Individual Post #2

What each of the groups of people that we have discussed thus far share, is being treated with suspicion due to their societal treatment as somehow not fully belonging (here, I am talking about the Chinese in Honolulu, Koreans in Befu, and Okinawans on the battlefront). We have also seen how these people fought back at times, and at others, simply tried to carve out other socialities to survive and to live out their own ideas of abundance. We have not yet discussed place-making in terms of the creation of art, of music, of literature, etc. What place do you think that these things, which we might put together as “cultural productions,” has in analyses of the eruption of political struggle? Your observations do not have to be based on research, per se. Think about how art, music, literature, and other cultural productions have shifted your own understanding of belonging, of community, and of the kind of world you want to bring into being, in meaningful ways.

In my opinion, cultural productions help define and maintain nationalism. Cultural practices, as well as art, music, and literature speaks greatly for one’s country. For instance, when reading a written piece from a country, an individual can gain an insight of the social, political, and economical practices, as well as other unmentioned aspects, of the country, since the author considers all those aspects when he or she is writing. Likewise, an artist incorporates traits of their own country when they are painting or creating an artwork because they are familiar and taught such ways. To give an example, when you look at a Chinese painting and an American painting, you can tell there are different styles that the artists use, based on the styles that they learn in their own individual countries, and making their artwork based on different aspects of their countries. Therefore, when one country is trying to colonize another country, which is a political aspect, these cultural practices can make it difficult, as these practices can cause an individual to remember and learn more about their own country. These might cause feelings of nationalism to rise, which could pose as a threat and a danger to the country trying to colonize the other country, because this can lead to rebellions. An example of this can be seen with the Okinawans. Japanese were trying to colonize the Okinawans, and in order to do so, they penetrated even their lifestyles, and if the Okinawans spoke in their own language or showed other Okinawan cultural practices, they were deemed as spies and were executed. Okinawan language and cultural practices enables Okinawans to relate to one another and have a sense of their own nationalism, which would have negatively impacted the Japanese efforts to colonize the Okinawans, and therefore, their cultural practices were forbidden and prohibited in order to prevent such gatherings and relations.