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When death becomes her question: death, identityand perceptions of home among Okinawanwomen return migrants

Johanna O. Zulueta

To cite this article: Johanna O. Zulueta (2016) When death becomes her question: death,identity and perceptions of home among Okinawan women return migrants, Mortality, 21:1,52-70, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2015.1056123

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2015.1056123

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When death becomes her question: death, identity andperceptions of home among Okinawan women returnmigrants

JOHANNA O. ZULUETAFaculty of International Liberal Arts, Soka University, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT How do older women return migrants think about questions of their late years,

particularly those involving death and burial? How do their experiences of migration, intermarriage

and return influence their perceptions of home, which is also linked to decisions about their final

resting place – i.e. where to be buried? Utilising data from life histories of older Okinawan women

return migrants, I explore the question of death and burial among these returnees and argue that

this has become an important issue in their lives at this point in time, and as such, carries with it

notions of identity, home and family, that are very much gendered and cultural, as well as

intertwined with experiences of migration. This is an exploratory study that aims to shed light on

death as an important part of the migrant’s life course, and I look at the specific case of Okinawan

returnees to address this issue.

KEYWORDS: death and burial; return migrants; older women; home; religion and tradition

Introduction: facing death

The subject of death is seldom, if not rarely, touched upon in the migration

literature, particularly those about migrants who are still alive and well.

Migrants and return migrants grow old, and for those nearing their twilight

years, death becomes an important issue that they along with their families

address. As death is part and parcel of the life course, this particular moment

in a migrant’s life should also be accorded significant attention in the migra-

tion literature as death brings with it issues that puts a halt in the process of

migration as conventionally understood. What happens to the body of the

migrant? Will the migrant be returned to his/her homeland after death? How

can the migrant him/herself and his/her family prepare for the eventuality of

death, especially if the migrant is in the twilight years of his/her life? How do

migrants approach the issues of death and burial? For migrants in particular,

dying and death are significant in themselves, as the notion of a ‘final resting

Correspondence: E-mail: zulueta@soka.ac.jp

All names appearing here are pseudonyms. Japanese names are written with the surnamebefore the first name.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

Mortality, 2016

Vol. 21, No. 1, 52–70, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2015.1056123

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place’, the ‘afterlife’ or ‘rebirth’ does not only point to spiritual beliefs but

also becomes a question of, more often than not, pragmatic importance, as it

is tied to choices that individuals and/or families make, which in turn are

connected to religious and other customary beliefs, tradition, class and status,

gender and identity.

For this paper, I examine the case of older Okinawan women return

migrants. I chose to examine older women returnees since most of them have

made the return to Okinawa as widowers. Moreover, their migration experi-

ences as well as their involvement in cross-cultural marriages are deemed sig-

nificant when examining the choices they make regarding life and death. For

these women, the question of death comprises a significant aspect of their lives

that at the same time also talks about family, tradition and continuity. Upon

one’s death, Okinawan women are supposed to be buried in their husband’s

grave as tradition dictates, but a problem arises when their husband is a non-

Okinawan. Married to Filipino men who were recruited to work in US military

installations during the US Occupation of Okinawa, most of these women

migrated to the Philippines and lived there for decades. While a significant

number still reside in the Philippines, not a few of these women have returned

to Okinawa in recent years.

A large number of these women are converts to Catholicism and most of

those who returned to Okinawa have bought their own ossuary or burial vaults

in Catholic churches there due to the fact that they could not be buried in their

natal family’s grave. The question of where to be buried – whether they be bur-

ied in an ossuary in Okinawa or together with their husbands in the Philippines

– has become an important one in these returnees’ (and their immediate fam-

ily’s) lives as they reach this advanced stage in their life course, and this deci-

sion carries with it notions of identity, home and family that are very much

gendered and intertwined with experiences of migration and return. This is an

exploratory study that aims to shed light on the question of death as an

important part of the migrant’s life course and hopes to contribute to existing

literature on return migration and studies on death.

The first part of the paper looks at the concept of death in the migration

literature and the method I employed to gather my data as well as the

methodological limitations I faced due to the sensitivity of the issue/s

involved. Next, I give a short background of the migration of Okinawan

women to the Philippines during the immediate post-war years as well as a

short background of the patrilineal munchuu system (Okinawan kinship

system). I then examine how the issue of death is being dealt with by these

women and their immediate families by utilising interview data as well as

conversations I had with them, and how death is connected to these women’s

perceptions of what and where home is for them. I conclude with a short

discussion on the significance of the concept of death in understanding

migratory experiences and processes (Figure 1).

