ABSTRACT
In today’s world, where divisive politics has become increasingly intensified, a set of old questions such as “Who are we?” and “Where do we come from?” has come to the fore with new clothes, urging people in all levels to find the borders of their territories, culture and social imagination. The political environment surrounding the local anti-base movement in Okinawa is no exception. The putative discourses of “us” and “them” are trying to penetrate, and divide, the protest movements. One of the major issues at stake in this context is how we could re-configure the meaning of “locality” and “Okinawan identity” in today’s base politics not as a means of exclusionary politics but inclusion and social cooperation. For this, I examine two case studies, the Takae Anti-helipad Movement and Okinawa-Korea Solidarity Movement. These cases compel us to see more nuanced ways in which locality, or place, are manifested by the participants of the movements.
