SOVEREIGNTIES OF THE FOREST: WAR, CONSERVATION, AND TOURISM IN YAMBARU, OKINAWA

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dc.contributor.advisorMostafanezhad, Mary
dc.contributor.authorSchrager, Sayaka Sakuma
dc.contributor.departmentGeography
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-02T23:41:04Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.degreePh.D.
dc.embargo.liftdate2026-06-24
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/108308
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectconservation
dc.subjectmilitarism
dc.subjectOkinawa
dc.subjectsovereignty
dc.subjecttourism
dc.subjectwar
dc.titleSOVEREIGNTIES OF THE FOREST: WAR, CONSERVATION, AND TOURISM IN YAMBARU, OKINAWA
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractThe political history of Okinawa charts a winding route – from the independent Ryukyu Kingdom to the annexation by Japan to post-war Occupation by the US, and to the reversion to Japan. Different regimes of sovereign power have territorialized and reterritorialized the islands of Okinawa, leaving behind complex legacies of colonialism, war, and occupation. Scholars have long essentialized Okinawa as a passive victim of Japanese and American empire, but this perspective overlooks Okinawans’ empowered negotiation of sovereignties. This dissertation explores how the people of Okinawa navigate these changing regimes in Yambaru, a forested region in the northern part of Okinawa Island. Yambaru experiences these competing and complementary sovereignties that promote development initiatives through militarism, conservationism, and tourism. My dissertation examines “sovereignties of the forest” by which I refer not just to how the state enacts its sovereignties but also the strategies through which forested communities exert agency. Further, the forest itself has a benevolent presence that supports not only humans but also a vibrant multi-species ecosystem. The sovereignties of the forest encompass not only state power but also the communities and the emergent life of the forest itself. Based on 14 months of ethnographic and archival research in Kunigami village, Higashi village, Ogimi village, and Kushi area in Nago city, I home in on war survival, land use of former military land, and homestay programs as key moments that shape everyday lives. Within these moments, I engage with three central themes: the (in)visibilities of war legacies in Yambaru forest, conservation as a tool for territorial development, and hospitality as a geopolitical enactment. Each of the themes, I argue, reminds us how forested communities remember, narrate, and articulate their lives through mundane practices that navigate multiple sovereignties. This dissertation illustrates how the social, political, and cultural memories of forested communities become sedimented layers of place-making practices that overlay the landscape. Through their engagement with these projects, Yambaru residents challenge linear geopolitical narratives of state power in peripheralized islands. Collectively, these stories and this dissertation seeks to account for the sedimented sovereignties of the Yambaru forest.
dcterms.extent171 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:10699

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