Returning from US Study Abroad: Cold War Representation Title and Construction of Beiryu : Gumi's Identity in the US Military Occupation of Okinawa

Author(s)

琉球大学欧米文化論集 = Ryudai Review of Euro-American Citation Studies(63): 19-39

Issue Date 2019-03-31

URL http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12000/44226

Rights Ryudai Review of EuroAmerican Studies No. 63, 2019

Returning from US Study Abroad: Cold War Representation and Construction of Beiryu-Gumi’s Identity in the US Military Occupation of Okinawa

Kinuko Maehara Yamazato

This is not a burden of responsibility that I am placing on you. It is one that you must assume voluntarily as Ryukyuans, and as leaders and future leaders of these islands. The people are turning to you among others, for advice, guidance and leadership. They want to hear your voice. They want to share your education. They want to benefit from your views of the wider world and, most of all, they want to learn the truth. ―, of Ryukyu Islands, in “Facing Reality,” a speech given at the Golden Gate Club on June 12, 1962. 1

1. Introduction On March 5, 1963, General Paul Caraway, High Commissioner of the Ryukyu Islands, gave a speech at the monthly meeting of the Golden Gate Club. The Golden Gate Club was an alumni association established in 1952 by Okinawans who had received US government scholarships and studied in the US during the Occupation of Okinawa (1945–1972). In his speech entitled “Autonomy,” Caraway referred to the autonomy of the “Ryukyus” under the US military occupation as a myth, and further referred to Okinawans who worked for the Government of Ryukyu Islands as lacking of efficiency.2 He contrasted them with his audience at the meeting, the members of the Golden Gate Club, which consisted of Okinawans who had returned from their study abroad in the US, who he deemed highly sophisticated and praiseworthy for their contribution to developing mutual understanding between people in Okinawa and the US. The following day, the local newspapers strongly

−19− criticized the speech and quoted responses from representatives of each political party in Okinawa, all of whom criticized Caraway’s speech, especially his references to Okinawa’s autonomy and the Ryukyu Government. Caraway’s sensational address received substantial coverage from local newspapers for almost one month. Prior to this speech, he gave his speech “Facing Reality,” at the Golden Gate Club meeting on June 12, 1962. Both of his speeches not only revealed his disinterest in fostering Okinawa’s autonomy but also publicized his view that US-educated Okinawans were the leaders of Okinawa. In the context of the Occupation and the political tension in Okinawa at the time, such remarks added to the public’s negative perception of US-educated Okinawans. While Caraway’s speech fueled the social movement demanding that Okinawa be returned to Japanese administrative control, the general public’s view of those who had studied in the US as “pro-American” or the “bodyguards of the US military” became more salient as well (GARIOA Fulbright Okinawa Chapter 16). In 1945, Okinawa became the last battleground of the - and came under US military control. Although the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951 ended the US occupation of mainland Japan in 1952, Okinawa remained under US military control until the reversion to Japanese administrative control in 1972. In 1949, four years after the end of the Battle of Okinawa, the US study abroad program began under the Government and Relief in Occupied Areas (GARIOA) fund. The GARIOA fund was first approved by the US Congress in 1946, allocated mainly for the rehabilitation of the war-devasted islands and the development of the economy. It also included projects to support higher education in the islands (Fisch 77). Through the US study abroad program, more than one thousand Okinawans were given the opportunity to study at higher educational institutions in the US. On their return to occupied Okinawa, many of the study abroad participants worked in the fields of higher education, business, and politics; they generally had status and privileges that distinguished them from others in Okinawa, and they came to be known collectively as the beiryu-gumi, or the “study in the US group.” This article focuses on the US study abroad program established during the US Occupation of Okinawa and the experiences and identity formation of those Okinawans who

