Article published in Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature and Culture 12: 301–333. (link)

Abstract:

This article, part of a special section of Azalea on “The Politics of Passing in Zainichi Cultural Production,” examines the complex relations among Okinawans, Koreans, and other colonial subjects within the Japanese empire. In it, I consider the concept of “furusato” or native place from the perspective of Okinawan, Korean, and Manchurian subjects of the Japanese empire depicted in the work of Okinawan poet and writer Yamanokuchi Baku. Through the lens of home and homelessness as modes of determining authenticity, I tease out the never-ending labor of “passing” experienced by the marginalized characters in Baku’s stories. The network of perspectives that emerges from this analysis illustrates the complex process of mapping the boundaries of Japaneseness within a multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural imperial space. I argue that a critical examination of passing across the Japanese empire, putting Okinawa and Korea into conversation with each other rather than the metropole, exposes the utter instability at the heart of imperial Japanese mappings of cultural proximity and difference.