How do you think the trauma that Okinawan women experienced during the Battle of Okinawa impacted their responses to the military base construction that the US military Occupation authorities enacted during the early 1950s that we see in the Isahama struggle? What traumas have to be dissociated from the Battle of Okinawa and understood as new to the time of US military occupation?
I think the trauma that Okinawan women experienced during the Battle of Okinawa greatly impacted their responses to the military base construction. During the Battle of Okinawa, women suffered a lot from not only the devastation of the war, but also the loss of their land, and the hardships of raising families without any help from their male counterparts. They went through those difficulties by sticking together and supporting each other. This trauma was so severe that Okinawan women did not want to go through it again. (To be honest, no one wants to suffer that kind of hardships.) Moreover, the Battle of Okinawa was between American military and Japanese military. The trauma they had created and enhanced their hatred toward American military, so when the construction of American military base would take their lands with poor compensation, they felt angry and indignities. Both of these events let them lose their lands and their home, made them hard to raise their families, but women suffered more from sexism this time. They lost their lands and properties due to their gender.
