Cold War Encounters in US-Occupied Okinawa: Women, Militarized Domesticity, and Transnationalism in East Asia

Mire Koikari

Cambridge University Press. 235 Pages. Paperback Publication Date: June 1, 2017. ISBN-13: 978-1107438811.

Cold War Encounters recasts the US occupation of Okinawa as a startling example of Cold War cultural interaction in which women’s grassroots activities involving homes and homemaking played a pivotal role in reshaping the contours of US and Japanese imperialisms. Drawing on insights from studies of gender, Asia, America, and postcolonialism, the book analyzes how the occupation sparked domestic education movements in Okinawa, mobilizing an assortment of women – home economists, military wives, club women, university students, and homemakers – from the US, Okinawa, and mainland Japan. These women went on to pursue a series of activities to promote modern domesticity and build multicultural friendship amidst intense militarization on the islands. As these women took their commitment to domesticity and multiculturalism onto the larger terrain of the Pacific, they came to articulate the complex intertwining of gender, race, domesticity, empire, and transnationality that shaped Cold War geopolitics.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Rethinking Gender and Militarism in Cold War Okinawa

2. Cultivating Feminine Affinity and Affiliation with Americans: Cold War People-to-People Encounters and Women’s Club

3. “The World is Our Campus”: Domestic Science and Cold War Transnationalism between Michigan and Okinawa

4. Building a Bridge across the Pacific: Domestic Training and Cold War Technical Interchange between Okinawa and Hawaii

5. Mobilizing Homes, Empowerment Women: Okinawan Home Economists and Cold War Domestic Education

6. Cultivating Feminine Affinity and Affiliation with the Homeland: Grassroots Women’s Exchange between Mainland Japan and Okinawa

For further information: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/east-asian-history/cold-war-encounters-us-occupied-okinawa-women-militarized-domesticity-and-transnationalism-east-asia?format=PB#eOSpF0QkhyxbLTqV.97