International Peace Studies

International Peace Studies EA Reaction Paper Assignment (1) Please choose either “I Would Like to Be Able to Speak Uchinaguchi When I Grow Up!” (Satako Taira’s interview script) or an excerpt from Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace as your reaction paper topic. Write down your thoughts after reading the article; your analysis should seek to address the questions listed below, although you are at liberty to expand the scope of your discussion when deemed appropriate. (2) Format: this short essay should be written in English, typed, and kept within three pages (excluding references). The essay should be your own independent work. (3) Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and will not be tolerated in this course. A student of mine got caught three years ago for committing plagiarism and was not able to graduate. Ensure that you do not use another person’s thoughts, writings or words as your own without proper attribution. This course accepts two referencing systems: the in-text (Harvard) system and the footnote/endnote system. Choose either of them for your work and follow it consistently. Contact your instructor if you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism and/or how to reference an essay. (4) This assignment must include your name, student ID, and email address. It should be submitted to TA as an email attachment no later than July 15, 2014, 23:59. Late submission will be penalized or even rejected. Purpose of the Assignment This assignment seeks to develop your critical thinking ability, an important element for those who want to proceed to the postgraduate level or to become decision makers in their future career. The immediate benefit is that you can practice how to engage in point-to-point discussions and defend your arguments, which will better equip you to deal with essay questions in the exams. Grading This assignment will constitute 20% of your grade for the course.

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Question Satako Taira, “I Would Like to Be Able to Speak Uchinaguchi When I Grow Up! ” in Jennifer Chan, Another Japan Is Possible (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008) You are invited to apply Johan Galtung’s concept of “structural violence” as well as “structural theory of imperialism” to consider the Okinawa issue. From this interview, what kinds of structural violence Okinawans have been subjected to? Can you illustrate the various manifestations of the Center-Periphery relationship in the case of Okinawa? What are the strategies local people may employ to resist the aforementioned violence (and what are the obstacles)? OR Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace, in David Barash, Approaches to Peace (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) Use your own words to summarize what you consider three of the most important points in Kant’s proposal for world government. In your view, is there any weakness in his argument? Can you demonstrate how the flaw/mistake has occurred by subjecting his text to logical and/or empirical scrutiny? (You may get some inspiration from Hidemi Suganami’s The Domestic Analogy and World Order Proposals, which is also available in Japanese). Which essence in Kant’s work remains relevant for making today’s world a more peaceful place?

Taira Satoko where many Okinawans died during the last battles of World War II.
Do you speak Uchinaguchi?
Our languages, the languages of the Ryukyu Archipelago, were forbidden
in 1879. My grandparents did not teach my parents to speak it. My parents
can understand but not speak it. In turn, my parents never spoke to me in
Uchinaguchi. I can neither speak nor understand it; so, for example, I cannot

TAIRA SATOKO has been a member of the Association of Indigenous Peoples 5P‘33k ro my grear gr ar1dP3r€r1r5-

in the RYr1kYr15 Srnce College‘ Born in Okinawa in 1979’ She gradualed w1th.a What are the goals and activities of the AIPR?

degreein internal-ional Sodalsrudies fmmtheGr::1b1:1reof’:l11:oOll<:rI:d::I;(::1;lI AIPR was established in 1996 in the context of Okinawan citizens’ move-

Versity in 2005′ Smce 2005’ Tana has bflienlf/II me? i al Assembly has been in- merits. AIPR declares that Okinawan People are indigenous PeoPles as defined

Mass Party’ and 3-5 a~ member the N: da unlc Iiion for Okinawans. by international law. The aim of our movement is the recovery of the self-
Volved in action almmg for pohucal Sel – etermma determination of Okinawan people, and to achieve the solution of Okinawan

Could you tell me how you became aware of the Okinawa issue? problems by Okinawan people themselves through the human rights regime of

f m Okinawan identity in 1995, when there was the United Nations. We organized a study group called International Human

I first became cérlscléus .0 h incident in 1995 (in which Rights and Okinawa, which meets once every month. Every year our members
Widesprea-d moblh-Zat-IOH md(:,kl:l::: :Jfi:r:o1edl:l)s:. At that time I was twelve attend the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May, and the UN Work-

a School glrl Wa-S Vlctlmlze ‘Y “rI ‘Id like to be able to speak Uchinaguchi ing Group on Indigenous Populations in July. We also monitor and make po-
Years 01d.My fl-leallds were Saymg, wo’u h h 1 I started to notice that our sition statements on various UN human rights conventions, including the UN
When I grow “P! In the first Yeér of hlg 1:: 00 lag actually 3 Supplementary Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of
textbooks never talkelf jlroult (d:(dni:Vi::1r1r:1-atiolliriirivOkinawans. But because of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the International Conven~
text Uukudokuhon) t a 1n((:JlllZ1€I‘l sus ended and the teachers almost never got tion on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, from Okinawan perspec-
the typhoonsl Classes were P ‘ on Okinawa never came out tives. For example, we talked about the impact of military bases on children