����Vlog�ٷ�

When the Lights Go Off Again: Electrical Currents in Postwar Okinawa

Description: In the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Okinawa, the U.S. military aggressively pursued the construction of power plants to power its occupation. While electricity was touted as necessary infrastructure for the rebuilding of Okinawa and the preeminent force through which Okinawans could ascend to “modern” lives, the building of power plants and their social and environmental consequences became contested grounds between the U.S. military government, its servicemembers, and Okinawans. Part of my analysis centers my family’s imbrication with U.S. and Okinawan power companies, which I approach through reading of a family memoir. Through analysis of that memoir alongside U.S. military and Okinawan power company archival materials, I delve into power plant-related incidents surrounding soot, gas, exhaust, and air conditioning to consider how struggles over land and belonging that defined postwar Okinawa were just as entrenched in the air, clarifying how Okinawan relationships to air, thunder, and the sky were articulated alongside hopes for sovereignty and self-determination. Bio: Sam Ikehara was born and raised on the island of Oʻahu. Her research and teaching interests emerge from her family’s histories and stories of war and occupation across Asia and the Pacific Islands, particularly in Hawaiʻi and Okinawa. Her current book project investigates air across Asia and the Pacific Islands as a site of U.S.-Japanese interimperial violence that is actively contested through movements for demilitarization and sovereignty built around breath, wind, and the restoration of bodily relief. She is currently an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�. Cosponsored by Departments of English, Sociology, Political Science, History, Anthropology, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Center for Oral History, Hamilton Library, and Peacebuilding LLC

Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Carson Compos, 808-956-3774, brownbag@hawaii.edu