−20− studied at American colleges and universities through the program. While I have focused in other publications on their experiences prior to their departure for the US (Yamazato “Studying in the US was the Only Hope” 26–33) and during their study abroad in the US (Yamazato “Encountering Gendered and National Selves” 49–55), in this article I focus on their experiences and their identity formation after they completed their programs in the US. By focusing on these beiryu-gumi life experiences and their distinctive identity formation, this article shows how the US Occupation shaped post-war Okinawan society and created complicated and multilayered senses of belonging for Okinawan people. While most studies on the US Occupation and the continuing relationship between Okinawa and the US focus on Okinawa’s relations with Japan and the US at the macro-level, this article’s examination of beiryu-gumi’s life stories contributes to better understanding of relations between Okinawa and the US at a micro-level. As I have argued elsewhere, the establishment of the program was not only a part of the US project to democratize Okinawa along with Japan in the postwar period but also a part of the US attempt to develop leaders who could understand and support its policies in the conduct of its administration in occupied Okinawa (Yamazato “Encountering Gendered and National Selves” 46–48). The US study abroad program for Okinawans also played a role in justifying the military occupation of the islands, which secured the territory as a base for its military presence in Cold War Asia. As noted in previous studies (Choy 2003; Shibusawa 2006; Alvah 2007), the initiation of cultural and educational exchange programs was a significant Cold War strategy to restore the image of the US as the nation of freedom and democracy and to engender public support for American policies toward Asia. These programs worked to create what Christina Klein (23) has called a “global imaginary of integration” among allied societies. The US study abroad program in Okinawa was one such Cold War strategy. The US represented the educated Okinawans as “leaders for tomorrow” and highlighted their contributions to the development of postwar Okinawan society with the US’s assistance. Such representations worked to sell the US as a benevolent ruler and to depict the US Occupation of Okinawa as a model of the US military’s interventions in foreign lands.

−21− This article first provides a brief review of studies on US perceptions of Okinawa as reflected in popular and military media. I argue that the representations of beiryu-gumi as “leaders for tomorrow” in the US military media supported the US Occupation of Okinawa as a strategy in the Cold War battle for “hearts and minds.” Second, I explore the experiences and identity formation of the Okinawans who studied in the US after they returned to postwar Okinawa. Focusing on their agency, I examine their social interactions as sites of identity construction and negotiation. In this examination, I take Cornell and Hartmann’s (199) view that “identities are signified, underlined, asserted, and reinforced through the informal interactions that compose so much of the fabric of daily living.” This article examines how the realm of everyday life under the US military occupation mediated the identity formation of beiryu- gumi. Following other scholars of identity formation and negotiation, I look at identity as a process of identification rather than as a fixed state – in other words, identity as fluid, not fixed, and as a product of social construction. Stuart Hall, emphasizing both the fictive nature of identity and the social process of identity formation, sees identity not as “already accomplished fact” (222) but as “a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation” (392). My perspective is also informed by interactionist and dramaturgical approaches to identity, which treat it as a product of interactions with others and emphasize that individual identity is shaped through experiences of interaction that affect the ways in which individuals or groups see themselves3 Identity is continually being made and remade in different contexts and situations of interaction among individuals. In this study, I examine how their interactions with others influenced the ways in which they saw themselves in relation to other local Okinawans and US officials in Okinawa, and how they negotiated the meaning of beingbeiryu-gumi . My analysis is mainly based on primary sources such as US government archival documents, US military media related to the study abroad program, and my open-ended and in-depth interviews with 38 former study abroad participants, including 10 women and 28 men. Between 2010 and 2012, I interviewed 27 Okinawans who studied on the US mainland and another 11 who studied in Hawai‘i. The participants’ ages ranged between 66 and 86

−22− years old at the time of the interviews; they were born between 1929 and 1946. They stayed in the US from two to six years between 1952 and 1973, and their ages at that time ranged from 19 to 34. I located interviewees through the snowball sampling method. Snowball sampling was the most appropriate method for this study because an introduction from a previous interviewee allowed me to develop rapport with the interviewees more easily. I tried to ensure that my interviewees included diversity in age, jobs, degrees pursued in the US, length of stay in the US, and the locations and the times of their study abroad. To do this, I used a list of the study abroad program participants compiled by the Golden Gate Club alumni association in 1992. To ensure anonymity and confidentiality, their names are not used in this article. I conducted the interviews in both public and private places, such as hotel lounges and coffee shops and the interviewees’ houses. The interviews were conducted in Japanese. During the interviews, I asked about their reasons for studying in the US, experiences in the US, and experiences after they returned to Okinawa. In this article, I present stories depicting their experiences after they completed their programs in the US. I examine their perceptions of how their participation in the US study abroad program affected their later careers, their relationships with other Okinawans, and their sense of self. I asked about their experiences with people such as other beiryu-gumi, local Okinawans, and US officials in Okinawa, and I also asked how political changes in Okinawa, particularly the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, impacted their lives and the ways in which they were seen and valued by others in Okinawa.

