Special Issue
Transborder on and Local Identity:
Focusing on Kin-Town in Okinawa
2016 Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 448-465
Details
2016 Volume 67 Issue 4 Pages 448-465
In this paper, we will be focusing on a community called Kin-cho, a town located on the mid-north part of Okinawa. Kin-cho is the place of origin of overseas migration in Okinawa. Furthermore, Kin-cho has an American military base named Camp Hansen which is known as one of the most dangerous American military bases on Okinawa. Therefore, Kin-cho is also known as “Kin Town: A town of the military base.”
How did Kin become a “village launching overseas migration in the early 20th century?” Moreover, how did it become “Kin Town after the second world war?” In this paper, we will be illustrating the life history of a Hawai'i KIBEI NISEI, who lived in Kin Village before the Second World War, and an Amerasian young woman who grew up in modern Kin-cho. Not only have they both experienced moving overseas but they have also acquired and learned multiple languages and cultures. This paper will examine which penetrates through the different ages of their histories. We will discover the origin of Kin's local identity. We will discover the process of how Okinawa has become Okinawa in the borderline of dynamism.
