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

and other huge monsters that have appeared in Japanese cinemas ever since the aftermath of US occupation. Yet most contemporary Japanese literary texts, despite their criticism of US and Japanese military and economic exploitation as reflected in such monster movies, portray the Pacific Islands as the most backward part of the world. Such Japanese attitudes toward the Pacific Islands are characterized by a lack of dialogue with the islanders and unfamiliarity with their views of Oceania.

Discussion in Pacific literature invariably focuses on Anglophone (and sometimes Francophone) writing and on efforts to assert local cultures against Western influence. However, the Pacific has also been a site used in Japanese writing to dramatize the fears and desires that arose from Japan's imperialist expansion and its concern over the activities of other powers in the Pacific region. Japanese colonial, military, economic, and tourist involvement in the Pacific has also been a target for criticism on the part of writers from Oceania.

The Japanese word Nanyo (South Seas) vaguely refers to the tropical sphere of seas and islands to the “south” of the Japanese mainland. Nanyo can also refer more specifically to Micronesia, a region just north of the equator which was under Japan's rule from 1914 to 1945.

This narrower definition was in general use during the late nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth (Peattie xviii). For most of the Western world, however, since the early sixteenth century the “South Sea” has referred to the Pacific Ocean, with the appellation “south” indicating south of the Isthmus of Panama (Kiste 3). The term “South Pacific” replaced “South Seas” after World War II (Hau‘ofa 45). “South Pacific,” though it does not generally include Micronesia, occasionally encompasses “island groups where American military and naval forces were stationed or involved in combat from 1942 to 1944,