| Chapter : | Introduction: “Our Sea of Islands”: Intermingling with Japan |
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Introduction
“Our Sea of Islands”
Intermingling with Japan
Nanyo-Orientalism
Tongan writer Epeli Hau‘ofa wrote in his influential essay “Our Sea of Islands” (1993):
I saw such scenes of grandeur as I had not seen before: the eerie blackness of regions covered by recent volcanic eruptions … Under the aegis of Pele, and before my very eyes, the Big Island was growing, rising from the depths of a mighty sea. The world of Oceania is not small; it is huge and growing bigger every day. (30)
The image of the “Big Island,” the largest volcanic island in the Hawaiian chain, “growing, rising from the depths of a mighty sea” is reminiscent of the images found in a dominant Japanese view of the Pacific. It evokes thoughts of the habitat of Godzilla