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CULTURE / Books

Okinawan chronicles: 10 books that show the many faces of Japan's 'island paradise'

Changing narratives: A woman climbs the sand dunes at Sunayama Beach on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture. Depictions of this island chain as a peaceful, tropical oasis are not entirely accurate. | ISTOCK

Changing narratives: A woman climbs the sand dunes at Sunayama Beach on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture. Depictions of this island chain as a peaceful, tropical oasis are not entirely accurate. | ISTOCK

By Stephen Mansfield
Special To The Japan Times

Sep 17, 2016

KEYWORDS

Okinawa(https://www.japantimes.co.jp/tag/okinawa)

Changing narratives: A woman climbs the sand dunes at Sunayama Beach on Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture. Depictions of this island chain as a peaceful, tropical oasis are not entirely accurate. | ISTOCK

Old rituals: Okinawan priestesses called noro (above, in a print found in a Naha bookstore) have been an integral part of life on Kudaka Island. | STEPHEN MANSFIELD

Tiny survivor: Tomiko Higa holds a white flag and covers her face, in a photo taken on June 25, 1945. | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

$Ongoing struggles: Japanese prisoners stand in a makeshift jail on Okinawa in June 1945. Though the war is over, its effects linger. As former Prefectural Assembly member Keiko Itokazu says of life in modern Okinawa, \"It feels like we are at war.\" | PUBLIC DOMAIN$

$The coastline of Okinawa\'s main island, viewed from the air | WE MAKE NOISE, VIA FLICKR / CC BY-ND 2.0.$

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