Please post one paragraph of critical questions and/or analysis on the readings

Please post 1-2 paragraphs of critical questions and/or analysis on

Koikari’s “Re-thinking Gender and Militarism in Cold War Okinawa,”
Yamazato’s “The Silver Motorcycle,”
Ueunten’s “Rising Up from a Sea of Discontent.”

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Rising Up from a Sea of Discontent

The 1970 Koza Uprising in U

S.-Occupied Okinawa

Wesley Iwao Ueunten

Burn, burn, let the whole world burn!

—Overheard by journalists during the Koza Uprising

(Takamine, Shirarezaru Okinawa no beihei)

I came across an account of a riot that occurred in Okinawa on December
20, 1970, that made its way to the front page of many major American
newspapers but then suddenly disappeared from news coverage the next
day. In the aft ermath of the “Koza Riot,” or what I choose to call the “Koza
Uprising” because it was not merely a chaotic and mindless fracas (a point
about which I will address later; see Figure 5.1), over seventy cars owned
by Americans and a few buildings on the huge Kadena Air Force Base, for
which the town of Koza served as an entertainment district, were burned
by Okinawans. No such violent protest by Okinawans toward U.S. military
occupation can be remembered before or since then.

Th is chapter seeks to examine critically the historical and social context
of the Koza Uprising; in doing so, it aims to reveal the nature of a tripartite
relationship between Okinawa, the United States, and Japan. Th at is, the
Koza Uprising took place against the backdrop of U.S. imperialism in Asia
and its colonial rule over Okinawa. Japan had previously been the colo-
nial ruler of Okinawa aft er forcibly annexing the former Ryûkyûan King-
dom in 1879. Consequently, the U.S. takeover of Okinawa in 1945 was the
transfer of control from one colonial ruler to another. However, Japan has
benefi ted from U.S. colonial rule over Okinawa, as its postwar “economic
miracle” was made possible by the U.S. military umbrella concentrated in
Okinawa. In the postwar period, then, Japan became a “junior partner” to

Militarized Currents : Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, edited by Setsu Shigematsu,
and Keith L. Camacho, University of Minnesota Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucsc/detail.action?docID=548047.
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92 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

the United States’ hegemonic infl uence in Asia; Japan’s defeat meant that
it was forced to acquiesce to a subordinate status under the United States,
but it did not mean giving up dominant status over other Asian countries.

Okinawa became the “keystone” in this unholy alliance by allowing
Japan to contain the most blatant aspects of U.S. domination in a place far
enough away to remain out of the consciousness of the general American
and Japanese populations but near enough to off er the benefi ts of U.S. mil-
itary presence. Even now, about 20 percent of Okinawa, the main island in
the Ryûkyû Archipelago, is occupied by U.S. military bases. About 75 per-
cent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan are located in Okinawa, despite
the fact that Okinawa comprises less than 1 percent of the land area of
Japan. To put things into perspective, the size of Okinawa is approximately
454 square miles, or almost exactly the size of the city of Los Angeles, and
smaller than the island of Kaua’i in the Hawaiian archipelago.1

Interestingly enough, the tripartite relationship bred the conditions for
the development of a “Th ird World” consciousness among Okinawans.
Given that Okinawa was and still is a colonized space, it is not surprising
that Okinawans developed an affi nity to other colonized peoples in the
world. A Th ird World consciousness, with strong ties to U.S. movements,
also became concrete and interpersonal with the presence of a large num-
ber of soldiers, many of whom came from inner-city and working-class
backgrounds. Among these soldiers were African Americans, who were
disproportionately represented in the Vietnam War. Th ere were also white
political activists from the United States with whom Okinawans were in
direct contact. Th us, in the midst of the uprising, Okinawans consciously
refrained from harming African American soldiers and their property.

However, given that the United States’ entry into Asia was from the
start a masculine incursion (starting from at least Commodore Matthew
Perry’s landing in Okinawa in 1853) and that the U.S. military has always
been led and “manned” predominantly by males, we cannot analyze Oki-
nawa as merely a colonized and racialized space. Okinawa must be seen
as part of a larger network of U.S. military installations and U.S.-friendly
countries that catered to the sexual needs of American troops. Th is net-
work resembles and even overlaps the former Japanese military’s arrange-
ment of military installations and brothels (euphemistically referred to as
“comfort stations”) and the present Japanese system of economic incur-
sions and sex tourism throughout Asia and the Pacifi c. In this way, both

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 93

Japanese and American empires in Asia must be seen as gendered and
sexualized projects and projections.

According to 1969 statistics, 7,400 Okinawan women, or about one in
every 40 to 50 women in Okinawa aged 10 to 60, were involved in pros-
titution.2 Koza, where the uprising took place, was the major site for the
bar and sex industry that catered to American troops. Shannon McCune,
former civil administrator in Okinawa and later president of the Univer-
sity of Vermont, describes Koza in the early 1970s in Th e Ryukyu Islands:
“Koza has little design, being completely dependent for its livelihood on
the American servicemen who fl ock to it while one passes from Kadena
airbase, the Marine training camps located to the north and the Army bar-
racks to the south. Koza is a city of bars, pawnshops, ‘hotels’ and vari-
ous clothing and souvenir shops. Th e neon signs and garish billboards
are ugly though eye-catching. In recent years the illicit drug traffi c has
been a major problem. Th ere is truly little of the charm of Okinawa to be
found on the crowded streets of Koza!”3 McCune devotes less than a page
in his book to describing Koza, choosing to focus on Okinawa’s scenery,
quaint history, and interesting culture—aspects of Okinawa that had more
“charm.” Perhaps the charm of Okinawa lies in its seeming conformity to
an Orientalist notion that it is stuck in an “ancient time” and not able to
move forward without the West’s guidance. Koza with its “neon signs and
garish billboards” and “illicit drug traffi c” is too modern and, perhaps, too
similar to many blighted areas in the United States to be charming. Con-
sequently, Koza uncomfortably reveals the racialized, gendered, and sexu-
alized aspects of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa while reminding
Americans of the racialized, gendered, and sexualized aspects of Ameri-
can society itself.

It is perhaps with the desire to believe the notion that Okinawans are
stuck in time and in need of guidance that McCune writes about them:
“Th e Okinawans are an island people. Th e sea, and particularly its ty-
phoons, is ever present in their lives. Insular and isolated, they tend to feel
that the whole world revolves about them. In fact, however, the major de-
cisions that have changed their history and their destinies have been made
in places far distant from their shore.”4 From the view of island people
such as Okinawans, “empire” and “colonization” are not abstract concepts,
since they manifest themselves in concrete experiences of death, destruc-
tion, diasporization, discrimination, exploitation, and oppression. Resist-
ing empire and colonization is not simply a matter of believing that they

94 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

do not exist. However, a critical examination of the Koza Uprising reveals
the postwar U.S. colonial empire for what it really is: an insular and iso-
lated island in itself.5 Its existence depends greatly on the fragile idea that
the world revolves around it and on its ability to keep from view the seas
of discontent on which it fl oats. Th is chapter follows the nearly concealed
routes on this sea of discontent, connecting the Koza Uprising to the past
and to the shared destinies of people from distant shores.

The Koza Uprising

According to U.S. military documents based on local Okinawan civilian
police records, at about 1:00 a.m. on December 20, 1970, an American
under the infl uence of alcohol hit an Okinawan pedestrian, who was also
drunk, as he was crossing a street in Koza. Th e victim was taken to the
hospital at about 1:30 a.m. and the local Okinawan police began conduct-
ing an investigation. Th e investigation was completed without trouble ex-
cept for the jeering and hissing of the crowd that had gathered. Th e trouble
began when the police tried to have the off ender’s vehicle removed from

Figure 5.1. Photo of a burning car in the aftermath of Koza Uprising. Photo by Koh Yoshioka, reproduced with permission

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 95

the accident scene. By then the crowd had grown to about two hundred
people. According to the report, the crowd began crying out, “Don’t turn
over the car to the MPs [military police],” “If we permit the car to leave
here, we will see the Itoman case repeated again,” and “Put [the American
off ender] under the people’s trial.”6

A few weeks earlier, on September 18, 1970, an intoxicated U.S. soldier
driving in the town of Itoman struck and instantly killed Kinjo Toyo, an
Okinawan woman who had been walking on a sidewalk. As the U.S. mili-
tary tried to tow the car involved in the accident away, a crowd of Oki-
nawan civilians surrounded the tow truck and demanded a thorough
investigation. Civilians kept a vigil at the accident scene for seven days,
but the U.S. military later found the soldier innocent of any wrongdoing.
Incidents such as this happened with high frequency in the 1960s, and
the death of Kinjo brought the anger of Okinawans to a boiling point.
Okinawan civilians thus organized a public demonstration in Itoman that
took place only four days before the Koza Uprising.7

Th e Okinawa civilian police went ahead and had the car taken to the
Koza police station, driven by an MP offi cer, with the off ender and an un-
identifi ed Okinawan woman in the backseat.8 Five or six MPs remained to
control traffi c, but the Okinawan assistant inspector at the scene judged
that it was wise to have the MPs leave the scene immediately because of
the increasingly unruly crowd. However, the retreat by the MPs led the
crowd to become even more aggressive as the group stopped one of the
MP cars from leaving, causing its passengers to fl ee on foot. Th e crowd
kept growing to about fi ve hundred people. At about 2:10 a.m., a car driv-
en by an American approached the gathering, upon which four or fi ve
Okinawans dashed out and shouted, “An American car is passing!” and
“Kill!”9 Th e original words used by the Okinawans might have been ku-
ruse or takkuruse, or even the Japanese word korose. Korose literally means
“kill,” but the Okinawan kuruse or takkuruse could mean both “hit” and
“kill.” Seldom do Okinawans use the word “kill,” and, in the case of the
Koza Uprising, it is likely that the crowd was threatening to beat up the
Americans rather than kill them.

