Brown Bag Biography with Mire Koikari

February 29, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, KUY 410

The Center for Biographical Research presents: /ā€œCrafting Japanese Immigrant Nationalism(s) in 1930s 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜iā€ / Mire Koikari, Professor, Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽŹ»i at MaĢ„noa / Prior to WWII, Japanese immigrant nationalism flourished in 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜i. At the center of this little-known phenomenon were imon bukuro (comfort bags), handmade by immigrant women and gifted to Japanese soldiersā€”those aboard the navy training vessels calling 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜i as well as troops deployed in the distant battlefields in China. The gendered patriotic campaign was part of the larger tale of Japanā€™s empire-building in which island and homeland, gunboat and sewing needle, and territorial conquest and seaborne expansion all played crucial roles. / Mire Koikari is Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜i at ²ŃÄå²Ō“Ē²¹. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, she spent a number of years in Madison, Wisconsin prior to her relocation to 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜i in 1997. Her recent/major publications include Cold War Encounters in US-Occupied Okinawa: Women, Militarized Domesticity, and Transnationalism in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Gender, Culture, and Disaster in Post-3.11 Japan (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2020; currently translated into Russian), and ā€œRace, Nutrition, and Empire: Domestic Reform and Japanese Immigrants in Territorial-Era 51ĀŅĀ×»»ĘŽā€˜i,ā€ in Gender & History, ā€œSpecial Issue: Food and Sovereigntyā€ (vol. 34, no. 3, 2022). / Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Center for Oral History, Conflict and Peace Specialist, and the Departments of American Studies, English, Ethnic Studies, History, Political Science, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies / Thursday, February 29 / Kuykendall 410 / 12PM to 1:15PM HST


Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
(808) 956-3774

Share by email