When death becomes her question 53

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An undertaking: the research

The issue of death is seldom discussed in literature on migration. While

migrant deaths related to work accidents and abuse are not a rarity and

oftentimes are featured in media, migrants’ perceptions of death – be it the

death of their employers or their own, or of a family member’s back home –

are not given much attention in the literature. It was said that death is ‘incom-

patible’ (Fedyuk, 2009, p. 2), a ‘contradiction’ (Petit, 2002) in migration as it

Figure 1. Map of Okinawa.

Source: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/okinawa_pol90.jpg.

54 J.O. Zulueta

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‘stands in opposition to the migration project’ (Fedyuk, 2009, pp. 14–15) and

is thus a ‘failure’ (Petit, 2002) in the whole project. This is because migration

is usually engaged in for purposes that will only be severed when death occurs.

Fedyuk (2009) in her study of Ukrainian migrant care workers in Italy talked

about how three instances of death – death of the person being taken care of

(which means the loss of a job), death of a family member back home and the

death of the migrant him/herself in migration – are addressed by these

Ukrainian migrants and how because of death, in this case of the migrant him-

self/herself, the migration project can be seen to be no longer ‘worthwhile’, as

the role the migrant fulfils can no longer be carried out. With regards to the

death of a family member back home, this becomes a ‘locus’ of all the losses

the migrant experiences with separation (ibid). This study also shows that the

way a migrant addresses death is highly gendered and ethnicised.

Gardner (1998, 2002) in her studies on Muslim Bangladeshis in Britain,

looked at how these migrants viewed the homeland as well as the reproduction of

death rituals and burial practices in Britain. Some migrants desired that their

bodies be brought back home to their village of Sylhet in Bangladesh even if it

means resorting to embalming methods which are ‘haram’ or forbidden in the

Muslim tradition, as this is connected to their sense of belonging. The issue of

gender is very much prevalent here and women’s roles in the death of a husband,

such as the 40-day seclusion observed by female widows, are performed and

expected of her among the Bangladeshi community (Gardner, 2002, p. 195). A

similar study (Petit, 2002) dealt with how Senegalese face the issue of death in

France and how their identity as Muslims shapes their choices regarding their

burial place – whether they choose to be repatriated to Senegal or be buried in

France. The adaptation and performance of ethnic funerary rituals of these

migrants indicate that traditions are not being abandoned and are actually con-

tinued in migration. Along with these practices, the way that death and memory

of the deceased is being addressed is also highly gendered, where women are both

considered and see themselves as transmitters of cultural values, as illustrated in

the case of Greek and Turkish migrants in Germany (Jonker, 1997).

Research also suggests that migrants have a tendency to return to their coun-

tries of origin as they become older. This is seen in some studies among South

Asian migrants in Britain who decide to return to their countries, in which

many of these returnees are those who are terminally ill or those most likely to

become terminally ill (Smaje & Feld, 1997, p. 151). Some women have

returned to Okinawa mainly to seek medical attention, but it should be noted

that a significant number of these women have returned to Okinawa since the

1980s (with some returning as early as the 1970s). The return to one’s country

of origin is linked to a desire to spend the remaining years of their lives there

and eventually be placed to rest in their natal homeland is very much tied to

choices made by the migrant, and to some extent by his/her family (and

extended kin), that are influenced by cultural, ethnic and gendered factors.

For this paper, I focus on how the question or the issue of death is being

dealt with by these older Okinawan women who have returned to Okinawa.

When death becomes her question 55

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Much of the data utilised here are gathered from interviews I had with these

women as well as conversations I had with them at Oroku Catholic Church1 in

the Oroku district of Naha, the Okinawan capital.2 I chose Oroku Church as a

field site due to the significant number of these women returnees who attend

mass services there. In fact, during the 10 am Sunday Mass – which is done

mainly in Japanese, with some parts in English – around 80 per cent of atten-

dees are these returnees and their children, with some of them residing in cities

outside Naha.3 While many of these women have returned to Okinawa in

recent years, many of them do not attend church services because of their

health.4 They currently stay in elderly facilities.