It is imperative here to emphasize that the uprising was not about
senseless killing and violence. In fact, the uprising resulted in no deaths,
damage to private businesses, or looting. Further, of great importance is
the fact that the Okinawans were selective of their targets: in the midst of

96 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

the mass action, the participants called out to each other not to hurt the
black soldiers.10

Th e crowd stopped the American car from moving, and at about 2:15
a.m. they began throwing rocks. A piece of a cement block, the size of a
human head, was thrown into the windshield, hurting a person inside.
Another similar-sized piece of cement block was thrown through the back
window, hurting another person. By that time, the crowd grew to one
thousand. At 2:30 a.m., four MPs arrived and began fi ring shots in the air.
Th e crowd retreated, giving the MPs and the Okinawan police a chance
to take the injured persons in the car away. As the MPs and police drove
away, however, the crowd went completely out of control and proceeded
to split into two groups, overturning cars with yellow plates, or plates with
F-numbers, which indicated that they were owned by Americans. Th ey
pushed the cars into the road and burned them. Th e crowd even went
onto Kadena Air Base and set fi re to some buildings.11

Th e U.S. military’s report of the incident said that aft er the group split,
an MP formation fi red a volley of warning shots. However, it reported that
“a well organized and disciplined group of approximately sixty Local Na-
tional youths came out of an alley on the west side of Moromi Street in a
formation of three columns about twenty persons deep in a quick-time
step carrying wicker baskets of rocks and bottles.”12

According to Aniya Masaaki, the crowd also yelled, “Yankee Go Home!”
Women working in bars came out to fi ll cola bottles with gasoline to
feed the fi res. Th e military mobilized about fi ve hundred armed soldiers
and tried to stop the crowd with tear gas and fi re hoses, but they were
repelled by fl ying rocks. Aft er six hours, about seventy cars had been
burned and nineteen Okinawans had been arrested.13

Th e Okinawan mayor of Koza at the time recalled that he had never
seen anything like the uprising even though he had lived through World
War II: “Even though there were over one thousand people moving
about, they did not say anything or make a sound. Th e group of young
ones came, turned over the Americans’ cars, and threw cola bottles fi lled
with gasoline on the cars and set them on fi re. Th e people watching folded
their arms, sat down, and watched the overturned cars burn. It was re-
ally strange.”14 Th e incident was covered internationally in the news and
appeared in major American newspapers on December 21, 1970. For ex-
ample, a Los Angeles Times front-page article was titled, “2,000 Okinawans
Storm U.S. Air Base.” Th e Washington Post had a photo of burned-out cars

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 97

on a Koza Street along with two articles on its front page with the head-
ings “Okinawans Battle GIs, Burn Cars” and “Islanders Resent U.S. ‘Ar-
rogance.’” Th e New York Times covered the uprising with a photo of “some
80 American cars burning” on page three. Americans became painfully
aware of the anger of an island people about whom they knew little be-
yond such representations of being “quaint” and “docile” as in the popular
movie Teahouse of the August Moon (1956).

Th e news of the Koza Uprising quickly disappeared from American
newspapers. Any follow-up to the uprising was conspicuously absent from
the newspapers that had covered it the day before. Interestingly, some pa-
pers reported U.S. plans to reduce the number of troops in Okinawa but
made no mention of the Koza Uprising.15

Contextualizing the Koza Uprising

Tou nu yu kara, yamatu nu yu, yamatu nu yu kara amerika yu (From
the Chinese world to the Japanese world, from the Japanese world to the
American world)

—Postwar Okinawan folk song, “Jidai nu nagari” (The flow of the times)

To depart from imperialistic worldviews that cannot understand the seas
of discontent from which the Koza Uprising rose up, I invoke the Oki-
nawan concept of yu.16 Th is term corresponds with the Chinese character

(shì). Th e Okinawan concept of yu, similar to the Japanese yo, corre-
sponds with the English words “world” or “society,” but yu also refers to
a particular era and the social relations of that era. More than the Japa-
nese concept of yo, however, yu expresses Okinawan historical memory
of external introductions and imposition of world orders, world systems,
and worldviews. Th e following contextualization includes Japan’s use of
force to integrate Okinawa into the Japanese world (yamatu yu), the world
of war (ikusa yu) in the form of the horrifi c Battle of Okinawa in 1945,
and the American military occupation (amerika yu) from 1945 to 1972. It
must be pointed out here, however, that each yu is not in a linear tempo-
ral relationship to the others. Rather, yu’s coexist, overlap, and interact.
For example, Okinawa is now an offi cial part of Japan and has thus re-
turned to yamatu yu, but the presence of American military bases needed

98 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

to protect Japanese economic and political interests still places it clearly
within amerika yu. Ikusa yu is alive in the scars and trauma of the Battle
of Okinawa’s survivors and their descendants, as well as in attempts by
the Japanese government to cover up its military atrocities against Oki-
nawan civilians during the battle. Th e continued use of Okinawa as a stag-
ing ground for wars to protect American and Japanese interests serves as
a daily reminder to Okinawans that yamatu yu, amerika yu, and ikusa yu
are not just abstract memories of the past.

Yamatu yu (The Japanese World): Japanese Colonization

Ironically, the era of Japanese colonization over Okinawa was spurred
by nascent American imperialism in Asia. In 1853, American naval of-
fi cer Commodore Matthew C. Perry and a fl eet of gunboats arrived in
Okinawa on its way to force open Japan’s doors to trade and diplomacy.
In Okinawa, Perry coerced the Ryûkyûan Kingdom to sign a treaty with
the United States aft er having marched his way into Shuri Palace with a
company of marines in full dress, two fi eldpieces, and a band that played
“Hail Columbia!”17

Perry left a part of his crew in Okinawa when he departed for Japan.
During their stay, an incident took place that foretold the coming injus-
tices and crimes against Okinawan women by American military person-
nel. Th e event concerned an attempt to rape an Okinawan woman by one
of Perry’s crewmembers. A group of local Okinawans later pursued the
crewmember, leading him to a precipice where he fell into the ocean and
drowned. Upon his return, Perry ordered the trial and punishment of
Okinawans who were involved in the death of his crewmember.18

Perry’s arrival in Edo Bay in 1853, and his gunboat diplomacy, drove
home the point that Japan needed to catch up with the West to avoid
being colonized by it. Th is realization led to the overthrow of the obso-
lete Tokugawa government in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration. Playing
a major role in the Meiji Restoration was the feudal domain of Satsuma
in the southern region of Japan. In 1609, Satsuma staged a military inva-
sion of Okinawa, known then as Ryûkyû,19 under the pretense of punish-
ing it for not contributing to Japan’s earlier attempts to invade China. Th e
Ryûkyûan Kingdom was allowed to remain in existence, but, for over 350
years, Satsuma used the threat of military force to skim off profi ts from
Ryûkyû–China trade and extract taxes from Okinawa.

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 99

Oguma Eiichiro writes that the dual relationship of the Ryûkyûs to
China and Satsuma was possible in the international order of East Asia be-
fore the introduction of the modern nation-state model. However, when
Japan adopted the nation-state model in response to the advancement of
Western nations into East Asia in the latter half of the nineteenth century,
the dual allegiance status of the Ryûkyû Kingdom became unsustainable.
Th is began the process in which, according to Oguma, “Ryukyuans” be-
came “Japanese.”20

If it had been simply an issue of Japan’s relationship to Ryûkyûs then
it is likely that Japan would not have annexed the former kingdom be-
cause of the rather strong domestic resistance toward accepting “foreign”
Ryûkyûans as Japanese. Th e reason for Japan’s annexation of the Ryûkyûs
was national defense. Japan had already secured its northern defenses
against Russia by moving into Hokkaido by the 1870s, but it had not se-
cured its southern borders. Th e annexation of Okinawa in 1879 was the
initial stage of the solidifi cation of Japan’s southern frontier against the
rest of the world.21

