Beneath the healing islands : corporeal memory and decolonial writing in Medoruma Shun’s war fiction
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Asian Studies, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Chen, Ruikun
issued: 2025-04-22T21:59:49Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Half a century has passed since Okinawa’s 1972 reversion to Japan after 27 years of American military rule, but the region continues to struggle with unfinished histories of colonization, war(s), and occupation. Despite this troubled past and present, mainland Japan has often depicted Okinawa Prefecture as “healing islands” (iyashi no shima), exoticizing it while reinforcing its colonial status. Medoruma Shun (b. 1960), a significant literary voice from Okinawa, has proactively written about war memories of the Battle of Okinawa and its aftermath through his innovative fiction. This thesis examines how Medoruma’s short stories “Droplets” (“Suiteki,” 1997) and “Spirit Stuffing” (“Mabuigumi,” 1998) challenge hegemonic narratives about Okinawa’s war experiences and its portrayal as “healing islands” through their representations of human bodies within and against various natural, linguistic, and social landscapes. In the main chapters, I analyze “Droplets” and its use of bodily sensation to explore war experiences excluded from official historical accounts. This approach reveals the complex position of Okinawans as both victims and victimizers. My close readings demonstrate how the protagonist’s mysteriously swollen foot and the water it exudes function to disrupt the alignment between body and nation, thereby subverting the absorption of individual Okinawan experiences into simplified accounts of sacrifice and victimhood. I also read “Spirit Stuffing” as a challenge to the “healing islands” narrative through its portrayal of community tensions and the dynamic interplay between human bodies and environmental imagery. The story’s narrative perspective and treatment of gendered bodies unmask how supposedly “healing” landscapes operate as repositories of unresolved trauma. By examining these literary interventions, I argue that Medoruma’s writing constitutes a form of decolonial resistance specific to the Okinawan context. Rather than offering paths to reconcile war memor…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90710
note: BENEATH THE HEALING ISLANDS: CORPOREAL MEMORY AND DECOLONIAL WRITING IN MEDORUMA SHUN’S WAR FICTION by Ruikun Chen B.A., Beijing Language and Culture University, 2022 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2025 © Ruikun Chen, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Beneath the Healing Islands: Corporeal Memory and Decolonial Writing in Medoruma Shun’s War Fiction submitted by Ruikun Chen in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Asian Studies Examining Committee: Christina Yi, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisor Sharalyn Orbaugh, Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Ayaka Yoshimizu, Associate Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Half a century has passed since Okinawa’s 1972 reversion to Japan after 27 years of American military rule, but the region continues to struggle with unfinished histories of colonization, war(s), and occupation. Despite this troubled past and present, mainland Japan has often depicted Okinawa Prefecture as “healing islands” (iyashi no shima), exoticizing it while reinforcing its colonial status. Medoruma Shun (b. 1960), a significant literary voice from Okinawa, has proactively written about war memories of the Battle of Okinawa and its aftermath through his innovative fiction. This thesis examines how Medoruma’s short stories “Droplets” (“Suiteki,” 1997) and “Spirit Stuffing” (“Mabuigumi,” 1998) challenge hegemonic narratives about Okinawa’s war experiences and its portrayal as “healing islands” through their representations of human bodies within and against various natural, linguistic, and social landscapes. In the main cha…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448493
language: eng
degree discipline: Asian Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Yi, Christina
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90710