I also utilise data gathered from conversations with these women’s children –

many of them parishioners of the said church. For purposes of comparison, I

also look at interviews I had with older Okinawan women who chose to remain

in the Philippines. Due to the sensitivity of the issue, I avoided conducting for-

mal interviews directly touching on this matter especially that my informants

are already in the prime of their lives, as well as the fact that most of them have

had harrowing experiences of death during the Battle of Okinawa in the Second

World War. Conversations with the children of these women about this issue

also bore similar results as they also told me that their mothers rarely talk to

them about their lives. Research on end-of-life decision-making in Japan and

other East Asian cultures indicate difficulty in talking about death and dying

even within their own families (Macer, 2005, pp. 117–118) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Oroku Catholic Church, Naha city, Okinawa (photo by the author).

56 J.O. Zulueta

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An overview of Okinawan women’s migration to the Philippines

The migration of Okinawan women to the Philippines during the immediate

post-war years has not been accorded much attention in contrast to their pre-

war male counterparts who migrated to the Philippines to work as labourers in

the erstwhile American colony. The most probable reason may be that the

migration of these women, unlike other forms of organised migration (i.e.

institutionalised) from the prefecture, was seen more as personal choice by

these women due to marriage with a foreigner. Hence, Ohno calls them sensouhanayome or ‘war brides’ (Ohno, 1991, p. 228), as with other women who mar-

ried US army personnel during this period and migrated to their husbands’

hometowns in the United States.5 These women met their Filipino husbands

while the latter were working on base as soldiers (i.e. Philippine Scouts), pro-

fessional employees (i.e. doctors, engineers, lawyers) and semi-skilled workers.

These Filipinos were hired by the US Occupation Government to work on the

construction of these military installations as well as to render services (profes-

sional and otherwise) to the Occupation Forces. Meanwhile, these women

worked a variety of jobs inside the bases as maids, waitresses and laundry

women, while others worked in occupations that called for more professional

skills such as clerks and typists when they met their husbands (USCAR labour

cards; Zulueta, 2011). The number of intermarriages between Okinawan

women and Filipino men could not be established, however it was estimated

that up until 1954, there were around 1004 (recorded) cases of marriage

between Filipino men and Okinawan women (Sugii, 2009, p. 45).

Among those women who married Filipinos, many of them went with their

husbands to the Philippines upon the expiration of their husbands’ work con-

tracts. Many of these women crossed the seas to travel to the Philippines with

only a travel document issued by the United States Civil Administration of the

Ryukyus (USCAR) at hand.6 Some of these women said that they decided to

migrate to the Philippines for the sake of their children (Zulueta, 2014, p. 39).

Other reasons include resistance from the women’s families to the point of

being disowned by their families for marrying a foreigner, and that these

women had much ‘pride’ in themselves that they did not want to lose face in

front of their families (Zulueta, 2005, 2011; informal conversation with

Tamashiro Taeko’s daughter in March 2012). Nevertheless, those who went

and settled in the Philippines were faced with numerous difficulties as expected

of those taking up residence in a foreign land. These include having to adjust

to a different lifestyle as well as acclimatising to a language and culture that is

not familiar. Some of these women, unfortunately, had to be separated from

their Filipino husbands when their contracts were terminated, and these women

were left behind in Okinawa with their children (Ohno, 1991, p. 243).

The exact number of Okinawan female migrants to the Philippines cannot be

given, but it is said that around two to three thousand women went to the

Philippines with their Filipino husbands (Suzuki & Tamaki, 1996, p. 71). The

number of these women currently residing in the Philippines, particularly in

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Manila and its surrounding areas, is said to number more than a thousand

(Ohno, 1991, p. 228), although in recent years, their population has been

decreasing due to death as well as the return migration of these women to

Okinawa.7

For these Okinawan women, migrating and settling down in the Philippines

presented great challenges, as it meant ‘some degree of alienation and ulti-

mately separation from parents and other kin’ (Nakano Glenn, 1986, p. 59) –

most of whom were against marriage to a foreigner. Migration was almost like

a ‘given choice’ for these women to avoid conflicts with their parents and kin,

as well as a means for them to live a more comfortable life (Zulueta, 2005,

p. 54). However, upon migration to their husbands’ home countries, these

women had to face cultural and social adjustments brought about by a new lan-

guage and differences in culture, as well as social conditions (Nakano Glenn,

1986, p. 59). Owing to the fact that these women migrated as spouses of

Filipinos and were not part of a mass migration stream, most of these women

lived far apart, thus the necessity to ‘consciously assimilate’ into Philippine cul-

ture and society during that time (Maehara, 2001; Zulueta, 2005). These

women also experienced discrimination due to the prevailing anti-Japanese

sentiment at that time (Maehara, 2001, p. 72; Zulueta, 2005, 2011).

