Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas

Japan Research Monograph

by Tatsuhiro Ôshiro, Mineo Higashi, Steve Rabson (Editor)

Half a century after the clash of Japanese and American forces devastated Okinawa in the spring of 1945, wide areas of Japan's southernmost prefecture remain an armed bastion. Although U.S. military rule in Okinawa ended in 1972, airfields, artillery ranges, ammunition depots, infantry training grounds, and other military installations still occupy large areas of the prefecture. People in Okinawa continue to protest the shortages of land, daily disruptions, and not infrequent dangers associated with this vast military presence.

At a time of heightened controversy among Japanese and American scholars looking back on the occupation of Japan, this book (corrected and updated 1996) grew out of a conviction that works of literature often provide the best means for understanding how people live in unusual circumstances. The novellas translated here--Oshiro Tatsuhiro's "Cocktail Party" ("Kakuteru pati") and Higashi Mineo's "Child of Okinawa" ("Okinawa no shonen")--each won the coveted Akutagawa Prize for fiction for their authors. Although the novellas differ sharply in tone and form, both are first-person narratives of individual protagonists whose lives are profoundly affected by the U.S. occupation and military presence.

The novellas are presented here in translation together with an introduction providing historical background and a concluding essay that compares and evaluates them. The introduction is intended to supply information that will help the reader understand specific points in the stories. For both essays, the author has drawn on Japanese and English-language sources including materials collected in Okinawa during eight months of a 1967-68 overseas tour in the U.S. Army and on subsequent visits to the island.

Genres: Japan, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Historical Fiction

141 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Tatsuhiro Ôshiro is an Okinawan novelist and playwright. He was awarded the Akutagawa Prize in 1967 for his novella of the same year, The Cocktail Party, which has been adapted for the stage and made into a film. His writings have been noted for making Okinawan culture and history accessible to a mainland Japanese readership, while his more popular works have been critically praised for "offering an acute perspective on the psychological and moral implications of war and military occupation." He has received a Medal of Honor and the Order of the Rising Sun, and been named a Person of Cultural Merit in Japan. His numerous awards include the Taiko Hirabayashi Prize and the Yasunari Kawabata Literary Prize.

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

just wrote a paper about this novella! Yeah I’ll count it towards my goodreads challenge!

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okinawa is a fascinating place as it sits between Japan and China and has elements of both cultures and has been the home of US military bases since the end of WWII. This book Okinawa: Two Postwar Novellas provides insight into the post war condition of the Ryukyu Islands at the southern most part of the Japanese archipelago. There are two novellas: The Cocktail Party by Tatsuhiro Oshiro and Child of Okinawa by Mineo Higashi. However, the introduction and afterword by translator Steve Rabson are enlightening with the historical and cultural context in which these works were written. The principal characters in the first story, "The Cocktail Party" by Oshiro, are an Okinawan, a Japanese, a Chinese, and an American who are friends and have several cross-cultural discussion about events that take place over the story. The biggest being the rape and prosecution for bodily harm of the Okinawan's teenage daughter with an American soldier. These political and cultural questions weigh in more heavily than literary devices. I have read this was turned into a play and see how that might have been a more effective vehicle for this particular story. In fact, it would probably make a compelling film as well. The second story is a more conventional coming of age story about Tsuneyoshi a preadolescent boy who is unhappy about his current living conditions-he lives in a town that serves the American military base and his parents run a bar with girls for sale and when there is a need for two simultaneous beds he is usurped. He has to do chores, deliver papers, and attend school where is looked down on by teachers and students alike. He dreams of escape to a desert island like Robinson Crusoe the hero of his favorite book. As pointed out by Rabson, these stories are both journeys that lead to separation from the communities in which they feel marginalized. These are powerful stories that reflect the contentious and diverse culture of Okinawa in the face of American military economic occupation.

[Krystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all: I only read the two novellas. I did not read the introduction or the afterword of this book. One of the two novellas was a required reading for my degree and I decided to read the other one as well since I had purchased the book.

Cocktail Party: 4 out of 5 stars
- I thought this story was well written. It made me uncomfortable for the first half in a good way. Seeing the conversations between Americans, Japanese main islanders, an Okinawan, and a Chinese person was interesting and eye opening. The second half was hard to read, again in a good way. I liked that the main character was not given a name so that the reader could put themselves in the main characters shoes. I also found the shift from first person to third person a cool choice.

Child of Okinawa: 3 out of 3 stars
- This story was written well but it made me uncomfortable in a bad way. I think the themes brought up were just as important but I think my discomfort came from following a child in a mature setting as he is discovering more about himself.

Over all, both novellas were well written and had important themes.

CW: rape, child abuse, brief moments of racism

[Adam Gutschenritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both novellas were very well written and the experiences of the protagonists were ultimately shaped by the military occupation of Okinawa. In each case the juxtaposition of how the world is supposed to appear and the broken realities the characters experience highlight the problems of the losers in an occupied state.

[Josh Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very difficult content to read, but an illuminating look at the complicated political, cultural, and personal relationships in Okinawa under American occupation. For a roughly 90 page novella, the characters and setting are quite well-developed.

[Victor Galov · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intriguing and very illuminating view on post-war Okinawa, especially valuable for being told from the POV of a Ryukyun at the time of its writing. I read the first of the two novellas, which provided valuable colonialist critiques of the US military and its occupation of Okinawa, made even more fascinating due to the quadrinational approach of Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, and American sides being shown.
However, the narrative is only meh, and I would only recommend this novella to those interested in the subject, or to those working in an academic setting.

[Kirin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for school.

I enjoyed this read quite a bit.