Remembering Okinawa: The Himeyuri Story and Construction of Wartime Memory in Japan

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: The Battle of Okinawa is remembered as the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. It involved the mobilization of locals on an unprecedented scale, leading to countless civilian casualties inflicted by both forces. Himeyuri Corps was a nursing unit during the battle that was comprised of mobilized female students in Okinawa. Since the early years of the postwar, the story about the unit has become central to how the wartime is remembered in Japan. A series of media productions popularized the story, making the monument commemorating deceased members of the unit, the Himeyuri Cenotaph, a popular tourist destination since the 1950s. However, it was not until the 1980s the survivors publicly discussed their experience through founding the Himeyuri Peace Museum. This thesis will address the following questions: how did the story become a cultural icon? What was the survivors’ role in establishing and maintaining the story? This thesis will first discuss the popularity of the story and its reflection of Japanese territoriality. It will then look into the opening process of the museum alongside its current narrative.

Type of resource	text
Date created	June 2019

Author	Kim, Ju-Hyun
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Stanford Global Studies, Center for East Asian Studies
Primary advisor	Uchida, Jun

Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/zs572nk4018

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

Preferred Citation: Kim, Ju-Hyun. (2019). Remembering Okinawa: The Himeyuri Story and Construction of Wartime Memory in Japan. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/zs572nk4018

Stanford Center for East Asian Studies Thesis Collection

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