A large number of these women acquired Philippine nationality (Ohno,

1991, p. 240; Suzuki & Tamaki, 1996, p. 71) and most of them also converted

to Catholicism so that their children could be baptised as Catholics. At that

time, the Catholic Church in the Philippines required both parents to be

Catholic in order for their child to be baptised into the faith. Many of these

women are steadfast believers and regularly go to church. As with converts to

the faith, they also have Christian names of their own.

A significant number of these women still live in the Philippines with their

families with many of them living comfortably there. Some of them would often

visit their children living and working in Okinawa (and/or mainland Japan).

However, many of these women have since returned to Okinawa, with several

of them returning since the 1970s and resettling there (Zulueta, 2014, p. 39).

While the return of these women may be construed to be primarily that of

returning to one’s natal homeland, their primary reason is connected to their

children’s decision to move to Okinawa to work (Ibid). Some, however, took

the return trip for health and medical purposes, whereas others considered it as

family reunification.

The question of death: of religion and tradition

Okinawa, the southernmost prefecture of Japan, was (when it was still known

as the Ryukyu Islands) and still is a patriarchal society where importance is

given to the first-born male to inherit and continue the family line. This is

embodied in the munchuu system, which is a ‘patrilineal, consanguineous group

descended from a common ancestor’ (Sakihara, 2006, p. 121). A clan also has

58 J.O. Zulueta

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its own tomb called a munchuubaka, where members of the clan are buried.

The munchuu system is considered to be particular to Okinawan society, how-

ever, a similar system (munjung) is said to exist in Korea (Higa, 2010). While

regarded as ‘traditionally’ Okinawan, Higa explains that the system came to be

in place only starting from the seventeenth century upon the invasion of the

Ryukyu Islands by the Satsuma Han in 1609 (ibid., p. 30). Hence, to consider

the munchuu system as traditional or ‘indigenous’ to the islands is contentious

(Figure 3).

Nevertheless, this system has permeated the lives of Okinawans and customs

and traditions revolving around the munchuu continue to persist to this day. In

the case of marriage, a wife takes on the surname of her husband, leaves her

natal family’s munchuu and enters her husband’s munchuu. Upon death, it is

expected that she will be buried in her husband’s munchuubaka (family tomb)

(Higa, 2010, pp. 167–168). Likewise, children belong to the munchuu of their

father rather than their mother’s, and take on their father’s surname. With this,

it can be said that the ancestors on the father’s side of the family are given

more importance than those on the mother’s side (ibid., p. 167). Higa however

points out that the munchuu system was more strongly adhered to in Naha and

in Shuri in the southern part of the main island of Okinawa, which historically

had a significantly large population of shizoku or ‘the privileged class’ that

Figure 3. Ryukyuan turtleback tomb.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Okinawa_turtle_back_tomb.JPG.

When death becomes her question 59

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included the nobility, scholars, soldiers and priests (Kerr, 2000, pp. 188–189),

and that this system functioned primarily for revering ancestors (sosen saishi) in

Okinawan society (Higa, 2010, pp. 168–169).

The munchuu system, however, poses a problem in the case of cross-cultural

marriages – particularly in the case of an Okinawan woman having a foreign

husband and their children.

In Okinawa, a lot of people live according to the custom of traditional ances-tor worship. A wife is to be buried in her husband’s munchuubaka, a son –whether legitimate or not – also has to be buried in his father’s munchuubaka.However, if a child (legitimate or not) has a foreign father, he/she cannot beburied in the munchuubaka. Cases where children with foreign fathers aresent to a temple or are buried in a temporary ossuary beside the munchu-ubaka are not few.8 (Takioka, 1989, p. 212)

It can be argued here that women are ‘outsiders’ to this kinship system as she

has to leave her natal munchuu upon marriage and in the event that she marries

a non-Okinawan, her final resting place becomes a problem that is not only tied

to cultural tradition but also to women’s place in this system, which in turn

extends to her children.

In relation to the munchuu system, a complex issue that continues to exist in

contemporary Okinawan society is the issue of the tootoomee, or the (Buddhist)

ancestral tablet that contains the family’s ancestors’ names and which, as

tradition dictates, is (and should be) continued by the male heir. This has

sparked discussions pushing for a change in male succession to allow females to

also take on this role, in case of an absence of a male heir (Higa, 2010;

Katsukata-Inafuku, 2006; Nakamura, 1986, pp. 113–116).

