Japan Border Review, No. Summary
10 (2020)

Summary
Human Territoriality and Multi-scalar Struggles: Survival
Strategies of Ethnic Minorities in Southern Shan, Myanmar
Mineta Shiro

In August 2016, Myanmar held the “21st century Panglong Conference” with the aim to easetensions caused by armed conflicts which have lasted over sixty years between the Myanmar
government and ethnic minority organizations. It promised a new era with no armed conflicts. A year
earlier, in November 2015, the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won an
overwhelming victory in the general election. This marked an end to the military government, andthe newly elected government embarked on a journey of democratization. Additionally, in October
2015, just before the election, the Myanmar government and several ethnic minority organizations
entered into the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, marking a new phase in armed conflicts between
them. Nevertheless, in December of the same year, some of the ethnic minority organizations, forexample, Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA), resumed the struggle
against the Myanmar military.
Most of the armed conflicts in Myanmar have occurred in places along the national borderwith neighboring countries. The parties of the conflicts in Myanmar include not only Shan but
also Kachin, Karen and so on. This paper aims to discuss how ethnic minority organizations haveachieved their mission to gain autonomy in Myanmar and their ways of survival. As a case study,
RCSS/SSA, as mentioned above, will be picked up.
RCSS/SSA has its headquarter in a place along the national border between Myanmar andThailand. The name of the village is Loi Tai Leng. The areas including this village controlled by
RCSS/SSA hold advantageous defense positions benefiting from its geographical locations at thenational border. This means that ethnic minority organizations taking control of areas near the border
have been affected by neighboring countries. Especially, foreign policy, economic development,investment and tourism in China influence the strategies of the ethnic minority organizations. On theother hand, ethnic minority organizations select proactively people, goods, capital and information
crossing over the border and make strategic plans for survival.

111

Summary

In order to verify the strategy of ethnic minority organizations such as RCSS/SSA, a rethinkingof national territory as a unit of analysis is needed. The activities of ethnic minority organizations
have relativized the concept of national border and have varied the meaning of the border, which
seems unable to expand as an edge of territory. RCSS/SSA uses this dimension of the border against
the Myanmar military who cannot deploy over national borders. Then RCSS/SSA uses flexibly thenational border with Thailand for its struggle. Moreover, strained influences with the outside arerequired. It is observed that RCSS/SSA, as a non-state actor, make relationships with outside actors
to continue the struggle against the nation-states.
For these observations, this paper uses the analysis frameworks of both “multi-scales” and “humanterritoriality.” It also shows that politics of scales from the territorialities exercised by the Myanmar
government and RCSS/SSA have extended to armed conflicts.
The first section reviews the literatures and shows analytical perspectives. In the second section,
the politics of scales between territorialities is verified through the history of the Shan state. Theseterritorialities came from both national scale and the scale made by territoriality, which every ethnic
minority organizations in Shan state claim priority. The third section focuses on the relationships
with outside actors, which has enabled RCSS/SSA to continue its armed struggle. Three kindsof actors are explored in this paper: the Thai military, which guards the national border, the Tai
language group, which has common traditions with RCSS/SSA, and the international society, towhich RCSS/SSA make the appeal of their anti-narcotic policy. The final section discusses that therelationships with the above-mentioned three actors are found to be the survival strategy for RCSS/SSA to maintain their organization.

Geographical Boundaries and Exhibition: Presenting theEnvironment and Culture at the Waikīkī Aquarium
Mizutani Yuka

The environment and culture were divided by the Ala Wai Canal, a geographical boundary
surrounding Waikīkī in the city of Honolulu on O‘ahu Island of Hawai‘i. In this article, I discuss
how their reconnection can be enhanced by focusing on the activities of the Waikīkī Aquarium,

