Facing Cultural Subjugation: Ainu and Okinawan Identity through Literature and Music

Long before the Japanese Empire embarked on its brutal campaign for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, the Meiji government pursued a violent, nationalistic expansion to the islands of Hokkaido and Okinawa. The indigenous Ainu and the Okinawan peoples were subject to discrimination, displacement, and forced assimilation, resulting in cultural suppression, suffering, and death. An examination of their rich literature and music, from early Ainu folktales to modern-day “Uchina Pop,” provides under-represented perspectives on Japan’s long colonial history from within