전후(戦後) 오키나와의 자기결정 모색과 ‘반복귀론’

Seeking Self-determination in Postwar Okinawa and ‘Anti-reversionism’ : Focusing on Arakawa Akira’s Writings

Arakawa Akira(新川明), an iconoclastic critic of postwar Okinawa, came into spotlight since 1995 in terms of problematizing Okinawa’s predicament besieged with U.S.-Japanese joint colonialism. For decades since Japan’s defeat, postwar Okinawa was a de facto military colony utilized by U.S. armed forces, nevertheless Japanese state sovereignty was formally maintained in a name of ‘residual sovereignty(潜在主権).’ In other words, when it comes to postwar Okinawa, sovereign space of postwar Japan was not so much a political realm reflecting Okinawan’s appeal as a deceitful apparatus activating American Cold war strategy and U.S.-Japan alliance. Arakawa’s ‘Anti-reversionism(反復帰論)’ was a trenchant critique with respect to problematic circumstance of Okinawa, especially assailing the logic of Reversion movement(復帰運動). Reversion movement, a leading social movement of postwar Okinawa, was highly preoccupied with thought of recovering legal rights of ‘Japanese nationals(日本国民).’ However, there was unbridgeable gap between wishes embodied in Reversion movement and the real Japanese sovereign space where Okinawan desired to return. Arakawa accused limitation of left-wing thoughts in that it lacked potency against power structure carried by Japanese sovereignty. Also, his ultimate pursuit was to arrange a political realm for alternative Okinawan subjects, refusing tamed subjectivity compliant with U.S. and Japan. The kernel of Arakawa’s ‘Anti-reversionism’ was criticizing the meaning of ‘becoming Japanese’ in Okinawa as well as repudiating Japanese nation-state. At the same time, he tried to reveal a self-reliant meaning area of Okinawa disengaged from Japan’s sovereign space, in order to envision alternative form of social movement. Given still unchanged predicament, his argument, which combines critique of colonialism and repulsion toward nation-state, could be a catalyst for both ongoing struggle and critical imagination of Okinawa. Even though ‘Anti-reversionism’ was an ignored minority opinion in those days, it was the current endeavor of Okinawan activism and obdurate colonial situation that rendered Arakawa’s writings still valid.