Th e assignment of “prefecture” rank to Okinawa barely concealed its
status as a Japanese colony. Th e several thousand Japanese who settled in
Okinawa soon aft er 1879 were mainly from Kagoshima (formerly known
as Satsuma before the Meiji Restoration) and Osaka. Th e government of
Okinawa Prefecture was predominantly staff ed by Kagoshima men, with
the exception of lower offi cials who were token natives. Commerce was
controlled by people from Osaka. Okinawa’s sudden inclusion into Japan’s
capitalistic system created conditions for widespread poverty and suff er-
ing. Since sugarcane became a cash crop, much land was appropriated for
its cultivation, while less land was used to grow food. Consequently, the
Okinawans were forced into an increasingly dependent situation where
they grew sugarcane for cash to buy foodstuff from Japan. When world
sugar prices dropped aft er World War I, Okinawans experienced what
they call sotetsu jigoku, literally translated as “cycad hell,” where many
people were forced to eat the sotetsu, or cycad, to survive. Since sotetsu is
poisonous if not prepared correctly, many people died from eating it. To
make matters worse, the central government overtaxed the Okinawans. In
1882, Okinawa paid 655,279 yen in taxes to the central government, while
the government spent only 455,136 yen on Okinawa. Other available fi g-
ures show that in the ten years from 1919 to 1928, Okinawa paid sixty-eight

100 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

million yen to the Japanese government, which spent only twenty-three
million yen on Okinawa.22

Th e economic exploitation of Okinawa went hand in hand with racial
discrimination. Every aspect of Okinawan culture was seen as inferior.
Even outside of schools, Okinawan music, dance, religion, and customs
were discouraged, while everything that came from the Japanese main-
land was seen as civilized, modern, and superior. Okinawan scholar No-
mura Koya provides a sophisticated analysis of the link between Japan’s
forced military annexation of Okinawa and its forced assimilation of Oki-
nawans. He writes, “Th e military annexation of the Ryukyuan kingdom
was part of the territorial expansion of Japanese imperialism and the be-
ginning of colonial violence toward the Okinawans. As have others who
have been colonized, the Okinawans were labeled as ‘backward,’ ‘uncivi-
lized,’ and ‘second-class citizens’ by the Japanese from the very beginning
of annexation. Since simply discriminating against the Okinawans would
only heighten their dissatisfaction and thus make it diffi cult for Japan to
govern the colony eff ectively, the one issue that surfaced for the colonial-
ists was how to have the colonized identify with Japanese nationalism.”23
Nomura’s further discussion reveals deeper aspects of the Okinawan expe-
rience under Japanese colonization and paves the way for understanding
the affi nity that Okinawans later had for Th ird World consciousness. He
writes that assimilation for Okinawans was not simply the process of ac-
quiring Japanese culture. Utilizing the concept of intellectual colonialism,
which Edward Said used to describe how “the colonized internalize the
values and substantive perceptions of the colonizers,” Nomura talks about
the deep psychological eff ects of being under Japanese colonial rule. In
other words, the inclusion of Okinawans into the Japanese nation-state
entailed the internalization of the notion that they were “backward,” “un-
civilized,” and “second-class citizens.”

Ikusa yu (The World of War): The Battle of Okinawa

Of further importance to understanding the Koza Uprising is the strong
Okinawan consciousness of how being Okinawan—culturally, linguisti-
cally, racially, and otherwise—could result in unspeakable death, despair,
and destruction during the Battle of Okinawa, which took place from
April to June 1945. To protect the “homeland”—of which Okinawa was
not considered a part—the Japanese military fought a desperate battle on

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 101

Okinawa, in which, as historian George Feifer writes in Th e Battle of Oki-
nawa, some 150,000 noncombatant Okinawans died.24 Th e fi nal Okinawan
death toll, however, is probably higher, since among the dead were many
Okinawan teenagers who were recruited by the Japanese Army as soldiers
and nurses.

Survivors of the Battle of Okinawa pass down stories of how Japanese
soldiers requisitioned cave shelters, food, and water, forcing Okinawan in-
habitants to fend for themselves. Th ere are also stories of Japanese soldiers
terrorizing Okinawan mothers to smother their crying babies. Further,
there are abundant stories of Okinawans being killed by Japanese soldiers
for speaking the Okinawan language. Th is linguistic profi ling was seen as
necessary by the Japanese military to prevent Okinawans from spying for
the enemy.25

For example, on April 9, 1945, the Japanese military gave the follow-
ing order: “From now on soldiers and civilians as well are all required
to use nothing but standard Japanese. Th ose who speak Okinawan will
be regarded as spies and receive appropriate punishment.”26 Master Ser-
geant Kayama Tadashi, who carried out executions of civilians on the
off -lying island of Kume, explained his acts in terms of the need to con-
trol Okinawans rather than to protect them: “My troops consisted of a
mere thirty or so soldiers while there were ten thousand residents. So if
the residents had turned on us and sided with the Americans, we would
have been fi nished right away. So . . . we needed to take fi rm measures. So
I conducted executions in order to keep the civilian residents under our
control.”27 Death that did not come directly at the hands of either Japa-
nese or American soldiers oft en came in a more tragic form: forced sui-
cides and honorable deaths in the name of the Japanese emperor. Stories
of Okinawans being coerced by the Japanese military to kill themselves in
order to escape torture and rape by Americans abound in Okinawa and
in the diaspora.28

Amerika yu (The American World): American Occupation

Prior to these forced suicides and honorable deaths, plans for the U.S. mili-
tary occupation of Okinawa were drawn up in conjunction with the U.S.
military invasion of Okinawa sometime in the summer of 1944. Fift een
navy and four army offi cers were dispatched from Washington to Scho-
fi eld Barracks on O’ahu, Hawai‘i, to plan the U.S. military government

102 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

of Okinawa. Consequently, the combat forces involved in the invasion
of Okinawa had the central role of preparing the postwar blueprints for
Okinawa.29 While the U.S. military may have shown more concern for the
lives of Okinawan civilians than the Japanese military, U.S. military in-
terests ultimately held the highest priority over the livelihood and liberty
of Okinawan civilians. U.S. Brigadier General William Crist, who was re-
sponsible for the military government project on Okinawa, announced in
a radio broadcast to the rest of the United States that “the fi rst aim of the
military government is to make it possible for combat units to concen-
trate on the war without having to worry about non-combat personnel.”
He added that “the military government will take measures to provide
the minimum relief needed for civilian survival under international law”
but “minimize the economic burden on the United States by promoting
economic self-suffi ciency in the occupied territory.” Crist then stated
brusquely, “We have no intention of playing Santa Claus for the residents
of the occupied territory.”30

It is with this attitude that the United States invaded and occupied
Okinawa in 1945. It did not offi cially relinquish control until 1972, when
it “returned” the islands to Japan. Consequently, Okinawa became a U.S.
colony in which the democracy of the Okinawans was sacrifi ced. In 1950,
the United States set up the U.S. Civil Administration of the Ryûkyûs
(USCAR) and the Government of the Ryûkyû Islands (GRI). Th e USCAR
was controlled by Washington and oversaw the GRI, which consisted of
a USCAR-appointed Okinawan executive and a popularly elected legisla-
ture. However, the GRI was clearly subordinate to U.S. interests, as Taira
Koji, an Okinawan scholar, writes, “It was clear that civil liberties under
the USCAR-GRI regime were inferior to those enjoyed by citizens in any
prefecture of Japan under the 1947 Constitution. A matter of symbolic
importance was that governors of Japanese prefectures were popularly
elected, while the chief executive of the GRI was not. Bills passed by the
Ryukyuan legislature were also subject to a USCAR veto. Decisions of the
Ryukyuan courts were sometimes reviewed, reversed, or removed from
their jurisdiction by USCAR.”31 In the years following the Communist
takeover of China in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the
United States stepped up eff orts to expand its military facilities on Okina-
wa. Land was oft en taken from Okinawans violently, with the use of guns
and bulldozers. An account given by the Okinawa Prefectural Cultural

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 103

Promotion Foundation illustrates the brute force employed in obtaining
land on Okinawa:

On 5 December [1953] at 8:15 a.m. the American military bulldoz-
ers suddenly arrived. 1,200 residents hurried to the scene, sur-
rounded the bulldozer, and demanded that the bulldozers leave.
Th en, about one hour later, fourteen or fi ft een armored vehicles
arrived with four or fi ve light machine guns and more than a dozen
heavy machine guns with live ammunition. Th e residents were
surrounded by 350 armed soldiers in full battle gear. Th e somewhat
surreal atmosphere at fi rst gave the impression that it was all being
done just for show, but as the circle tightened and the bayonet
points began to touch fl esh, many began to fear the day would end
in a bloody massacre.

