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American Literature on the Battle of Okinawa and the Continuing US Military Presence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

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The several works of American literature set in Okinawa or about Okinawans include travel narratives, war diaries, memoirs, biography, fiction, drama, and musical theater Perhaps the earliest, Francis L. Hawks's 1856 Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, is an account of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's gunboat diplomacy of 1853–1854 when he forced his demands on leaders of what was then the Ryukyu Kingdom, allowing Americans to land, travel, and trade there. Hawks also provides informative and colorful descriptions of the local residents, architecture, and natural environment.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2017

References

Further Reading

Bhowmik, Davinder L., and Steve Rabson, eds. Islands of Protest: Japanese Literature from Okinawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2016. Find this resource:Google Scholar
Crissey, Etsuko Takushi. Okinawa's GI Brides: Their Lives in America. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2017. Find this resource:Google Scholar
Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Find this resource:Google Scholar
Hawks, Francis L. Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2000. Find this resource:Google Scholar
Hein, Laura, and Mark Selden, eds. Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Find this resource:Google Scholar
Yamagawa, Hana. From Okinawa to the Americas: Hana Yamagawa and Her Reminiscences of a Century. edited by Hibbett, Akiko Yamagawa. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2010. Find this resource:Google Scholar
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