Eurocentrism and the construction of the ‘self’ in colonialism: The Okinawa–Japan relationality

Abstract

This paper examines how Japan colonised itself through the colonisation of Okinawa. While postcolonial scholarship has primarily focused on how colonised peoples were dominated and exploited under Eurocentrism, comparatively less attention has been paid to how non-Western colonisers internalised colonial norms within the international order and ontologically constituted themselves as modern subjects. This article seeks to address this gap. By analysing the Okinawa–Japan relations during the transition from the tributary system to the Westphalian order and subsequently within the post-war US-centred East Asian security architecture, the paper demonstrates that Eurocentrism operated not merely as a geopolitical ideology but as an ontological presupposition of stable and hierarchical subjects. It shows how Japan externalised violence onto Okinawa in order to consolidate its position as a legitimate member of the liberal international order. Finally, drawing on Mahayana Buddhist thought – particularly the doctrine of dependent origination and the concept of non-self – the article proposes an alternative ontology of relationality as a way to unsettle this fixed international order. Decolonisation, it argues, must therefore be understood not only as a political project but also as an ontological reconfiguration.