Irritated at the obstinate resistance tactics of the residents, the
U.S. soldiers fi nally began attacking the people with their rifl e
butts, kicking them with their combat boots, and throwing them
into drainage ditches, among other things.32

Along with these strong-arm tactics, the U.S. military employed dubious
“democratic” means to acquire land for military facilities in Okinawa. In
June 1956, the Price Report was presented by a special subcommittee of
the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives, chaired
by Rep. Melvin Price. Th e Price Report that resulted from the special sub-
committee’s inspection tour of Okinawa led by Price in the fall of 1955 rec-
ommended a lump-sum payment to Okinawans for land acquired for U.S.
military facilities. Th e terms of the payment were not acceptable to the
Okinawans, and widespread protest swept through Okinawa.33 In the cold
war situation, the protests caused great concern for the U.S. government
as evidenced by a Department of State intelligence report. Dated Octo-
ber 26, 1956 (since declassifi ed) and entitled “US Administration of the
Ryukyus Enters a Critical Period,” the report stated, “If discontent in the
Ryukyus continues to grow, the problem could arouse in Asia the highly-
charged theme of ‘anti-colonialism.’ Th e Communist bloc, exploiting its
pretension that decreasing tensions obviate the need for sacrifi ces in the
name of military security, have begun to encourage Asian misgivings over
protracted US military government of the Ryukyus and to threaten action
in the United Nations.”34 As shown previously, the U.S. military tried to

104 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

put up a facade of democracy in Okinawa by establishing the GRI. Remi-
niscent of the Japanese military’s disregard for the protection of Okinawan
lives and lands, the Price Report unapologetically revealed that the U.S.
military had no genuine concern for Okinawan democracy:

We are in Okinawa because it constitutes an essential part of our
worldwide defenses. In Japan and the Philippines, as in other
parts of the world, our base tenure is dependent upon the con-
tinued existence of friendly governments. In the Ryukyu Islands
the circumstances of our political control and the absence of a
belligerent nationalistic movement allow us to plan for long-term
use of a forward military base in the off shore island chain of the
Far East-Pacifi c area, subject, of course to our own national policy.
Here there are no restrictions imposed by a foreign government on
our rights to store or to employ atomic weapons.35

Important in this historical discussion is the early censorship of Oki-
nawan writers by U.S. occupation authorities. In Th e American Occupa-
tion of Japan and Okinawa: Literature and Memory, Michael Molasky pro-
vides an informative account and analysis of the work of Arakawa Akira.
In 1953, Arakawa founded Ryūdai bungaku (Ryûkyû University literature),
which was the student literary magazine at the University of the Ryûkyûs.
Th e magazine was closely associated with the protest movement against
the U.S. military, as several of its editors were key organizers in it. In 1956,
the poem Arakawa submitted to Ryūdai bungaku, “An Orphan’s Song,”
was censored by occupation authorities because it encouraged resistance
against the occupation. To circumvent censorship, the editors of Ryūdai
bungaku published the next issue without submitting it for clearance
by the American censors. In the cold war environment of the time, the
American authorities cracked down on the magazine by recalling copies
that had been distributed, banning publication for six months, and expel-
ling four editors who had been part of the protest movement.36 One of the
submissions in the magazine, Arakawa’s poem “Th e Colored Race,” threat-
ened the American authorities because it talked about racial discrimina-
tion by people from the white race as well as the common subordinate sta-
tuses of the yellow and black races. For example, in one part of his poem,
he writes,

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 105

Your skin, like ours, is not white
A rugged dark brown, it is
the color of iron.
Covering ineradicable welts
from the whip
Your brown skin is
Strong, like stone.
You who are Black
and we who are Yellow,
Together, we are the Colored Race.37

In other sections of the poem, Arakawa talks about the racial identities
imposed by the dominant whites with pointed references to skin color:

As for “Yellow,”
If you want to call us “Yellow”—
Go right ahead!
We don’t mind being the Yellow Race
We are the unadulterated Yellow Race.
Go right ahead! Call us your
“Yellow Fellow.”38

Molasky argues that Arakawa’s poem illustrates the arbitrary and change-
able nature of racial categories imposed by the white occupiers. He writes
that “‘Th e Colored Race’ suggests that oppressed peoples perpetuate their
own subjugation by internalizing the subjugator’s discourse, and the poem
attempts to usurp authority from the white occupiers by redefi ning the
language of race.”39

Up to the 1960s, the presence of U.S. military bases, military personnel,
and military dependents brought many disruptive elements into Okinawa.
Th ese include the screeching of military airplanes that cause stress to the
people living near the bases, the storing of nuclear weapons and nerve gas
that always pose the threat of a potential catastrophe, and the commit-
ting of crimes by U.S. military personnel toward Okinawans that evoke
feelings of stress, fear, and pain. In June 1967, for example, the Okinawan
newspaper Ryûkyû shimposha conducted a public survey of Okinawan
attitudes toward the U.S. military. When asked if the U.S. military bases
made Okinawans feel secure, 45.5 percent of the respondents expressed

106 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

strong anxiety for their safety, whereas 30.0 percent felt “somehow inse-
cure.” Only 1.7 percent felt that their safety was assured by the presence of
U.S. bases.40

Other incidents that happened in the late 1960s illustrate why the re-
spondents would be so strongly concerned with U.S. military occupation.
In 1965, a trailer carried by a Lockheed C-130 aircraft fell to the ground
and killed an Okinawan schoolgirl. In 1966, a KC-135 jet-fuel tanker skid-
ded at Kadena Air Base, crashed into a car, and killed a man on a nearby
highway. In 1968, drinking water and crops were contaminated by a fuel-
oil leak from a military pipeline. In the same year, a bomb-laden B-52
headed on a mission to Vietnam failed to take off and exploded at Kadena
Air Base. Fortunately, the crash occurred on base and not in a densely
populated area or near ordnance storage facilities, which were believed to
store nuclear weapons.41

Crimes committed against Okinawans by Americans connected to the
U.S. military also increased from an already-high number of 973 cases in
1964 to 1,003 cases in 1965. By 1966, the numbers rose to 1,407. Of those
totals, “atrocious and violent crimes” exponentially rose from 265 cases
in 1964 to 446 cases in 1966.42 Th e lion’s share of these “atrocious and vio-
lent crimes” was against women. Just as in Perry’s time, American military
interests in Okinawa were a greater priority than the protection of Oki-
nawan women against sexual violence perpetrated by American military
personnel. In most cases, Americans who committed crimes against Oki-
nawans were oft en let go or given light punishment. A sampling of the
crimes against Okinawan women by American military personnel in the
years from 1969 to 1971 gives us a graphic illustration of the asymmetri-
cal power relations between male American servicemen and Okinawan
women. Th is asymmetry is evidenced in the punishment administered
toward American servicemen.43 Figure 5.2 is a small portion of a much
longer list that has now been made available to the public. Th is list, along
with other documents, was introduced to people who attended presenta-
tions by Okinawan women activists who traveled across the United States
in 1996 aft er three U.S. Marines raped a twelve-year-old Okinawan girl.
While the original list starts in 1945 and ends in 1995, the excerpt includes
only the incidents that happened around the time of the Koza Uprising.
As with most statistics on crimes against women, this list cannot be said to
be complete and, moreover, does not include sexual violence in the form

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 107

Date Description of Crime Punishment

2/22/69 A twenty-one-year-old hostess is found and her
nude body disposed of by a private second-
class in an artillery regiment in Koza City.

Arrest,
no record

3/3/69 The body of a twenty-year-old hostess is found,
and the official autopsy leads to the conclusion
that the crime was committed by a general
infantryman (GI).

Unsolved

11/?/69

[exact date
unknown]

A twenty-year-old woman, returning from
her part-time job in Naha City, was raped and
stabbed with a knife repeatedly on a public
street when she resisted her GI assailant.

Two-month
salary cut
and discharge

5/28/70 A twenty-one-year-old woman was attacked at
her job on a military base in Urasoe City by a GI.

Not guilty
Insufficient
proof

5/30/70 A high school student is attacked by a U.S.
military sergeant, and is stabbed in the
abdomen and head in a failed rape attempt.
School teachers, women’s organizations, and
high school students issue a strong protest and
the suspect is arrested.

Three-year
sentence,
demotion

[exact date
unknown]

A woman proprietor of a bar is raped when a GI
forces his way behind the counter.

Accused is
transferred
during trial

4/23/71 The nude body of a twenty-two-year-old
hostess is found at a grave. The testimony of a
witness results in the arrest of a Marine corporal.

Acquitted
due to lack of
evidence

5/1/71 A forty-one-year-old woman is stabbed to
death in Kin Town by a Marine private first class
and is arrested after his fingerprints and blood
are found.

No record

5/21/71 A junior high school student is raped by a GI in
Koza City.

Suspect
not found

5/23/71 A twenty-four-year-old hostess is abducted,
taken to an abandoned house, and raped on
her way to work.

Unsolved

7/10/71 A mentally retarded twelve-year-old girl who is
playing in front of her house is gang-raped by
three GIs in Ginowan City.

Arrest,
no record

Figure 5.2. Crimes committed against Okinawan women by U.S. military personnel, 1969–1971

108 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

of prostitution and “consensual” relationships based on false promises by
American men of marriage and life in the United States.

From Yu to Us: Koza as a Nexus of Internal, External, and Sexual Colonialism

Why would unarmed women and men stage a violent attack against
the most powerful military in the world? Why was it that the protesters
seemed to have been disciplined enough to overpower the MPs? Because
the women working in the bars in Koza quickly produced the Molotov
cocktails used in the uprising, had they already been anticipating such an
event? Finally, what do we make of participants in the uprising who made
a conscious eff ort to refrain from hurting African American soldiers?
Such questions require looking at Koza as a meeting place of U.S. internal
colonialism, characterized by racism against African Americans and other
nonwhites, and external U.S. and Japanese colonialisms, manifested with
impunity in Okinawa. Further, internal and external colonialism cannot
be analyzed separately from sexual colonization because the oppression
of African Americans and other racial minorities in American history has
been inextricably linked to the commodifi cation, exploitation, and subju-
gation of nonwhite female and male bodies.

