Nanyo-Orientalism: Japanese Representations of the Pacific By Nao ...

“Our Sea of Islands” Extending over Japan,
Micronesia, and Polynesia

This popular Nanyo-Orientalism has persisted to the present day, and it is transformed and opposed in Japanese postcolonial discourses. It is possible to read some Japanese texts in a postcolonial framework. In this book, the term “postcolonialism”—distinguished from “post-colonialism” (after colonialism)—refers to the cultural attempts to intervene in powerful colonial views. As mentioned previously, Japanese colonialists were able to dismiss their obligatory but uncompleted self-colonization—usually called modernization or Westernization—by focusing on assimilating other Asian and Pacific peoples into greater Japan. Such an ideology of sameness masks domination with affection, whereas the Japanese postcolonial discourse stresses self-criticism, depicting the Japanese as imperialists and islanders as the victims of militarism.

The postcolonial model of Nanyo-Orientalism is illustrated by the Godzilla movie series (1954–2004). The original version of Godzilla can be interpreted as a reflection of Japanese sentiments after the Second World War and the ensuing US occupation in 1945–1952 that opposed atomic testing in the trust territory of Micronesia, which had been under the US control since the end of Japan's rule. The monster is an atomic bomb victim (hibakusha) like those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Godzilla originally stood for the oppressed natives from the tropical Pacific. In this redirection of attention, however, Nanyo is neglected. The monster changes roles, transforming from a vandal destroyer to a heroic champion.

In its attempt to criticize Nanyo-Orientalism from the Pacific Islanders’ viewpoints, Ikezawa Natsuki's 1993 novel, Mashiasu Giri no shikkyaku (Macias Gilly's downfall), can be seen as