2. “Leaders for Tomorrow”: Cold War Representation of Beiryu-Gumi As Donna Alvah has pointed out, an American view of Okinawans as children was prevalent in popular and military media during the US Occupation (172-77). Americans treated Okinawans as unable to make decisions and as primitive “islanders” who had not yet attained a civilized status. Such orientalist discourses, to use Edward Said’s term, are evident, for example, in a popular 1954 movie, The Teahouse of the August Moon, which portrayed Okinawans as uncivilized “natives.” This view of Okinawans as incapable of taking

−23− responsibility for themselves appears in US military policies, where it was used to articulate the US’s paternal role and justify US control over the islands. Such representations were prevalent; however, different representations were created for the US educated Okinawans in particular. The US Occupation authorities strategically used the US educated students as idealized leaders to promote the American way of life, and to convince the people of Okinawa that both the program and the US military presence were positive for them and for the future of Okinawa. During the Occupation, the study abroad participants received widespread attention in media produced by the US for consumption in Okinawa. The Department of Education and Information (DEI) of the Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) went to great efforts to promote the program. Experiences of the students were often presented in US propaganda magazines, such as Shurei no Hikari (“Light of the Land of Courtesy)” and Konnichi no Ryukyu (“Ryukyu Today”). Both magazines were distributed throughout Okinawa and had the expressed aim of deepening understanding between Okinawans and Americans. In these magazines, there were sections called “letters from the US study abroad students” where beiryu-gumi wrote of their experiences studying and learning about American culture and society. Another DEI product was a documentary film entitled “Leaders for Tomorrow.” The documentary depicts the trajectories of four male study abroad participants in the 1952 program. It shows the students beginning to understand the importance of American democracy and learning about American generosity and freedom. According to Tsuchiya (77), the documentary was broadcast not only in Okinawa but in other developing countries in the Middle East, South America, and Asia, spreading the depiction of an ideal case of youth contributing to their country’s postwar rehabilitation and receiving support to do so from the American government. Tsuchiya called the film “America’s reconstruction assistant documentary for the Third World” (98) and found it listed in documentary catalogs for Iraq (1964), Peru (1961), and Pakistan (1957). As Tsuchiya concluded, while the documentary worked as a strategy of the US Occupation of Okinawa, it was also used to build the US’s image as a great supporter of the reconstruction of the Third World.

−24− 3. Profiles of US Study Abroad Program Participants According to Ryukyuan Scholarship Program, a report prepared by USCAR in 1970, most of the students on US scholarships studied in fields in the social sciences, the humanities, or education. The top three majors were business administration, teaching English as a second language, and economics. Program participants earned 28 doctorates, 262 master’s degrees, and 155 bachelor’s degrees (GARIOA Fulbright Okinawa Chapter 15). When I asked my interviewees how they thought their experience of studying in the US had helped their careers upon returning to Okinawa, they first modestly downplayed their career achievements, but most of my interviewees said that studying in the US helped them to get decent positions in Okinawa under the US Occupation. Table 1 shows the distribution of the returned students’ employment places. A document produced in 1963 by the Education Department Office of the High Commissioner of the USCAR has information on a total of 431 Okinawan students who studied in the United States from 1949 to 1961. According to the document, a quarter (24.4% or 105) of the returned students worked for educational institutions, including 60 at the University of the Ryukyus, 13 at other universities, 29 at high schools, and 3 at libraries and museums. The University of the Ryukyus was newly established in 1952, and many of the earlier returnees with MA degrees obtained teaching positions there. One-fifth (20%) of the returnees worked for private companies, including 58 for Japanese companies, 27 for American-affiliated companies, and 2 for local companies. Thirty (7.0%) worked for banks, including 27 at the Bank of the Ryukyus and 3 at the Bank of America. A substantial number (75 or 17.4%) worked for government agencies, including 29 for the USCAR and 15 for the Government of the Ryukyu Islands. Ten returnees worked on US military bases in Okinawa. The earlier returnees were often offered jobs that the USCAR needed filled. Even when it was not mandatory to accept these positions, many did take them because they were better than other jobs available in Okinawa at that time. In some cases, returnees were expected to work for the USCAR for the same number of years that they had spent in the US. Mr. A, who studied in the US from 1950 to 1954, wanted to teach at the University of the Ryukyus when he returned to Okinawa. It was possible for graduates with BA degrees such as Mr. A to teach