Th e city of Koza did not exist before the American occupation. It devel-
oped as a base town that catered to Kadena Air Base, the largest U.S. mili-
tary base in Asia, in the central part of Okinawa. A large proportion of the
people of Koza settled there aft er having been displaced by the destruction
of the Battle of Okinawa and by the construction of Kadena and other U.S.
military bases. Others were returnees from Japan’s former colonies in Asia
and the Pacifi c Islands. Many of the displaced groups depended economi-
cally on the bars, strip clubs, and other components of a recreation indus-
try that catered to young male Americans during the Vietnam confl ict.

Koza was where local Okinawan rock bands entertained American
soldiers nightly. Surviving the oft en unruly and violent audiences of sol-
diers on their way back from the war in Vietnam, a handful of these rock
bands became wildly popular among American soldiers for their macho
personas that matched their ear-piercing singing, aggressive guitar riffi ng,
and driving bass and drum rhythm making. Th e ultra masculine personas
that Okinawan rock bands developed perhaps also refl ected an Okinawan
male response to the sexualized and feminized positionality that Okina-
wa, in general, and Koza, in particular, was forced to hold in East Asian

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 109

geopolitics. Th e temporary control that they achieved over American sol-
diers through their performances was a brief relief from the lack of control
they had in their own lives under U.S. military occupation.

While they could captivate their American-soldier audiences in night-
ly performances, like other Okinawans, Okinawan rock musicians were
reminded daily of the sexualized nature of the U.S. occupation and of their
powerlessness against American extraterritoriality. For example, in an
oral-history interview, one musician talks about how his wife and younger
sister were half white because of the American occupation army. Th e mu-
sician also explained how a military jeep driven by an American soldier
hit and killed his grandmother as she was waiting for a bus. Th e driver
fl ed into the military base and was never found. Recalling both his grand-
mother’s death and his participation in the Koza Uprising, he says, “I still
don’t like Americans. Th ere are good and bad people among them, but I
must say that the bad feelings that I have held for them since I was a child
exploded in the Koza incident.”44

Higashionna Tsuneo was born in the Philippines in 1938 and moved
to Misato Village aft er the war and later to Koza. Using the pen name of
Higashi Mineo, he wrote a novella entitled Okinawa no shōnen (Okinawa
boy) in 1971 that was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1972.45
Th e novella is a coming-of-age story of the protagonist Tsuneyoshi, whose
family returns from Saipan to Okinawa aft er the war and ends up running
a bar in Koza that caters to American soldiers. Th e bar is actually their
family home, and Tsuneyoshi oft en has to give up his bed to prostitutes
and their customers when the bedroom next to the bar was fi lled. Th e fol-
lowing is an excerpt from Okinawa no shōnen where Tsuneyoshi is awak-
ened by his mother to give up his bed:

“Let them all use one bed together,” I said, sitting up.
“Don’t be silly! Now hurry or we’ll lose this chance to make

some money.”
Mom unfolded a starched sheet as she rushed me out of bed.
“Th is sure is a lousy business you’re in.”
“Th ere’s no use complaining. It’s how we eat, you know.”
“It’s still lousy.”
It made me want to cry, thinking people would probably do

anything to eat. I took my school cap and satchel off my desk and
pushed them under my bed out of sight.

110 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

“Excuse us,” said Michiko. She came into my room leading
a soldier by the hand. As she put her arm around his waist, she
glanced at me with a faint smile.46

Higashionna’s writings express the seething discontent of the people of
Koza over their racial, economic, and sexual subordination to the occupy-
ing U.S. military. Such discontent lay just below the surface of the forced
civility that Okinawans had to display toward American military person-
nel in order to survive as their service providers and entertainers. It is be-
cause of this context of discontent that surrounded Okinawan life in Koza
that I have chosen to use the word “uprising” rather than “riot” to describe
the events of December 20, 1970. My choice of words follows Okinawan
historian Aniya Masaaki’s insistence on describing the events of that day
using the term minshū hōki,47 which can be roughly translated as “popular
uprising,” “popular revolt,” or “popular rebellion.” He explains,

Since this minshū hōki was not something planned, had no leaders,
and was carried out in response to the course of events at the time,
one could call it a sōdō [disturbance or riot], but it was not a disor-
derly sōdō. Even though it was an anti-American sōdō, it was not
simply an exclusionist act. It was instead a response to the unjust
and tyrannical rule of the U.S. military.

At the time, the U.S. military could not hold the people down
using military force. One could say it illustrated both the strength
to fi ght in response to the 20 years of oppression since the war
ended and to the weight of history. 48

His argument is similar to critiques of the word “riot” when used to de-
scribe urban revolts in the United States during the 1960s. For example,
Herbert Gans wrote in 1968, “Events commonly described as riots or civil
disorders are in reality spontaneous rebellions, carried out impulsively
by Negroes disenchanted with the way they have been treated by white
American society. Th ese rebellions are the natural outcome of the years of
anger that have been building up in the ghettos of the nation’s cities and
towns.”49 Similarly, Robert Blauner wrote that the “ghetto riots” in several
urban areas across the United States were not merely attempts by blacks to
gain fuller integration into the social order and access to the material ben-
efi ts that were enjoyed by the majority of American citizens. Rather, “the

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 111

revolts pointed to alienation from this system on the part of many poor
and also not-so-poor Blacks.” Blauner’s description of “internally colo-
nized” blacks rising up to resist rings similarly to Aniya’s explanation for
his use of the word minshū hōki: “One of the most signifi cant consequenc-
es of the process of colonization is a weakening of the colonized individual
and collective will to resist his oppression. It has been easier to contain
and control Black ghettoes because communal bonds and group solidarity
have been weakened through divisions among leadership, failures of orga-
nization, and a general disappointment that accompanies social oppres-
sion. Th e riots are a signal that the will to resist has broken the mold of
accommodation.”50 In explaining the application of the “internal colony”
model to blacks in the United States, Blauner points out that “the clas-
sical colonialism of the imperialist era and American racism developed
out of the same historical situation and refl ected a common world eco-
nomic and power stratifi cation.” Th at is, the African slave trade weakened
Africa and made it less able to resist European colonialism. Slavery also
contributed to the accumulation of wealth in America and Europe, which
allowed for those areas to develop technological and military superiority
over non-Western and nonwhite peoples. Th is process laid “the basis for
racist ideologies that were elaborated to justify control and exploitation
of non-white people.” Consequently, Western colonization over nonwhite
people necessarily entails racism.51

Okinawan experiences of death, destruction, and discrimination
under Japanese rule no doubt increased their comprehension of American
racism in Okinawa. However, the intense daily contact between Ameri-
can soldiers and Okinawans in Koza was also refl ected in sophisticated
understandings of race, as evidenced by the previously mentioned poem,
“Th e Colored Race,” by Koza resident Arakawa. Another perceptive ob-
servation of race can be found from the account of a Koza rock musician
who himself was half white but identifi ed closely with Okinawan issues:
“Up to the 1970s, Teruya was the black town and Center Street was the
white town. It was the era of racial discrimination and Orientals were
looked at very diff erently. Yeah, there was discrimination toward Orien-
tals . . . Vietnamese people, Okinawan people all looked the same to them
(Americans). In other words, they thought of themselves as nationals of a
superior country and since they saw Okinawans being of the same race as
the people from the country they were fi ghting, they didn’t see us as being
equal to them.”52 Th e black segregated district of Teruya described by the

112 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

rock musician reveals the irony that the American forward presence in
the Far East was to protect and promote freedom and democracy. In fact,
many white Americans brought attitudes characteristic of the segregated
Deep South. At the time of the uprising, Koza and other base towns in
Okinawa were similarly segregated into black and white entertainment
districts. Takamine Tomokazu, an Okinawan journalist who covered U.S.
military base–related issues, writes that the black section of the town was
referred to by white soldiers as the “Bush,” while the black soldiers called it
“Four Corners” or its original name “Teruya.”53 Okinawans also referred to
Teruya as “Mokutangai,” or “Charcoal Town,” and to the black soldiers as
Teruya seinen dan or the “Teruya Youth Group.”54

Takamine’s description of the black section of Koza provides a view
of intimate exchanges between the black soldiers and Okinawans that no
doubt had lasting eff ects on Okinawan consciousness. For example, in the
black section of Koza there existed a group of black soldiers called the
Bush Masters who, according to Takamine, wore jackets with a panther
embroidered on the back suggesting a connection to the Black Power
movement, the Black Panther Party, or both.55 At its peak in 1969, the
group had over one hundred members. Th e Bush Masters met in a bar in
the black section of Koza where they discussed Black Power movement
movies and literature that came in from the United States. Th e group was
also a moral force in the black section, protecting white soldiers who wan-
dered into the black section from physical violence. Th ey would also col-
lect money to recompense bars and restaurants when black soldiers did
not pay for their meals and drinks. Takamine even writes how the Bush
Masters coordinated a blood drive for one Okinawan woman who needed
an operation.56

