be an on-going research project by the time of the 16th EAJS conference, I will present the results as much as possible. Moreover, I would like to provide the participants with a new consideration of the epistemology of the study of Okinawa/Ryukyu within Japanese studies and its implications.