−25− as assistants at the newly opened university. However, he was told by people in the USCAR that he needed to work at least four years as an interpreter for them because he spent four years in the US.4

Table 1: Distributions of Returned Students’ Employment Places as of 1963

−26− Table 1 also indicates that one-fifth (84 or 19.5%) lived outside Okinawa after completing their study abroad. This includes 55 who lived in mainland Japan. There are two main reasons why substantial numbers of the former study abroad students went to mainland Japan. First, the return of Amami Oshima Island to Japan in 1953 led to a change in status for residents, meaning students from there were now considered national subjects who lived in mainland Japan. Second, many went to Japan for employment. Some also went due to other circumstances such as marriage.

4. Experiences at Workplaces and Status of Returnees The extent to which the returnees used their English skills and how much their skills were recognized by others depended on where they worked upon returning. According to my interviewees, for the returnees who worked at American-affiliated companies and government agencies, such as the Bank of the Ryukyus, Ryukyu Seimei, and Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation, the qualifications of their American degrees and their study abroad experiences provided them with advantages and helped to improve their employment status. Those who worked for these workplaces said they were able to use their English skills, and their study abroad experiences were highly valued at their workplaces. During the US Occupation, the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) possessed 51 percent of the stock of the Bank of the Ryukyus, and therefore, all Bank business needed approval by the USCAR. The Bank had a Translation Division, and many of the returned students were assigned to work there. Translators were highly valued, which meant that their English skills provided them with better salaries. The Bank’s recognition of their English skills made its employees see themselves as privileged workers. Mr. B began working for the Bank of the Ryukyus in 1958. Working for the bank made him feel that he needed to study English; therefore, he decided to apply for the study abroad scholarship.5 He remembers the three years prior to leaving for the US as follows: At the bank, we had special windows for Americans. I was assigned to work there once. Every time an American customer came to my window, I got so nervous. It was before I studied in the United States, so I couldn’t speak English. Because my oral English was so

−27− bad, I needed to write what I wanted to say on a piece of paper. Then, the customer wrote back to me on the paper. One day, a tall American lady who was, I think, around 50, came to my window and told me that she could give me private English lessons. She was very kind. I wanted to improve my English, so I took her kind offer. She took me to the movies, and I learned English from her. But it was very embarrassing because she always picked me up at my workplace with her Cadillac. (Interviewee B 2011) Mr. B took the scholarship exam three times, and finally passed the exam and left Okinawa for the US in 1961. After studying in the US, he returned to the bank and worked there until he retired. Those who worked for the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation were also able to use English, as it was the main language of that workplace. Many of the returnees, regardless of their majors, worked for the Corporation because it was a place where they could use their English skills. Those who could use English received a bonus that was 20 percent of their usual monthly salary. Mr. C, who studied in the US for one year beginning in 1961, worked for Ryukyu Seimei, an insurance company, which also had its stock controlled by the USCAR. Mr. C shared an episode about using his English skills when he was working for the company.6 Once, the president of the company came to Okinawa from mainland Japan. The president became very sick and he needed to have a blood transfusion; however, he had an unusual blood type, and it was difficult to find a person who could give him blood. Mr. C knew that he could find people with that blood type among the Americans, so he contacted one of the US military bases and asked for help. Fortunately, many volunteers came and donated blood for the president, and he fully recovered before leaving Okinawa. Mr. C felt very fortunate that he could use his English skills to help with this situation. The president appreciated his help, and the news spread to the company’s branch. Mr. C thinks that it was because of this incident that he received promotion very quickly compared with others. When I asked the returnees about their experiences upon returning to Okinawa, many interviewees said that they became aware of seeing themselves in new ways after returning and being given privileges because of their study abroad experiences. Specifically, it influenced how they viewed themselves in terms of being different from individuals who