111Summary

which is part of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UH Mānoa).
Streams from Makīkī, Mānoa, and the Pālolo Valleys on O‘ahu Island used to flow into theWaikīkī area, which was originally a wetland mainly used for agriculture and Kānaka Maoli (NativeHawaiian) cultural activities. However, the construction of the Ala Wai Canal in 1927 changed
the flow of water drastically. As a result, the ecosystem of the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed and foodproduction, symbolized by connections among taro patches, fishponds, rivers, and the ocean,disappeared from the Waikīkī area.
Total restoration of the ecosystem, and cultural activities associated with it, may not be easyin current Waikīkī and the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed, but there are activities that visualize theenvironmental and cultural wholeness of the watershed. Within a UH Mānoa program called Welina
Mānoa, the Waikīkī Aquarium, Lyon Arboretum, Mānoa Heritage Center, and Ka Papa Lo‘i ‘O
Kānewai are collaborating to present the environment and the culture of the Mānoa Valley, which
extends from the land to the ocean beyond the Ala Wai Canal. These institutions are all locatedin the watershed and present different aspects of the area. In the Lyon Arboretum, the cultural
importance and traditional use of each plant in the arboretum is explained. The Mānoa Heritage
Center has restored a sacred site for Kānaka Maoli in which the entire scenery of the Mānoa Valley
can be observed. Ka Papa Lo‘i ‘O Kānewai is a taro patch run by the Hawai‘inuiākea (School ofHawaiian Knowledge) of UH Mānoa, which is used for educational and cultural purposes. These
three facilities present the environment and culture of the land of the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed,
while the Waikīkī Aquarium presents those of the ocean.
Among these four facilities, the Waikīkī Aquarium is unique in the following ways. First,
although they mainly focus on the environment of the ocean, the Waikīkī Aquarium addresses theconnection between the ocean and the land. In the Kānaka Maoli worldview, the land and the ocean
are inseparable, which is shown in Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant. Therefore, particularly in
the Hawaiian context, it is important to emphasize such connections. In addition to marine creatures,
the Waikīkī Aquarium exhibits plants native to Hawai‘i and cultural information related to them.
Also, their new coral exhibit, opened in 2019, aims to show the contrast of living corals underwaterand pieces of coral found on land. Second, the Waikīkī Aquarium provides a space for both local
residents and tourists to learn about the environment and culture of the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed.
The aquarium, which functions as a popular tourist attraction as well as an educational facility
for local residents, helps local residents and tourists to collaboratively find solutions for problems
caused by the segmentation of the environment and culture of the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed.
A researcher of the U.S.-Mexico borderland, Oscar J. Martínez, wrote that there are fourmodels of interaction seen on borderlands. These are the alienated, coexisted, interdependent, and111

Summary

integrated models. Today, this theory is applied to various types of geographical boundaries, aswell as the relationship between two groups. Activities of the Waikīkī Aquarium can be understoodwith this theory in the following ways. First, adding an exhibition of plants at the Waikīkī
Aquarium emphasizes the connection between the land and the ocean. It helps to strengthen thecollaboration among institutions in the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed, which conduct activities related
to issues on the land. As a result, it elaborates on the relationship between these institutions fromthe coexisting model to the interdependent model. Second, the Waikīkī Aquarium can enhancefriendly relationships between tourists and local residents. In the context of the theory of Martínez,it is understood that the relationship between them would shift from the coexisting model to theinterdependent model.
In general, the role of today’s aquariums is explained as entertainment, education, research, andenvironmental protection. In addition to these, activities of the Waikīkī Aquarium contribute to
the revitalization of the culture of the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed as a soft power. Historian Andrea
Feeser described the development of Waikīkī as a history of suffering brought on by colonialism andcapitalism, also as the local people’s resistance to them. If so, activities of the Waikīkī Aquarium
are peaceful trials that help overcome difficulties caused by the colonization of Waikīkī and theintroduction of capitalism to the area, symbolized by the construction of the Ala Wai Canal, which
divided the Mānoa-Pālolo Watershed.

Returning Unwillingly after the Soviet–Japanese War:The Chinese in Karafuto/Southern Sakhalin
Nakayama Taisho

Academica Histrica (ROC) published a series of source books on Chinese repatriation fromall over the world after WWII. One of the volumes has sources of Academica Histrica and anexplanation on the return of Chinese from Southern Sakhalin after the Soviet–Japanese War.
However, the explanation lacks references to other official documents of other archives and media
sources. In addition, the author of the explanation failed to weigh the information in official
documents from the view of Karafuto/Sakhalin history.

