Discussion 7

How do you think the trauma that Okinawan women experienced during the Battle of Okinawa impacted their responses to the military base construction that the US military Occupation authorities enacted during the early 1950s that we see in the Isahama struggle? What traumas have to be dissociated from the Battle of Okinawa and understood as new to the time of US military occupation?

In the context of trauma, Okinawan women both experience the burden of claiming property and also depending on agriculture for income. When war/ post-war is in the mix, agricultural production became a high demand for both the war front but also for the survival of the citizen. However, with the enclosure set by the United States in 1952, the consequences to those demands were difficult to meet, especially since women suffered not only the loss of their husbands but also being evicted.

The response of such includes women choosing death than being removed from their homes, because of how important these small land farms were in aspect to livelihood, survival, and “social relations of property law” forming and enabling in Okinawa. The trauma of loss is present in this case. Not only did these women lost their husbands, but also were in the process of losing what is left of their homes. No other places were safe after all due to the effects of war surrounding them. Thus, the need and anger of these women to not follow military legislation of leaving their home fronts.

It sparks and reevaluates the military concept of “liberation”. Does liberation mean “improving the livelihood of people who had suffered from the war done by the aggressor” as a form of compensation or does it mean allowing survivors to gradually deal and improve with the available resources at present without the interference of the outside?