−28− had not studied in the US. Awareness of such differences often came through other people’s perceptions of them.7 Mr. D, who studied abroad from 1961 to 1963, said “I am not sure exactly what they meant but my friends who did not study abroad often told me they could recognize the beiryu-gumi from the way we walked and talked” (Interviewee D 2011). Mr. E, who studied abroad from 1961 to 1963, provided more detailed explanation.8 He said that whenever he had a photo taken, he consciously leaned his head 45 degrees to the right, as he had seen Americans do, as a way of performing being “cool.” He also liked to wear hats, which were not common among Okinawans in those days. During the interviews, Mr. D shared a similar experience. He followed American popular fashion at that time, adopting the Ivy League look. He emphasized that dressing well at all times was a learned habit he developed through living in the US and observing the American students during his time there. Some of the returnees also stated that they learned how to treat women in more respectful ways. In the US, they witnessed how American men treated women; for example, taking them out for movies and dinner, opening doors for them, and so on. When they returned to Okinawa, some of them consciously practiced such gender roles. They sometimes purposefully acted this way to further differentiate themselves. Mrs. F, the wife of one former study abroad participant, mentioned that beiryu-gumi looked more “handsome” because to her, the beiryu-gumi seemed to act more confidently.9 Those women who studied in the US also felt similar impacts. Mrs. G said that spending more than two years in the US changed her food preferences and how she handled her housework.10 She accompanied her husband to the US, and later received a scholarship and pursued her own studies while her husband was working on his PhD. Because she spent her first years of married life in the US, she was influenced by the American way of cooking and managing her housework, and especially by ways of raising and taking care of children. In the case of Okinawan women who studied in the US, as I have argued in another publication, they often needed to negotiate and perform traditional gender roles upon returning (Yamazato “Encountering Gendered and National Selves” 54).

−29− 5. Golden Gate Club: Collective Identification asBeiryu-Gumi The Golden Gate Club, the alumni association established in 1952 by the earlier returnees, provided a place for them to construct their distinctive identity as beiryu-gumi at a collective level. Through joining the club, the returnees could develop networks among themselves as well as with American officers stationed in Okinawa. The Golden Gate Club was established by four or five returnees who had left for the US together in 1950. They named it the “Golden Gate Club” because the returnees, especially those who studied abroad in the earlier years, saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as a symbol of their experience. Those who went to the US from 1949 to 1960 travelled by US military ship for at least 20 days to get to California. The Golden Gate Bridge was the first thing they saw and their first impression of the US; Mr. H, one of the early participants, reminisced that he would never forget the feeling he had when he saw the bridge for the first time, and many of my other interviewees echoed this sentiment.11 The official purpose of the club, as stated in its 1963 report, was attaining deep friendship among its membership on the one hand, and greater understanding between the US and the Ryukyu Islands on the other. The organization directed its efforts to contribute to the Ryukyu Islands’ political, economic, educational, and cultural progress through various activities and programs (Golden Gate Club 1). The club also became a place where the beiryu-gumi’s study abroad experiences and degrees were valued by American officials. Guests including General Paul Caraway, General Donald Booth, and General Albert Watson II came to give talks on current important topics in postwar Okinawan society. Most of the time, especially when these High Commissioners gave speeches, local newspaper reporters also came to the meeting and reported the content of their talks the following day. The High Commissioners often made important remarks at these meetings, which were attended by reporters and made front-page news the next day. Those who gave speeches at the Golden Gate Club often emphasized that the club members, who had studied in the US, were the leaders of Okinawa. Prior to Caraway’s speeches in 1962 and 1963, mentioned at the beginning of this article, High Commissioner General Donald Booth gave a speech on “The Future of the Ryukyu Islands” on September 1, 1959, in which he also referred to the US-educated Okinawans as “the future leaders” of the Ryukyu

−30− Islands.12 The gatherings of the club were held at the Harbor View officers’ club. Because Harbor View belonged to the US military and access to it was normally limited to military personnel, the club members felt a sense of privilege when they met there.13

Figure 1: High Commissioner of Ryukyu Islands Albert Watson II gives a speech at the monthly meeting at the Golden Gate Club, September 29, 1964 (Okinawa Prefectural Archives).

