Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian HistoryMain MenuGet to Know the SiteGuided TourShow Me HowA click-by-click guide to using this siteModulesRead the seventeen spatial stories that make up Bodies and Structures 2.0Tag MapExplore conceptsComplete Grid VisualizationDiscover connectionsGeotagged MapFind materials by geographic locationLensesCreate your own visualizationsWhat We LearnedLearn how multivocal spatial history changed how we approach our researchAboutFind information about contributors and advisory board members, citing this site, image permissions and licensing, and site documentationTroubleshootingA guide to known issuesAcknowledgmentsThank youDavid Ambaras1337d6b66b25164b57abc529e56445d238145277Kate McDonald306bb1134bc892ab2ada669bed7aecb100ef7d5fThis project was made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
On Yaeyama
12020-09-13T03:49:15-04:00Hiroko Matsudadcd719582014fb85f4ce73292fca95ce698fbfa9353Noteplain2020-09-13T05:15:44-04:00Hiroko Matsudadcd719582014fb85f4ce73292fca95ce698fbfa9According to the Okinawa prefectural office's website, The Yaeyama Archipelago is today located at the southwest limit of Japanese territory. it consisted of 32 islands--in 2020, twelve of them inhabited. It contains three administrative divisions: Ishigaki City, Taketomi Town and Yonaguni Town, in which Ishigaki City has been the economic and political center of the Archipelago in history. While the distance between Ishigaki Island and Naha City, in which the Okinawa prefectural office is located, is approximately 411 kilometers, the distance between Yonaguni Town and Taiwan is approximately 111 kilometers.
This module elucidates the construction of border/boundary that demarcates as well as connects "the metropole"and the "colony" of the Japanese colonial empire. This particularly focuses on the border/boundary between Okinawa/ the Ryūkyū Islands and Taiwan with a particular attention to individuals who travels around Yaeyama Islands.
It has been widely known how people of Okinawa/Ryūkyū suffered as the "internal colony" of Japan since the Japanese forceful annexation of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. The existing studies both in English and Japanese have uncovered how the islanders indeed suffered the political discrimination, cultural marginalization and poverty under the Japanese government. However, they have little attentions to the fact that the Ryūkyū Islands are the border zone, adjacent to China, Taiwan, and the Philippines across the sea. Thus, the module demonstrates the history of Okinawa/Ryūkyū as the border zone of East Asia, and uncovers the people's experiences with regard to the construction of border/boundary, demarcating and connecting with Taiwan.
If taking border/boundary as fundamentally spatial concepts, Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space (1991) is the first and foremost book that demonstrates the dynamic nature of border/boundary. In reconsidering the conventional understanding of space that is divided into "physical space"and "mental space," Lefebvre (1991) demonstrates the theory of "social space." Social space is distinguished from both physical space that is defined by practico-sensory activity and mental space that is defined by philosophers and mathematicians. In re-theorizing the concept of space as a space as a social product, Lefebvre (1991) explores the history of space, and points out the dominance of nation-states in production of space in the contemporary age. He maintains that neither a substantive "legal person"nor an ideological fiction can define a nation state. Rather, the combined forces of the market, which is a complex ensemble of commercial relations and communication networks, and military violence produce the space of a nation-state (Lefebvre, 1991, 112).
This module explores how the border between Japan (the metropole) and Taiwan (the colony) was not instantly determined by the governmental treaty, but constantly negotiated by people who travelled across the border zone. Here, I would like to introduce the notion of "liminality" in demonstrating the malleable and changeable nature of the border Islands, Yaeyama. The concept of liminality was first theorized by a French anthropologist, Arnold van Gennep, but the concept has been creatively broadened and applied to various contexts by the contemporary scholars. In fact, today, the concept of liminality is employed nearly equally to the ides of "in-between," "ambiguity," or "marginality." Yet, I should stress that this module employs the notion of liminality by highlighting the transitionality of the ïn-between'' subjects.
That is to say, the following sections demonstrate the ways in which Japanese imperialist nationalism made Yaeyama Islands the liminal zone and the extent to which liminality defined Yaeyama people's migration to colonial Taiwan. Besides, this demonstrates that people of Japan and Okinawa were active agencies of the Japanese colonial empire, and their discourse and practices of nationalism were incorporated into the colonialism.
