Okinawan Studies: BLOG / News

Love! SPAM!: Food, Military, and Empire in Post-World War II Okinawa

Do you know SPAM? Do you love SPAM? What is the relationship between SPAM, canned meat, and Okinawan food? Professor Mire Koikari in Women's Studies Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa has contributed a chapter in the new book titled Devouring Japan: Global Perspectives on Japanese Culinary Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). 

Ch. 9. "LOVE! SPAM!" Food, Military, and Empire in Post-World War II Okinawa- Mire Koikari

Image source: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/devouring-japan-9780190240400

One reviewer of this book, Dr. Merry White, author of Coffee Life in Japan, writes:

"This volume contains a world of wisdom about Japanese food from scholars of literature, history, and social sciences. Its strength lies in the geographical and cultural diversity of its writers and themes and its importance is in setting Japanese food in multiple frames of meaning--not only as it has been 'inscribed' with national, spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic value but also as it has been, more importantly for its global audiences, given worth and value in food trucks, in street stalls, and in outlier interpreters of its essences. Far from the sanctity of culinary gods and 'authenticity' altars, the book encourages us to slurp and chew--and learn."1

1. Retrieved from the "Reviews and Awards" section on https://global.oup.com/academic/product/devouring-japan-9780190240400

The book will be available in the Hamilton Library soon. 

For more detailed publication information, please visit the publisher's site.