Takamine points out other things that tied black soldiers and Oki-
nawans together. Because they tended to be lower ranked and lower paid
than white soldiers, the black soldiers consumed local products more than
white soldiers. For example, the preferred alcoholic beverages of the black
soldiers were Akadama port wine (a cheap Japanese brand), Orion Beer (a
locally brewed beer), and Zuisen (a brand of traditional Okinawan liquor).
On the other hand, white soldiers oft en consumed more expensive drinks,
such as Heineken, Johnny Walker, Napoleon, and Schlitz. However, the
matter was probably more than just economics and involved a feeling of
closer affi nity that the black soldiers had with the local, nonwhite culture.
In the summers when young Okinawans would parade down the streets of

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 113

Teruya in the Okinawan eisa drum dance, it was a familiar sight to see the
black soldiers joining in.57

Th is sense of public affi nity between blacks and Okinawans some-
times transmitted into political spheres of resistance as well. Th e manner
in which Okinawans took to turning cars over and burning them (with
women working in the bars quickly producing gasoline-fi lled bottles) can
perhaps be contextualized within Okinawans’ contact with African Amer-
ican soldiers. Th is style of protest against oppression on a mass scale is
glaringly absent in Okinawa before or since. However, the model for this
type of action may have come from an incident that happened a little over
a year before the December 20 uprising. On August 30, 1969, a group of
fi ft y or more black soldiers got into a confrontation with some MPs over a
trivial incident: the group’s anger exploded when an intimidated MP fi red
his gun. Th e group overturned the MP patrol car and set it on fi re.58 Th e
incident also seems to be reminiscent of the ghetto riots across the United
States that took place between 1965 and 1968, which observers such as
Gans and Blauner point out were more than physical acts of violence and
looting but rather were “spontaneous rebellions” against the white, racist
treatment African Americans experienced in the United States.

However, the relationship between the black soldiers and the Oki-
nawans was not always harmonious. Okinawans were not immune to
their own racist attitudes toward black soldiers. Although Okinawan dis-
crimination against black soldiers was no doubt an extension of Japan’s
internalization of white supremacy, Okinawans’ own prejudices against
darker skin could be linked to other dynamics. For example, darker skin
was not simply associated with the preannexation peasant class; aft er Japa-
nese annexation darker skin became a marker of the impurity and infe-
riority of Okinawans vis-à-vis Japanese from the main islands of Japan.
Darker skin came to signify “natives” from the so-called primitive places
of the Pacifi c Islands and Southeast Asia.

Further, black and Okiwanan relations were aggravated by the sexual-
ized nature of heterosexual interactions between black soldiers and Oki-
nawan women. Both groups suff ered the indignities of colonization and
racism. And while the black soldiers were heirs to a long history of white
sexual domination over black women, in Okinawa they enjoyed some lim-
ited sexual privilege over Okinawan women, a fact that Okinawan males
resented. Th e tensions between the two groups manifested in a scuffl e
on August 17, 1971, between black soldiers and Okinawans. Th e scuffl e

114 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

stemmed from an incident in which three black soldiers were refused ser-
vice in a bar. An altercation followed where the soldiers were beaten up by
a group of Okinawan bar employees. Th e three black soldiers managed to
escape and gather a group of about twenty to thirty other black soldiers.

Th ese tensions seem to have already arisen around the time of the
Koza Uprising as black soldiers were defying the de facto segregation.
For instance, a declassifi ed confi dential report made to U.S. Civil Admin-
istration of the Ryûkyû Islands, approved with the signature of the Chief
of the Counterintelligence Division and dated July 10, 1970, gives us a
glimpse of what was happening at the time. Th e report, entitled “Negro
Personnel Reportedly Desiring to Take Over Koza City, Okinawa,” stated
that “an increasing number of Negroes are frequenting the Gate 2–B.C.
Street areas of Koza (which was the ‘white’ section of the town).” Th e
source of the report, identifi ed as having “furnished reliable information
in the past,” also described a meeting on July 3, 1970, held in the Gate
2–B.C. Street vicinity in which a speaker “said that the Negroes will take
the area over as their own.”59

Given black eff orts to desegregate Koza’s “entertainment” district, then,
the group of black soldiers mentioned previously consequently marched
through the streets chanting antiracial discrimination slogans. Th e dem-
onstration caused fi ghting to break out between the black soldiers and the
Okinawan bar employees. According to Takamine, the Okinawans were
already well organized from earlier base workers’ strikes and were able to
gather over one hundred people. Th e Okinawans then chased the black
soldiers back into the base. Some of the Okinawans began breaking the
windshields of American cars parked near the gate and beating up any
black soldier that passed by. Th e Okinawan police were able to calm the
situation down, but, by unfortunate chance, there was a car accident in-
volving a black soldier and an Okinawan. Th is caused a mob of 1,000 to
1,500 Okinawans to surround the accident scene and the MPs who had
come to investigate. Th e MPs and the black soldier involved in the accident
escaped to the Koza police headquarters. Th e crowd, however, threw bot-
tles and rocks at the headquarters, causing several people to be injured.60

Relations between the Okinawans and the blacks were later improved
on January 15, 1972, when various black organizations, Latino and white
soldiers, and Okinawans took part in a twelve-kilometer march in mem-
ory of Martin Luther King, Jr. Okinawans watching the march applauded
the participants when they learned about its purpose.61

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 115

Along these lines of discord and solidarity, a dialogue emerged be-
tween blacks, Okinawans, and others regarding the antiwar movement in
the United States. Several notable white antiwar activists, including Jane
Fonda, came to Okinawa to lead protests against the Vietnam War and
U.S. militarism. Within the antiwar movement there were people of color
who clearly saw the connection between white racism and the war. For
example, Cuban-born Green Beret Alfonso Toledo actively participated in
the antiwar movement aft er being disillusioned by the futility of the war.
According to Takamine, he engaged in discussions with other Latino and
black soldiers about his antiwar position and about questions of ethnic
self-determination.62 A photo of him at a strike rally of Okinawan base
workers in 1971 shows him raising his fi st in the air. Th ere are also photos
from 1971 showing meetings between black soldiers, white activists, and
Okinawan activists. In the background of one such meeting, as shown in
Figure 5.3, is the famous poster of Black Panther Party leader Huey New-
ton sitting in a wicker chair holding a rifl e and spear.63

Mapping the Koza Uprising in the Sea of Discontent

As previously shown, the forced proximity of Okinawans and African
American soldiers in Koza led to both interracial confl icts and mutual
understanding. A fl yer written in English and Japanese, distributed by Af-
rican American soldiers to Okinawans in the aft ermath of the Koza Upris-
ing, reinforced their shared status:

So you see we both are in the same situation. With this you see that
we have a problem. With every problem there is a solution. Black
GI’s are trying to become a part of the solution, not the problem. Th e
Black GI’s are willing to help and talk to the Okinawans in order to
form much better relations between the oppressed groups, because
we have so much in common. So why not get our heads together
and come up with a solution to destroy the problem. Th e Black GI’s
are aware of the situation that brought about the riot, and this was
truly a RIGHT-ON-MOVE. Th at’s the only way they’ll bend.64

From across the ocean, African Americans had already been conscious of
what was happening in Okinawa. For example, the January 4, 1969, issue
of Black Panther reported a rally of three hundred Okinawan university

116 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

students that demanded the withdrawal of B-52s and the dismantling of
U.S. bases. With much admiration of the students in Okinawa, Th e Black
Panther reported, “Th e forceful action of the students threw the U.S. and
Japanese reactionary pigs into a panic. Th e latter sent out about fi ve hun-
dred armed policemen to ruthlessly suppress the demonstrators. Brav-
ing the pigs’ brutal suppression, the students stormed the base several
times and fought bravely with the police.”65 In an age long before the word
“transnationalism” became widely used and before faxes, the Internet, af-
fordable international fl ights, and cheap long-distance phone calls made
it easier to travel and communicate between the corners of the U.S. global
empire, political movements in the United States were strongly conscious
of what was happening in Okinawa. Th is was evident in the early Asian
American movement. Two longtime Japanese American women activ-
ists and friends, Minn Matsuda and Kazu Iijima, who wanted to create
a Japanese American group in New York for their college-age children,
established Asian Americans for Action (AAA) in the fall of 1968. One
of its early members was Yuri Kochiyama, a close friend of Malcolm X
and an icon of radical politics.66 In one of its undated publications, AAA

Figure 5.3. Antiwar–antimilitary activists in Koza, Okinawa, 1971. Photo by Koh Yoshioka, reproduced with permission.

