Remembering Nan’yō from Okinawa: Deconstructing the Former Empire of Japan through Memorial Practices

Abstract

This article explores how Okinawan returnees from Micronesia, particularly the Marianas and Palau, struggle to maintain memorial services in the post–Pacific War period. Okinawans adopted two strategies to keep these services alive: incorporating younger people in both Okinawa and Micronesia, and maintaining close ties with local communities that assist their activities. Okinawans, through their marginalizing and traumatizing wartime experiences in Nan’yō Guntō (Micronesia), have adopted a broad perspective that transcends national boundaries. Their memorial practices are authentic and have the potential to overturn nationalist discourse, although they also risk absorption into Japan’s national memory.