남양군도의 오키나와인에 관한 표상과 서사 -오시로 사다토시(大城貞俊)의 「팔라우의 푸른 하늘(パラオの青い空)」을 중심으로-

Abstract

This paper analyzed the re-nationalization of Okinawans as a part of the southward advance, a national policy, as well as the discrimination and exclusion against them, led by Japanese natives, which disrupted the process of re-nationalization. Each of the migration of Okinawans into Micronesian Islands and the conduct of the national policy was one of methods of proving that they were members of imperial subjects and also an opportunity to unite Japan and Okinawa. Japanese natives, however, otherized Okinawans, citing several reasons including their cultural customs, physical characteristics, economic state, etc. and also discriminated them in terms of wages and treatment. Such a representation and a narrative of Okinawans living in Micronesian Islands were based on negative images of others, which were already created in the Japanese mainland and actually circulated between Micronesian Islands and the Japanese mainland. Meanwhile, the Okinawans living in Micronesian Islands, described by Oshiro Sadatoshi in 『Blue Sky of Palau』 were very conspicuous. The process in which husband of the heroine who became a new teacher in Palau Public School was gradually re-nationalized as a 'Japanese' and sexual abuse incidents she experienced at the hands of local males tell that localities and countries, wars and colonies, nations and countries, migration and gender, defeats and death, and so on have multilateral and multi-layered war and post-war effects on individuals and families. This novel questioning the multi-layered relations among various beings which once existed in Micronesian Islands as well as how to face an individual's life and past which have penetrated through the war and the post-war provides significant implications for research and discourses on Micronesian Islands.