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![Night in the American Village](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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Night in the American Village
Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa
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- 229,00 kr
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- 229,00 kr
Publisher Description
"A lively encounter with identity and American military history in Okinawa. Night in the American Village is by turns intellectual, hip, and sexy. I admire it for its ferocity, style, and vigor. A wonderful book."
—Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead
A beautifully written examination of the complex relationship between the women living near the U.S. bases in Okinawa and the servicemen who are stationed there
At the southern end of the Japanese archipelago lies Okinawa, host to a vast complex of U.S. military bases. A legacy of World War II, these bases have been a fraught issue in Japan for decades—with tensions exacerbated by the often volatile relationship between islanders and the military, especially after the brutal rape of a twelve-year-old girl by three servicemen in the 1990s.
But the situation is more complex than it seems. In Night in the American Village, journalist Akemi Johnson takes readers deep into the "border towns" surrounding the bases—a world where cultural and political fault lines compel individuals, both Japanese and American, to continually renegotiate their own identities. Focusing on the women there, she follows the complex fallout of the murder of an Okinawan woman by an ex–U.S. serviceman in 2016 and speaks to protesters, to women who date and marry American men and groups that help them when problems arise, and to Okinawans whose family members survived World War II.
Thought-provoking and timely, Night in the American Village is a vivid look at the enduring wounds of U.S.-Japanese history and the cultural and sexual politics of the American military empire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a searing and stylish debut, journalist Johnson delves into the consequences of America's military presence in Japan's southernmost prefecture, revealing a complicated web of sexual and racial politics. Two post-WWII treaties designed to prevent Japan from remilitarizing prompted the U.S. to establish a larger overseas military presence in Okinawa than anywhere else outside of the U.S. Johnson, who is Japanese-American, frames her investigation around the tale of the 2016 rape and murder of 20-year-old Rina Shimabukuro by a former U.S. Marine working on Kadena Air Base. Over the course of 10 chapters, each focusing on a memorable woman she met in Okinawa, Johnson uses Shimabukuro's death as a metaphor for the long-standing tensions between the Americans and Okinawans. The chapter on Sachiko Miyagi, who was a teenager put to work in a field hospital during the ferocious U.S. invasion of Okinawa, is chilling and heartbreaking; the story of Suzuyo Takazato, who cofounded Okinawa Women Against Military Violence in 1995, is interwoven with the history of rape by American servicemen in Okinawa. An accomplished storyteller, Johnson paints a nuanced portrait of Okinawa's women as "players in the larger geopolitical game, influencing, challenging, and smoothing the way for the U.S.-Japan security alliance" who sometimes tell "truths others don't want to hear." This is a must-read look at the impact of the U.S.'s overseas military presence on the people who live near it, cultural collisions, and gendered violence.