{"product_id":"why-are-we-in-okinawa-a-history-of-violence-9781538188392","title":"Why Are We in Okinawa?: A History of Violence","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this compelling history, award-winning journalist, Jon Mitchell, traces how the islands of Okinawa have been \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eannexed by Japan, occupied by the United States and now menaced by China. \u003c\/b\u003eIn response, Okinawans have developed one of the world's most resilient - yet overlooked - pacifist movements.\u003cbr\u003eOnce a wealthy kingdom, Okinawa was seized by Japan in the late-19th century and, after World War II, abandoned to US colonial rule. For twenty-seven years, residents were denied civil and labor rights, but their non-violent resistance grew so strong that, in 1972, they forced the return of the islands to Japanese control. \u003cbr\u003eToday, thirty-one US bases dominate a land mass smaller than Rhode Island and Okinawans remain Japan's poorest people. Tensions are rising as China questions Japan's control of Okinawa and fires missiles into nearby seas. Angry at being pawns in the play of greater powers, islanders resist through mass protests, music, comedy and art. Okinawa offers an inspirational model of grassroots democracy and civic engagement for the rest of Japan and beyond.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJon Mitchell\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning investigative journalist based in Japan. An expert in the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), his scoops are often on TV news in Japan and featured in reports for the US Congress. Mitchell's first English book, \u003ci\u003ePoisoning the Pacific: The US Military's Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange (2021)\u003c\/i\u003e, was a winner in the Society of Environmental Journalists' annual awards. In 2023, he received Japan's most prestigious journalism prize, the Ishibashi Tanzan Memorial Journalism Award for public service.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bloomsbury Academic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52078196752658,"sku":"9781538188392","price":36.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_55dc0fe9-0915-4afd-91a1-9cda550ab2b0.jpg?v=1772534834","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/why-are-we-in-okinawa-a-history-of-violence-9781538188392","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}