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SPEAK, OKINAWA by Elizabeth Miki Brina is a powerful memoir that braids together the history of Okinawa with Brina’s personal coming to terms with her heritage. The daughter of an Okinawan war bride and a U.S. soldier, Brina grew up in upstate NY being ashamed of her mother’s “broken” English while identifying strongly with her white father. As she learns more about Okinawan history and the power dynamics that are inherent in her parents’ relationship, she attempts in her own way to reconcile with her mother and embrace her cultural and ethnic identity.
Okinawa has a unique history – its land and people fought over and claimed by both the Chinese and Japanese, its inhabitants the victims of wars they did not choose, its territory appropriated by the U.S. government for military bases. The way Brina tells this history using first person plural injects it with an immediate emotional intimacy that is skillfully done.
In this sub-genre of memoirs by Asian American women confronting their cultural and racial inheritance as well as their relationships with their mothers, SPEAK, OKINAWA is my favorite. It is evident that Brina has thought deeply about and worked through her internalized racism, her parents’ marriage dynamics, and how historical forces continue to affect Okinawans today. She writes with a heartfelt but unflinching combination of vulnerability, maturity, and clarity. I loved how, as specific a tale as Brina spins, it carries reverberations for how all Americans might more deeply examine our nation’s imperialism and racism.
I enjoyed and would recommend the audiobook version of this memoir, narrated movingly by Sachi Lovatt.
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