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 117

urged “the American people to join the people of Okinawa and Japan in
demanding the complete removal of all U.S. bases, personnel and military
equipment from Okinawa and Japan.” It added that “we must insist on
liberation and self-determination for the people of Okinawa as for all of
the Th ird World.”67

Similarly, the Koza Uprising was brought to the attention of the
Asian American movement on the West Coast through the radical Asian
American publication, Gidra, based in Los Angeles. Hatano Terumasa
from Japan wrote in Gidra, “Th is action of the people of Okinawa clearly
embodied the dawn of a new age, with revolutionary signifi cance equal
to the occupation of Shinjuku area (central part of Tokyo) in October,
1968 and the rebellion in Watts.”68 In 1970, pioneering Asian American
activist and scholar Yuji Ichioka wrote an article in Gidra that was highly
critical of the way the conservative Japanese American Citizens League
supported the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty and the reversion of Okinawa
to Japan.69 Mike Murase, a Gidra staff writer, also examined the adverse
environmental and social impacts (with much emphasis on the rape of
Okinawan women by U.S. servicemen) of the bases on Okinawa in an ar-
ticle titled “Th e Keystone of the Pacifi c.” In another Gidra article in May
1972, Tracy Okida described the Okinawans as being a “vanguard struggle
related to the revolutionary movements of other Th ird World peoples.”70

Conclusion

Th e Koza Uprising is a contradiction in itself: the rampage of “angry,”
“organized,” and “politicized” Okinawans against the U.S. military in the
dead of night is at odds with the popular image of Okinawans as “friendly,”
“pleasant,” “agreeable,” “gentle,” “peace loving,” and “passive.”71 However,
the contradictory nature of the uprising is part and parcel of other contra-
dictions that arise from Okinawa’s particular positionality in global geo-
politics. Japan’s chronic unwillingness to accept genuinely Okinawans as
fellow humans is at odds with its strategic need to keep Okinawans in the
Japanese nation-state in order to strengthen Japan’s defense against inva-
sions from perceived enemies. Th e United States’ self-proclaimed leader-
ship of the democratic free world is equally and grossly inconsistent with
its deprivation of the practice of democracy in Okinawa.

An interesting paradox that arises from these contradictions is worth
mentioning. Okinawa is but a small island territory with very limited

118 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

resources at the fringes of the U.S. empire as well as part of a Japanese
national sovereignty that depends on that empire.72 Okinawans are a rel-
atively small minority group scattered in a diaspora that stretches from
Okinawa and mainland Japan to the estimated three hundred thousand
Okinawans in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacifi c Islands. In total, Oki-
nawans perhaps number less than two million. Th e irony is that, despite
Okinawa’s peripheral geographical existence and its small population,
of which a large percentage has spread to other parts of the world, the
United States and Japan have constantly been preoccupied with putting a
lid on Okinawan dissent. Still, Okinawans live in and navigate the sea of
discontent, despite eff orts by the United States and Japan to quell their un-
predictable tides. Th e swift ness in which the Koza Uprising appeared and
disappeared from the American media seems to be a case in point: dissent
is the Achilles’ heel of empire.

Perhaps more threatening is the fact Okinawan women take more lead-
ership roles in antimilitary protests, bridging international connections
with women in places where global militarization violates the human
rights of women and children, such as Guam, Hawai‘i, Japan, the Philip-
pines, Puerto Rico, and South Korea. Okinawan women have also helped
to unleash major protest movements in Okinawa as a result of the 1995
rape of a twelve-year-old Okinawan girl, among other pressing issues. In
short, Okinawan women are formidable in their role as navigators in the
sea of discontent, as they rely on matriarchal Okinawan cultural values
that emphasize the sanctity of life and nature while they steer Okinawans
toward political alliances with the larger world.

Th is does not mean that the empire has just lain down and died. On the
contrary, it has struck back by actually encouraging Okinawan culture and
“worldwide” Okinawan networks. Th e Japanese government pushed Okina-
wa to accept, under veiled threats of economic sanctions, the construction
of a heliport over a pristine reef in Nago. It “rewarded” Okinawa and the
city of Nago by hosting the United Nations G-7 summit at a resort in Nago.
Before and during the summit, the Japanese government promoted Oki-
nawa’s unique culture (which it suddenly claimed to be Japanese culture)
as well as promulgated a version of Okinawan history that emphasized its
ancient history as a seafaring nation that linked diff erent countries through
entrepot trade. A television drama series about an Okinawan family was
also broadcast around the time of the summit. Th e series was benevolent
in showcasing Okinawan music and dance and portraying Okinawans as

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 119

friendly, warm, wise, and happy-go-lucky people. Understandably, since it
was shown on NHK, the government-run broadcasting organ, not once did
the series delve into “negative” issues such as discrimination against Oki-
nawans by Japanese, the Battle of Okinawa, or the U.S. military bases.

Despite the new “positive” image that Okinawans enjoyed, it served
to direct the Japanese public’s attention away from Okinawans’ discon-
tent over the presence of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. It also helped
to transform Okinawan culture into a commodity for consumption by an
increasing number of people who claim to “love” everything about Oki-
nawa, except the U.S. bases. Th e United States continues to push forward
with plans to build a heliport in Nago, and the plan for reducing the mili-
tary burden in Okinawa is to shift it to Guam.

Now, more than ever, we need to hone our navigating skills.

Notes

Japanese names follow the convention of surname followed by given name.
1. Chalmers Johnson, Blowback: Th e Costs and Consequences of American
Empire (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000), 36.
2. Suzuyo Takazato, “Th e Past and Future of Unai, Sisters in Okinawa,”
AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 25, no. 4 (1995): 76.
3. Shannon McCune, Th e Ryukyu Islands (Harrisburg, Pa.: David & Charles,
1975), 162.
4. Ibid., 15.
5. Here I fi nd inspiration from French sociologist Michel De Certeau, who urges
us to shift our focus away from the obsession of scientifi c institutions on analyzing sys-
tems that repress individuals to one that examines the practices that take place within
and against these systems. Th e former type of analysis is privileged because scientifi c
institutions study the very system of which they are a part and “conform to the well-
known genre of the family story.” He writes, “Seeing this elucidation of the appara-
tus by itself has the disadvantage of not seeing practices which are heterogeneous to it
and which it represses or thinks it represses. Nevertheless, they have every chance of
surviving this apparatus too, and, in any case, they are also part of social life, and all
the more resistant because they are more fl exible and adjusted to perpetual mutation.
When one examines this fl eeting and permanent reality carefully, one has the impres-
sion of exploring the night-side of societies, a night longer than their day, a dark sea
from which successive institutions emerge, a maritime immensity on which socioeco-
nomic and political structures appear as ephemeral islands” (41). Michel De Certeau,
Th e Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

120 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

6. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), ed., Beikoku ga mita koza bodo (Koza riot as seen by the
United States) (Okinawa: Yui Shuppan, 1999), 22.
7. Aniya Masaaki, “Koza minshu (Koza peoples),” in Shashin ga toraeta 1970-
nen zengo koza hito machi koto anata ga rekishi no mokugekisha (Koza people,
streets, and events around 1970 in photos: you are an eyewitness of history), ed.
Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Okinawa: Naha Shuppansha, 1997), 187.
8. It is assumed that the unidentifi ed Okinawan woman was with the off end-
er at the time of the accident.
9. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), Beikoku, 38.
10. Ibid., 11; and Masamichi S. Inoue, Okinawa and the U.S. Military: Identity
Making in the Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007),
55.
11. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), Beikoku, 40.
12. Ibid., 118.
13. Aniya, “Koza minshu (Koza peoples),” 187.
14. Takamine Tomokazu, Shirarezaru Okinawa no beihei: beigun kichi 15-nen
no shuzai memo kara (Unknown truth about U.S. troops in Okinawa: from notes
of fi ft een years reporting on U.S. bases) (Okinawa: Kobunken, 1984), 68. Transla-
tion provided by this author.
15. For example, on December 22, the Los Angeles Times and the Washing-
ton Post both had articles on their front pages titled, respectively, “U.S. to Heavily
Cut Forces in Okinawa and Japan by June” and “U.S. Announces Pullout of 12,000
Troops From Japan.” Neither of those articles mentioned the uprising. Th e New
York Times had an article on the U.S. military’s need to keep troops in Okinawa
and did have a photo of U.S. military policemen fi ring tear gas during the upris-
ing. However, right below that article was another editorial about U.S. plans to cut
combat forces in Japan.
16. Th e epigraph cited in this section is taken from Kadekaru Rinsho, one of
Okinawa’s premier postwar minyo (folk music) singers, who used the words in
the fi rst verse of a song called “Jidai no nagare” (Th e fl ow of the times): Tou nu
yu kara yamatu nu yu / Yamatu nu yu kara amerika yu / Mijirasa kawataru kunu
Uchinaa . . . (From the Chinese world to the Yamatu world / From the Yamatu
world to the American world / How strangely this Okinawa has changed . . .).
17. George H. Kerr, Okinawa, the History of an Island People (Rutland, Vt.: C.
E. Tuttle Co., 1958), 315–16.
18. Francis L. Hawks, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to
the China Seas and Japan Performed in the Years 1852, 1853, and 1854 (New York:
D. Appleton & Co., 1857), 566–67.

