Join International House and the Center for East Asian Studies for the 15th Annual Tetsuo Najita Distinguished Lecture in Japanese Studies featuring Ichirō Tomiyama, Professor of Global Studies at Doshisha University. Originally trained at Kyoto University as an agricultural historian, Professor Tomiyama is best known as an historian and cultural critic who works on Japanese imperialism and colonialism, issues of identity in postwar Japan, war memory, and Okinawa.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Making of Okinawans: “Reversion” as “L’ensemble des efforts”

The year after Okinawa “reverted” to Japan in 1972, a children’s book entitled The History of Okinawa (Okinawa no ayumi, Maki Shoten) was published. Its author was Kokuba Kōtarō, a member of the Central Committee of the Okinawa People’s Party (Okinawa jinmintō), who had fought against the appropriation of land by the American military.
From the 1960s, huge amounts of financial capital from the Bank of America and other entities were thrust upon Okinawa, which rapidly became wealthier. It was in this context that Kokuba wrote about what Professor Ichiro Tomiyama, a Professor of Global Studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, describes in his title as “the making of Okinawans” as a nation or minzoku. In his view, here Kokuba was attempting to envision Okinawa’s past and its future.

The Tetsuo Najita Distinguished Lecture series was launched in 2007 by the CEAS Committee on Japanese Studies to honor the legacy of Tetsuo Najita, Robert S. Ingersoll Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and his contribution to the university during his long career.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the International House Global Voices Lecture Series.