111

Summary

This paper clarified the following points on Chinese in Karafuto/ Southern Sakhalin using official
documents of Academica Histrica, Archive of Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica (ROC),The Second Historical Archive of China (PRC) and Archive of Shanghai-city (PRC), in addition,
newspapers and magazine articles published in China.
Chinese in Southern Sakhalin contacted diplomatic establishments of the ROC in the USSR andreturned to China in 1947 under the scheme for overseas Chinese repatriation established by theROC - the same as other Chinese in the USSR. One hundred and sixty-one persons left Sakhalinfor Shanghai, ROC as a Chinese returnee group and at least 4 Chinese remained in Sakhalin. It isestimated that the returnee group consisted of around 120 Chinese and around 40 Japanese families.
Anxiety over regime change caused their return. They were not purged under the socialist regime inSakhalin though they had stood by the Wang Jingwei regime under the Japanese Empire. However,socialization of the economic system and an increase of Soviet citizens damaged their lives because
most of them had been engaged in commerce.
The government of Shanghai-city shouldered the most important role for supporting these
returnees from Southern Sakhalin. The Shanghai branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC
made every effort to accommodate them just after their arrival; however, the branch and thecentral government did not have a budget to support them. Not only these returnees from Southern
Sakhalin but also returnees from other areas of the USSR and domestic refugees generated by theChinese Civil War had flowed into Shanghai. Discharge of these populations was an urgent issue for
Shanghai-city. Shanghai-city planned to settle these returnees and refugees on uncultivated lands
in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces as relief works. However, it emerged that those lands were notsuitable for agriculture and the returnees from Southern Sakhalin had no intention to move to thoselands though some of them came from those provinces.
One-third of the returnees from Southern Sakhalin had desired to move from Shanghai to Taiwan
just after the return and that rate rose to three-fourths in a month, though there was no one among
them from Taiwan. Some of the domestic refugees also desired to move from Shanghai to Taiwan.
The Chinese Civil War had already proceeded and these refugees regarded Taiwan as one of the safe
areas in China.
The reasons specific to returnees from Southern Sakhalin desiring to move to Taiwan werethe linguistic barrier in Shanghai, linguistic advantage in Taiwan and reunion of family in Japan.
Shanghai and the surrounding areas had a variety of Chinese dialects and there were few people
among the returnees from these areas. As an official document stated, it was very difficult for themto get a job there. On the contrary, many people came from Fujian province and spoke Fujian
dialects, which was one of major dialects in Taiwan; moreover, it is natural that they expected that111Summary

they could communicate in Japanese there because Taiwan was a colony of the Japanese Empire
the same as Karafuto. In addition, an example of reunion of family in Japan via Taiwan has beenknown. The colonial government of Karafuto launched the evacuation during the Soviet-Japanese
War and many women, children and senior citizens moved to Hokkaido. The Soviet army sealed off
La Perouse Strait and many families were separated.
The return of Chinese from Southern Sakhalin was a kind of unwilling displacement of citizensof the victorious nations generated by a series of border shifts after WWII, such as the return ofthe USSR citizens from China to the USSR. For their fatherlands, the victory of the war meant theliberation or the restoration of independence; however, for them, whether victory or defeat, bordershifts derived from the war meant the disorganization of the order which they had help build asforeigners.

Border Aesthetic “Rasquachismo” and Its Possibility based on
Chicana/o daily Artworks
Niitsu Atsuko
This article covers border immigrant aesthetics “Rasquachismo” by interpreting Chicana/o artworks in Mexican communities in the United States. The sensibility “Rasquachismo” wasbasically elaborated by Latino art scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto (1938–) as “have-not” grassroots
Chicana/o aesthetics.
In response to Ybarra-Frausto’s “Rasquachismo,” Chicana artist Amalia Mesa-Bains (1943–) gleaned
female daily expressions inside domestic life and Chicana/o communities, and named their attitude
as Domesticana to emancipate their expressions from uncritical male-oriented “Rasquachismo.”
After referencing previous studies, this article defines “Rasquachismo” as border immigrantaesthetics and presents the concepts of “duality,” “hybridity” and “slowness” to deepen theunderstanding of “Rasquachismo.” This argument strengthens the perspective of “others” in
Chicana/o culture, which has not been adequately discussed in previous studies, and tries to broaden
the applied possibility of this sensibility to different case studies or fields using these three notional
angles above.

