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Fractious Memories in Medoruma Shun's Tales of War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Davinder Bhowmik
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Abstract

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Medoruma Shun (1960-), a fiery critic and one of Japan's most imaginative fiction writers, joined tens of thousands who participated in the September 9, 2012 protest against the deployment of MV-22 Osprey aircraft in Futenma, Okinawa. In his blog he mentions Okinawa Governer Nakaima Hirokazu's decision not to join the protest. This he follows up with the speculation that politicians in Tokyo will use Nakaima's absence to point to divisions in the island prefecture, a common ploy to dismiss unity among large numbers of Okinawans. Several of Medoruma's fictional works, ranging from early stories such as “Taiwan Woman: Record of a Shoal of Fish” and “Prizecock” to mature works such as “Hope” and Rainbow Bird make reference to the ongoing protests in Okinawa. The 9/9/12 protest, the largest in Okinawa's history, will surely make its way into a future story. One critic says the spontaneous formation of a crowd in “Droplets,” analyzed below, smacks of Okinawa (Okinawa teki).

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 38 , September 2012 , e4
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

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