ABSTRACT
This paper examines the characteristics of Okinawan immigrant women in the process of the development of imperial Japan by examining and analyzing the testimonies of women who migrated from Okinawa to the South Sea Islands from the 1920s to the early 1940s.
In this Chapter, I argue that Okinawan South Sea immigrants supported the maintenance and expansion of Japanese colonialism, and at the same time, their lives were directly influenced by Japanese colonialism. I will also show that Okinawan women migrated to the South Seas Islands as subordinate to men, and their lives were at the mercy of Okinawan marriage patterns, and Japan’s policy of governing the South Seas Islands.
Based on the above discussion, I will argue that the South Sea immigrant women from Okinawa were at the mercy of Japanese colonialism because they were women.