111

Summary“Chicana/o” is a political, cultural and historical term associated with the Chicano Movement of
the late 1960s. This term has a double meaning. It used to be a despised word that implied Mexicanmigrants before the Movement, having connotations as “poor,” “second-class,” and those meanings
still remain today. In the late 1960s, some Mexican Americans converted such negative meanings topositive identity as their self-affirmation. They also made various artworks in order to visualize theirown narratives, like murals, silk-screen posters, poetry, music, literature, bilingual newspapers, tent
theatres, and so on. These are defined as both Chicana/o culture and art.
In this article, the concept “border” is founded on Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1942–2004)
bilingual writing of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza published in 1987. According toAnzaldúa, “U.S-Mexican border is an open wound (una herida abierta) where the Third World
grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the lifebloodof two worlds merging to form a third country - a border culture.” Anzaldúa’s “border” or “openwound” concepts can be also seen in “Rasquachismo” as an “outsider within” or a stance todiscover new worth into chaotic situations beyond static dichotomies. This border sensibility always
embraces wounds, weaknesses and failures.
This article analyzes conditions of “Rasquachismo” on Chicana/o art, basically referring to thecritique of Ybarra-Frausto, who chiefly elaborated the characteristics of “Rasquachismo” in 1988
when the Symposium and regional exhibition “Chicano Aesthetics: Rasquachismo” was organizedby the Arizona Art Organization, MARS. In Spanish, “Rascuache” means having bad taste or being
worth almost nothing. According to Ybarra-Frausto, “Rasquachismo” is a grass-root sensibility,
an attitude and a taste which develops a bilingual consciousness within Mexican communities in
the United States. It is the resilient art of making do with what’s at hand. The artworks are made of
discarded materials, like tires, coffee cans or broken glasses. Making Chicana/o murals with daily
resources are also appropriate examples of “Rasquachismo.”
Mesa-Bains exposed the male domination of “Rasquachismo” under Mexican culture andfocused on female daily expressions like the home alter for Mexican Festival: Day of the Dead,embellishments of sawing boxes. She named their spirits of internal artworks as Domesticana,arguing that it is the counterpart of male-oriented “Rasquachismo.” It is defiant and inventive,
subverting the restriction unique to women in Chicana/o society. In this article, I presented twoartworks as examples of Domesticana. One is the mixed-media installation “Emblems of the Decade:Borders” (2015–2018) by Mesa-Bains. Another is the Chicano mural “Immaculate Perception”(1992). Both artworks describe spatial, temporal transitions from inside the house, and ambiguities
to emancipate from colonial and patriarchal oppression.
Following arguments in previous studies, this article defines “Rasquachismo” as border111

Summary

immigrant aesthetics, and points out “duality” “hybridity” and “slowness” as the characteristics ofthis sensibility.
Firstly, in terms of “duality,” “Rasquachismo” attitude is naturally bilingual like speaking withan accent in both Spanish and English. This sensibility dismantles existing dichotomies between
Mexico and United States, rural and urban areas, past and future, etc. Secondly, “Rasquachismo” isa “hybrid” like menudo, a mixed tripe soup. It seems too vague to understand, but it is possible tocreate new values, like a mixed art with graffiti and murals in East Los Angeles. Thirdly, slowness
is a key to describe the time dimension of Chicana/o “Rasquachismo.” Chicana/os make their own
speed and rhythm. They ride lowrider cars with a specific way of “low and slow.” They play musicsometimes mellowly. With such slow speed, they go out of rhythm and then dissimilate themselves.
As a result, the border aesthetics “Rasquachismo” is not just a limited sensibility for Chicana/os. Such border aesthetics like “Rasquachismo” keep producing and reproducing daily borderimmigrant expressions by downtrodden people to transcend various borders, and to put differences
together under the world of living with others in constant social mobilization and fluidization.

111