In contrast, Mr. I, one of the study abroad returnees, had a very negative view towards the Golden Gate Club and its activities, which he thinks supported policies for the US Occupation of Okinawa.14 He noticed the negative perceptions of beiryu-gumi during the reversion movement. He tried to distance himself from such stereotypes by actively participating in the reversion movement. During the interview, he explained, “I wanted to show that not all beiryu-gumi were useless. I wanted to prove that even those who were educated in the United States could fight against the US Occupation” (Interviewee I 2012).

−31− 6. Okinawa’s Reversion to Japan in 1972: Negotiating What It Meant to Be Beiryu-Gumi Some of the study abroad program participants recalled that the negative perception of Okinawans who studied in the US became widespread as the reversion movement grew stronger. The beiryu-gumi were often criticized as anti-reversion or US military collaborators.15 Mr. J, who studied in the US in 1959, recalled that “these representations suddenly became apparent around the reversion movement. Around the time when I studied in the United States, such critiques did not exist” (Interviewee J 2011). However, in contrast to such stereotypical images of the returnees, most of those who studied in the US also supported Okinawa’s reversion to Japan. As Mr. J put it, “like other Okinawans, those who studied in the United States also wanted to become citizens of an independent country, not remain a stateless people under the military occupation” (Interviewee J 2011). Having witnessed the increasing number of crimes committed by American military personnel and injustice towards local Okinawans, the returnees naturally began to desire Okinawa’s reversion to Japan. Furthermore, the reversion caused a major change in terms of employment status among those who worked for American-affiliated companies and government agencies. Many of them said that they lost the opportunity to use English at their workplace after the reversion. For example, Mr. K, who studied business administration in the US from 1958 to 1960, worked for Northwest Airline Company as the first flight attendant from Okinawa. He worked there for seven years until the company reduced the number of employees from 80 to 20 because of the reversion.16 Those who worked for the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation, which was affiliated with the USCAR and did most of its business in English, were also impacted. Once the reversion happened, however, the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation merged with the Okinawa Development Public Finance Corporation. Mr. J, who studied in the US in 1959, worked for the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation shared his experience. According to him, under the US Occupation of Okinawa, he was able to work there using his English ability, however the main language became Japanese after the reversion. He recalled the time of the reversion:

−32− There were some major changes after the merger. For example, when I was at the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation, everyone was given an individual space with divisions. But after the reversion, with the merger with the Okinawa Development Public Finance Corporation, we had to sit next to each other. (Interviewee J 2011) Mr. J recalled that it was a tough time, and recounted an episode when he was criticized by the employees of the Okinawa Development Public Finance Corporation who came from mainland Japan. He also told me during the interview, “I received a high salary when I was at the Ryukyu Development Loan Corporation, which made me full of conceit” (Interviewee J 2011). Although the reversion caused changes in returnees’ lives, most of the study abroad participants continued to use the competence and knowledge they had acquired through studying in the US to contribute to Okinawan society. Many of them said they developed a feeling of obligation to give back to Okinawa what they had learned in the US. Mr. L, who once served as the president of the Golden Gate Club, recalled that he wanted to do something for Okinawa after returning.17 He said that this feeling developed only after he returned to Okinawa, and that he did not have such feelings prior to leaving for the US or during his time there. Similarly, Mr. J reflected that “because we used scholarships supported by the government, we became conscious that we should return what we had learned in the United States to our community and society” (Interviewee J 2011). The returnees’ contributions to postwar Okinawa varied on the individual level. Many returnees became university professors and contributed to the development of their academic fields. Besides their academic contributions, many of them contributed to Okinawan society by trying to improve the lives of people in Okinawa. Mr. M and Mr. N, who studied in the early 1950s, became important figures and established a university in the northern part of Okinawa that focused on promoting peace; both served as presidents of the university.18 Mr. O, who studied in the US in 1952, became first a professor and later the governor of Okinawa. He spoke out against the continued presence of Americans as military occupiers of their homeland. He was the first governor to refuse to sign the renewal of the lease of Okinawa’s land for use by the US military.19 Mr. P, who studied in the US from 1960

