Between im/morality : an analysis of moral discourses on prostitutes in Okinawan newspaper articles, 1956-1972
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Asian Studies, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Hu, Yi
issued: 2025-10-02T15:32:44Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: This thesis seeks to address the question of how Okinawan newspaper articles published between 1956 to 1972 constructed journalistic discourses that posited prostitutes as the source of moral pollution. Additionally, the thesis is interested in the sociopolitical mechanisms that managed and suppressed the destabilizing effects posed by the prostitutes and their commercial-sexual relations with both American and local men. In exploring these issues, the thesis seeks to shed light on the ideological functions that such discourses served in managing the contradictions between economic dependency on the sex industry and other competing political and moral aspirations operating within Okinawan society after the end of the Asia-Pacific War under U.S. military occupation. The articles were transcribed and thematically coded manually by the author and then analyzed using methodological tools drawn from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The application of these analytical methods was primarily grounded in a critical realist perspective on Foucault’s discourse theory, as outlined in his 1970 Collège de France lecture The Order of Discourse (L’Ordre du Discours). The framework to understanding morality and morality-related sociopolitical mechanisms was drawn from Mary Douglas’s work Purity and Danger (1966). During the period specified above, the journalistic texts published in Okinawan newspapers initially identified the prostitutes working in Okinawa’s base towns as outsiders of society and cast them as the source of moral pollution that endangered the rest of the society by way of their sexual relations with the American soldiers. However, concurrently and over time, additional information and alternative moral-discursive representations emerged which destabilized this simplistic moral-discursive framework, which partially led to a refocusing on the brothel owners as the face of evil in Okinawa’s sex industry between the late 1950s up to the ratification of the Prostitutio…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92477
note: BETWEEN IM/MORALITY: AN ANALYSIS OF MORAL DISCOURSES ON PROSTITUTES IN OKINAWAN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, 1956-1972 by Yi Hu M.Sc., The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2023 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) SEPTEMBER 2025 © Yi Hu, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Between Im/morality: An Analysis of Moral Discourses on Prostitutes in Okinawan Newspapers Articles, 1956-1972 submitted by Yi Hu in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Asian Studies Examining Committee: Ayaka Yoshimizu, Associate Professor of Teaching, Asian Studies, UBC Co-supervisor Christina Yi, Associate Professor, Asian Studies, UBC Co-supervisor Kelly Midori McCormick, Assistant Professor, History, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract This thesis seeks to address the question of how Okinawan newspaper articles published between 1956 to 1972 constructed journalistic discourses that posited prostitutes as the source of moral pollution. Additionally, the thesis is interested in the sociopolitical mechanisms that managed and suppressed the destabilizing effects posed by the prostitutes and their commercial-sexual relations with both American and local men. In exploring these issues, the thesis aims to shed light on the ideological functions that such discourses served in managing the contradictions between economic dependency on the sex industry and other competing political and moral aspirations operating within Okinawan society after the end of the Asia-Pacific War under U.S. military occupation. The articles were transcribed and thematically coded manually by the author and then analyzed using methodological tools drawn from Critical Discou…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0450294
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
contributor: Yoshimizu, Ayaka
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92477