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Colonial mirror images of micronesia and japan
Sudo, Naoto
Sudo, Naoto
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"This article deals with the voices from the area of Micronesia that was — or currently is — under the rule of Japan and the United States, and which therefore has been colonized militarily, culturally, and economically by both of these countries directly and deeply. Especially since the 1980s, literary texts from Micronesia focus critically on Japan and the United States. Furthermore, I will discuss Japanese literature, which also critiques the occupation of Micronesia by Japan and the United States, and argue that especially since the 1980s these texts can be considered “postcolonial.” In this period, the literature and criticism of the Western and formerly-colonized non-Western worlds substituted for “liberal humanist readings by critics of Commonwealth literature, the (newly re-christened) „postcolonial literatures‟ were at a stroke regarded as politically radical and locally situated, rather than universally relevant” (McLeod 25). In keeping with this movement, criticizing American and Japanese relations with Micronesia — the United States‟ military and cultural hegemonic presence and Japan‟s colonial history and post-war economic/tourist (neo-colonialist) surge — some contemporary Japanese writers challenge conventional modes of representation of the Pacific. In this article, I use the term “postcolonial” to refer to such attempts to resist powerful colonialist views.
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2004
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With permission of the license/copyright holder