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 121

19. “Ryûkyû” is derived from Liuch’iu, the name that the Chinese used to de-
scribe the island kingdom.
20. Oguma Eiji, “Nihonjin” no Kyokai: Okinawa, Ainu, Taiwan, Chosen, sho-
kuminchi shihai kara fukki undo made (Th e boundaries of the Japanese: Okinawa,
Ainu, Taiwan, Korea, from colonial control to the reversion movement), 1st ed.
(Tokyo: Shinyosha, 1998), 19.
21. Ibid., 20–21.
22. See Aniya Masaaki, “Kengai dekasegi to kennai ijuu (Interprefectural so-
journing and intraprefectural migration),” in Okinawaken Shi, vol. 7 (Tokyo: Sen-
toraru Insatsujo, 1974), 423–55; and Mitsugu Sakihara, “Th e History of Okinawa,”
in Uchinananchu: A History of Okinawans in Hawaii (Honolulu: University of
Hawai‘i Press, 1981), 14.
23. Nomura Koya, “Colonialism and Nationalism: Th e View from Okinawa”
in Okinawan Diaspora, ed. Ronald Nakasone (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i
Press), 111.
24. George Feifer, Th e Battle of Okinawa: Th e Blood and the Bomb (New York:
First Lyons Press, 2001), xi.
25. Masaie Ishihara, “War Experiences of the People of Okinawa and the De-
velopment of the Okinawan Philosophy of Peace” (paper presented at the Inter-
national Conference on Th e Politics of Remembering the Asia/Pacifi c War, East–
West Center, in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, September 7–9, 1995). Th e paper cited here is
an expanded and revised version of “Th e Memories of War and the Role of Oki-
nawa in the Promotion of World Peace.”
26. Masahide Ota, “Re-examining the History of the Battle of Okinawa,” in
Okinawa: Cold War Island, ed. Chalmers Johnson (Cardiff , Calif.: Japanese Policy
Research Institute, 1999), 30.
27. Ibid.
28. As a member of the Okinawa Kenjinkai of San Francisco, I have heard
stories of forced suicides and other Japanese military atrocities against Okinawan
civilians here in the Bay Area. Most of the members of the Okinawan Kenjinkai
are Okinawan women who immigrated to the United States aft er World War II
as wives of U.S. military personnel. Of these members, a large portion experi-
enced the Battle of Okinawa. Despite these accounts and the general consensus
of researchers that the Japanese Imperial Army “forced and steered” Okinawan
civilians to commit mass suicides, the Japanese Ministry of Education in 2007
instructed high-school textbook publishers to remove references to those sui-
cides from textbooks to be used in 2008. Th e move by the Ministry of Education
sparked a large public uprising by Okinawans, which was highlighted by a pro-
test rally that drew 110,000 people in Okinawa. For a reference in English, refer to
“Military ‘Forced’ Okinawan Mass Suicides: Expert Defi es Ministry to Go Public

122 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

with Criticism of Textbook Revisionists,” Th e Japan Times Online, November 28,
2007, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071128a5.html.
29. Ota Masahide, “Th e U.S. Occupation of Okinawa and Postwar Reforms in
Japan Proper,” in Democratizing Japan: Th e Allied Occupation, ed. Robert E. Ward
and Sakamoto Yoshikazu (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1987), 285.
30. Ibid., 289.
31. Koji Taira, “Troubled National Identity: Okinawa,” in Japan’s Minorities:
Th e Illusion of Homogeneity, ed. Michael Weiner (London: Routledge, 1997), 160.
32. Quoted in Michael Molasky and Steve Rabson, Southern Exposure: Modern
Japanese Literature from Okinawa (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000),
94.
33. Th e Price Report did not off er a specifi c formula to determine lump-
sum amounts. Instead, it criticized the U.S. military’s method of land assess-
ment based on a comparable sales approach as unrealistic because agricultural
land was usually kept within family ownership and seldom sold in Okinawa.
A somewhat vague alternative method was presented: “It is the view of the
subcommittee that in arriving at compensation for land best suited for agri-
cultural production, the United States should give predominate consideration
to current agricultural productivity and income data relating to similar lands
now in agricultural use in Okinawa.” Th e Okinawan proposal was for annual
rental of $8,263,178 for forty thousand acres of land used by the U.S. military
plus $14,363,103 as payment for “outstanding claims for destruction of land and
property and for incidental expenses and losses incurred as a result of land ac-
quisitions.” Th e Price Report concluded that, under the Okinawan proposal, the
market value of the fee title to the property, as estimated by the army, would be
paid out in a little over two years as rental payments and other claims. Armed
Services Committee, “Report of a Special Subcommittee of the Armed Services
Committee, House of Representatives, Following an Inspection Tour, October
14 to November 23, 1955” 84th Congress (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Offi ce, 1956), 7651–67.
34. Department of State, Offi ce of Intelligence Research, “US Administration
of the Ryukyus Enters a Critical Period,” Intelligence Report No. 7366, October 26,
1956.
35. Armed Services Committee, “Report of a Special Subcommittee.”
36. Michael Molasky, Th e American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa: Litera-
ture and Memory (New York: Routledge), 92.
37. Ibid., 97.
38. Ibid., 97.
39. Ibid., 98.
40. Akio Watanabe, Th e Okinawa Problem: A Chapter in Japan–U.S. Relations
(Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1970), 66.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20071128a5.html

RISING UP FROM A SEA OF DISCONTENT · 123

41. Ibid.
42. Ibid., 65.
43. From an unpublished list compiled by Suzuyo Takazato and Harumi Mi-
yagi (n.p., February 1, 1996).
44. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), ed., Rokku to koza (Rock and Koza) (Okinawa: Kobundo
Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha, 1994), 167.
45. Molasky, Th e American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa, 55–56.
46. Quoted in Molasky, Th e American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa, 59.
47. My choice of “uprising,” rather than “revolt” or “rebellion,” is mainly based
on aesthetics. “Uprising” connotes the downtrodden standing up against oppres-
sion and seems to fi t the Chinese characters that are contained in hoki, which con-
sists of ho, the character for bees or wasps, and ki, the character for awakening,
rising, and beginning.
48. Aniya, “Koza Minshu (Koza peoples),” 187.
49. Herbert J. Gans, “Urban Riots: Violence and Social Change,” Proceedings of
the Academy of Political Science 29, no. 1 (1968): 42.
50. Robert Blauner, “Internal Colonization and Ghetto Revolt,” Social Prob-
lems 16, no. 4 (1969): 399.
51. Ibid., 395–96.
52. Ibid., 54.
53. Takamine, Shirarezaru (Unknown truth about Okinawa), 203.
54. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinkoka (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), ed., Rokku to koza (Rock and Koza), 54.
55. Besides the Bush Masters, there were other black groups existing through-
out Okinawa such as Black Hawk, Son of Malcolm X, Maw Maw, Afro-American
Society, People’s Foundation, and Zulu.
56. Takamine, Shirarezaru (Unknown truth about Okinawa), 206.
57. Ibid., 209.
58. Ibid., 203.
59. Public Safety Department Records of the Operations Division of U.S. Civil
Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, “Negro Personnel Reportedly Desiring to
Take Over Koza City, Okinawa.” Record Group 260: Records of the United States
Occupation Headquarters World War II, National Archives and Records Admin-
istration. Box No. 20 of HCRI-PS, Folder 6. Copy obtained from the Okinawa
Prefectural Archives in Okinawa, Japan, on November 25, 2009.
60. Ibid., 217–18.
61. Ibid., 219–20.
62. Ibid., 162.
63. Okinawa-shi Heiwa Bunka Shinko (Peace Culture Promotion Section of
Okinawa City Offi ces), ed., Shashinga toraeta (Koza people, streets, and events), 63.

124 · WESLEY IWAO UEUNTEN

64. From photo in Ibid., 66.
65. Th e Black Panther, January 4, 1969, http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/
bpp/bpp040169_8c.htm (accessed December 8, 2006; site now discontinued).
66. Andrew Hsiao, “100 Years of Hell-Raising: Th e Hidden History of Asian
American Activism in New York City,” Th e Village Voice, June 23, 1998, http://
www.villagevoice.com/news/9825,hsiao,226,1.html (accessed May 30, 2008).
67. “Implications of the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty,” prepared by members of
Asian Americans for Action, circa 1970.
68. “Okinawa: A People’s Struggle,” Gidra, April 1971.
69. “JACL and the US-Japan Security Pact,” Gidra, June–July 1970.
70. “Okinawa Kaiho,” Gidra, May 1972.
71. Th ese descriptions have been cultivated and promulgated in the writings
of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western explorers who visited Okinawa, by
Hollywood movies such as Th e Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) and Th e Ka-
rate Kid, Part II (1984), and by books such as Okinawa Program: How the World’s
Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health—And How You Can Too (2001).
72. Perhaps not directly linked to Okinawa, but nonetheless a part of “the sea
of discontent,” was a simultaneous transpacifi c movement by island people who
were similarly displaced, discriminated against, and disaff ected. In 1971, a group
of immigrant Cook Islanders, Samoans, Tongans, and other Pacifi c Islanders in
Aotearoa, New Zealand, founded the Polynesian Panther Movement (PPM). Many
of its members were university students when they joined, and most had grown up
in inner-city Auckland. Following World War II, emigration from Pacifi c islands
to New Zealand increased, reaching a peak in the 1960s and early 1970s. Th e New
Zealand government encouraged this immigration as the Pacifi c migrant workers
provided the necessary labor for the country’s expanding industries.

Th e PPM channeled the anger and frustrations of the Polynesian youth
in Auckland toward promoting solidarity with the indigenous Māori liberation
struggle, expressing positive views of Pacifi c Islander identities, and working for
fundamental, radical change. Th e PPM published its own newspaper, set up pro-
grams to serve the community, and organized and participated in political dem-
onstrations. See Melani Anae, ed., Polynesian Panthers: Th e Crucible Years 1971–74
(Auckland, New Zealand: Reed Publishing, Ltd., 2006), 21–58.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/bpp/bpp040169_8c.htm

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9825,hsiao,226,1.html

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