−33− to 1963, shared his feelings: After my retirement, I felt free so I decided to express my opinion about the US military base issues in Okinawa. When I was working, I was hindered from doing so. The US military bases brought many negative impacts to Okinawa. As compensation, the United States government provided funds for the fields of education and economy. Not to mention, the US study abroad program was part of the fund. Only a few people can receive such compensation. In my opinion, those who were fortunate to receive such benefits need to return a benefit to society. (Interviewee P 2010) Mr. P, regularly wrote to American newspapers criticizing the current situation of Okinawa regarding the US military bases.20 During my interviews, the returnees reflected on how they used the skills that they had acquired from their experiences and on the meaning these experiences had had in their lives. Many of the interviewees told me that they continued to use English in their spare time. For example, at an informal meeting to which I was invited by four former study abroad participants, I observed how they enjoyed speaking English. They told me that whenever they met each other, they tried to invite someone who spoke English as a guest speaker. When I attended, there was an American journalist who came to Okinawa to make a short video about societal issues. The participants spoke in both English and Japanese and seemed to enjoy talking about the past and their experiences studying in the US.

7. Conclusion The establishment of the US study abroad program during the US Occupation of Okinawa, for the US, was a crucial strategy to develop the postwar Okinawa and also create leaders who would support US policies in postwar Okinawa. The program was also significant in representing these US educated Okinawans as model products of US Occupation cultural programs. On the other hand, the US study abroad program, for the returnees, provided the opportunity for upward social mobility and privilege in US-occupied Okinawa. The life stories of beiryu-gumi indicate that their American academic accomplishments and competence were valued in occupied Okinawa, especially for those who worked for

−34− American-affiliated companies and government agencies. The Golden Gate Club, their alumni association, became a place where they could develop a shared sense of identity as beiryu-gumi. The Club became a site where American officials stationed in Okinawa, who were the center of power in Okinawa, highly valued the beiryu-gumi’s US study abroad experiences and referred to them as the leaders of Okinawa. Their privileged status helped to create a sense of difference from others at both individual and collective levels. Although these beiryu-gumi experienced rewards in terms of their employment status, after the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, many returnees said that they lost the opportunity to use English at their workplace. Those who worked in American-affiliated companies and government agencies at the time of the reversion were impacted greatly. Many of the interviewees negotiated the meaning of what beiryu-gumi meant on an individual level and developed a sense of responsibility as leaders for postwar Okinawa. Many felt a sense of responsibility to contribute to Okinawa as scholarship recipients. In contrast to the stereotypical representation of beiryu-gumi, some of the program participants stood up to the continued presence of Americans as military occupiers of their homelands. The returnees became neither “pro-Americans” nor “bodyguards of the US military” as some other Okinawans imagined them to be; nor did they become leaders who simply supported the policies of the US Occupation. This study hopes to encourage more cross-regional and cross-historical comparisons of the experiences of people educated in the US during that country’s military occupation of their homelands, including individuals from other Asia Pacific islands and other locations that are currently affected by the US military presence. The practice of educational and cultural exchanges to produce positive images of America continues today, for example, with Iraq since the US invasion in 2003. In 2005, the first student exchange with postwar Iraq was initiated by Stanford University. The significance of bringing students from Iraq to the US has been described in the following terms: “exposure to university culture will inculcate Iraqi scholars with American ideals and ultimately contribute to the spread of democracy in Iraq” (Bose and Lyons 7). The educational mission of the US has remained a crucial vehicle for further ideological justification of US invasion practices and its dominance in the post-Cold

−35− War era, calling for new cross-regional and cross-historical comparisons of the impacts of such programs and the students’ experiences.

Acknowledgements This article is a modified version of a chapter of my doctoral dissertation, which was completed at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in 2013. I would like to thank the interviewees who shared their valuable life stories for my project. I would also like to thank Laurie Durand for reading this article and giving helpful editorial suggestions.

