IGNITING IDENTITY: The Rape that Shook Okinawa

The brutal rape of a twelve-year-old Okinawan girl
in 1995 enraged the local population and led to a
chain of unprecedented events, which endangered the
relationship between the US and Japan. International
media soon reported on the outrage as merely an
expression of anti-US sentiments, but although the
violent crime was acted out by three US servicemen,
Tokyo was to receive the blame. Igniting Identity
reveals a hidden meaning of the raped girl as
a powerful symbol of identity and challenges the
notion of Japan as an homogenous nation.

Strømmen explores how Okinawans emphasize post-
material values like peace, democracy, spirituality,
environment and women`s rights in defining a
separate identity to mainland Japan. The term
trichotomization is introduced to show how this
identity process became an important tool in
recruiting the US as an ideological ally to help
Okinawa achieve its goals with Tokyo.

By emphasizing the historical, social and political
context of the chain of events that followed the
rape, Igniting Identity will appeal to scholars in
communication studies, social anthropology, history,
and politics.