Notes

1 “Golden Gate Club Meeting, 12 June 1962, Harborview Club.” Series: News Media Organization Articles and Release Files, 1959-1972, RG 260, USCAR. Okinawa Prefectural Archives, 0000044937. 2 “HICOM General Caraway Speech to Golden Gate Club (March 5, 1963) Autonomy.” Series: 1603-04 Chief Executive of GRI Internal Political Activity Files, 1955-1970, RG 260, USCAR. Okinawa Prefectural Archives, U81100623B 3 See Goffman 243; Mead 191. 4 Interviewee A, Personal Interview. 21 July 2011. 5 Interviewee B, Personal Interview. 27 July 2011. 6 Interviewee C, Personal Interview. 16 June 2010. 7 Interviewee D, Personal Interview. 17 July 2011. 8 Interviewee E, Personal Interview. 11 July 2011. 9 Interviewee F, Personal Interview. 20 July 2010. 10 Interviewee G, Personal Interview. 13 June 2011. 11 Interviewee H, Personal Interview. 29 July 2010. 12 “Booth at Golden Gate Club,” Konnichi no Ryukyu, September 1959. Okinawa Prefectural Archives, U00002423B. 13 Interviewee L, Personal Interview. 6 August 2010.

−36− 14 Interviewee I, Personal Interview. 21 January 2012. 15 Interviewee J, Personal Interview. 13 July 2011. 16 Interviewee K, Personal Interview. 18 July 2011. 17 Interviewee L, Personal Interview. 6 August 2010. 18 Interviewee M, Personal Interview. 27 July 2010; Interviewee N, Personal Interview. 9 August 2010. 19 Interviewee O, Personal Interview. 28 July 2011. 20 Interviewee P, Personal Interview. 11 August 2010.

Works Cited

Alvah, Donna. Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War. New York UP, 2007. Bose, Purnima, and Laura E. Lyons. “America’s ‘Educating Mission’: Soft Power and the Case of Iraq.” Against the Current, vol. 30, no. 176, 2015, pp.7–9. Choy, Catherine Ceniza. Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino American History. Duke UP, 2003. Cornell, Stephen, and Douglas Hartmann. Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World. Pine Forge P, 2007. Fisch, Arnold G. Military Government in the Ryukyu Islands, 1945–1950. Center of Military History, US Army, 1988. GARIOA Fulbright Okinawa Chapter. Shashin to Essei: Beiryu 50 nen [50 years of photographs and essays of US study abroad]. Hirugisha, 2000. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday, 1959. Golden Gate Club. Aid to the Ryukyu Islands Student Exchange Program, 1963. Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Diaspora.” Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory. Ed. Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1994, pp. 227–37. Klein, Christina. Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination. U of California, 2003.

−37− Mead, George Herbert. Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. U of Chicago, 1967. Said, Edward. Orientalism. Vintage, 1979. Shibusawa, Naoko. America’s Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy. Harvard UP, 2006, Tsuchiya, Yuka. “Bunka Reisen to Ryugaku Orientation Eiga – Senryoka no Nihon oyobi Okinawa ni okeru GARIOA ryugaku” [Cultural cold war and study abroad orientation films: Japan under occupation and GARIOA study abroad in Okinawa]. Ehime Hogakkai Zasshi [Ehime Law Journal], Vol. 42, no. 1, 2015, pp. 74–100. Yamazato, Kinuko Maehara. “Encountering Gendered and National Selves: Identity Formation of Okinawan Students in the United States during the US Occupation of Okinawa.” Gender, Power, and Military Occupations: Asia Pacific and the Middle East since 1945. Ed. Christine de Matos and Rowena Ward, Routledge, 2012, pp. 43–59. ---. “Studying in the US was the Only Hope”: Life Stories of GARIOA Students from Okinawa under US Military Occupation.” International Review of Ryukyuan and Okinawan Studies, Vol. 6, 2017, pp. 21–36.

−38− 戦後沖縄における「米留組」への眼差し ―米国留学経験者の留学後のアイデンティティ形成と交渉過程―

山里絹子

本論文では、第二次世界大戦後 27 年間、米国統治下に置かれた沖縄で陸軍 省が実施した「米国留学制度」に着目し、米国留学を経験した沖縄の人々の帰 郷後に焦点を当てる。米国は民主主義を推進する外交戦略として、冷戦期にア ジアで様々な文化・教育交流を実施した。「米国留学制度」設立の背景には、 戦後沖縄の経済復興、民主主義の推進、親米的指導者の育成などの米国側の思 惑があった。本論文では、米国留学経験者のライフストーリーの分析を基に、 彼ら・彼女らが帰郷後、米軍関係者と地元の沖縄住民との間で、どのように自 らの立ち位置をつくり、主体性を形成し、交渉を行ったかを明らかにする。

−39−