With regards to burial rites, cremation is currently practiced in Okinawa, hav-

ing been first introduced to the prefecture in 1939 (Fujii, 1978, p. 144). Tradi-

tionally, the dead was buried and after several years, the body will be exhumed

and the bones washed by family members of the deceased (Fujii, 1978, p. 144;

Koja, Uza, Tamaki, Ozasa, & Funatsuki, 2003, pp. 35–36). This ‘washing of

bones’ or senkotsu, was being carried out by a female family member, whereas

bringing out the coffin to the tomb’s entrance is a duty expected of a male fam-

ily member (Horiba, 1990, p. 24). Washing bones was a very tedious task, not

to mention an unhygienic one. This custom also posed a problem when the

deceased does not have any female members to carry out the task. Thus, a

movement to phase out this custom was carried out by the very women who

experienced this particular funerary ritual, calling for a shift to the more mod-

ern and hygienic method of cremation (ibid., pp. 7ff.). Horiba (1990) looked at

how this movement transpired in Ogimi-son, a village in the Yanbaru region

located in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. A very small per-

centage of people living in the outlying islands of the prefecture was said to

have continued this practice up until the 1990s, but cremation is now the norm

(Koja et al., 2003, pp. 35–36). As previously mentioned, the munchuu system is

60 J.O. Zulueta

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still entrenched in Okinawan society hence entombment is still in accordance

with the dictates of the system.

Catholicism and the family in the lives of the returnees

Earlier, I mentioned that most of these women converted to the Catholic faith

for the main purpose of having their children baptised as Catholics. Some have

converted to the faith after marrying their Filipino husbands. Some decided to

convert while in Okinawa, whereas others only converted upon their arrival in

the Philippines. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Catholicism has played a

big role in shaping these women’s identities as well as their sense of belonging-

ness and perceptions of home. I have been witness to these women’s devotion

to the faith during my fieldwork which involved going to church to attend mass

and bible studies. The Catholic Church at Oroku especially serves as a place

for these returnees to interact with their fellow return migrants who share the

same faith and fate as them.9

Nevertheless, Okinawan tradition and Catholicism play significant roles with

regards to the question of death in these returnees’ lives – where to die, how to

die, whether to be buried or cremated, etc. As tradition dictates, these women

could not be laid to rest inside their natal family’s munchuubaka as they have to

be buried in their husband’s tomb. However, for women with foreign hus-

bands, this is not possible, thus the question of death and burial is especially

significant to them.

Many of these returnees also desire to be interred in Catholic rites and this

decision carries with it the decision of their children and immediate families as

well. While doing fieldwork in Okinawa for a separate study in 2009, I was

witness to a memorial mass offered to an Okinawan woman returnee named

Higa-san.10 She was interred in Catholic rites and her ashes stored in a burial

vault at Oroku Church, whereas her husband’s remains are buried in the

Philippines. Higa-san’s burial vault is also that of the family’s as her son’s ashes

are also stored there (her son passed away in early 2012 and I saw both of their

names inscribed on the vault when I visited the crypt in March 2013).

Almost all of these older women returnees purchased their burial vaults at

Oroku Catholic Church. Due to the fact that they cannot be buried in their

natal munchuu as well as various reasons such as the desire to be laid to rest in

Okinawa, the costs to be incurred for burial in the Philippines, etc., these

women decided to purchase burial vaults for themselves and their family and

receive a Catholic ritual at the time of their death (Figure 4).

‘Unto Dust Shalt Thou Return’:11 death and perceptions of home and

return

Indeed, the issue of death for migrants is highly gendered and ethnicised. In

several cases, ethnic funerary rituals are being carried out and continued in

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migration and gendered roles and expectations persist in funerary and burial

rites (Gardner, 1998, 2002; Petit, 2002). Men and women also exhibit differ-

ences as to how they perceive death (Davies, 1996; Jonker, 1997). The ques-

tion of death also presents a choice – which usually is not an easy one – for the

migrant as to where to be buried, and this also entails negotiating between the

culture and society of the host country and the homeland. For these older

Okinawan women returnees, this not only means opting to be buried either in

Okinawa or the Philippines, but also concerns various factors that involve

family, as well as the reality/ies of traversing two cultures/societies.

Most of the women returned to Okinawa as widowers and many of them live

in their own apartments (their children though live in Okinawa with their own

families). The women I interviewed and talked to in Okinawa have expressed

their desire to stay in the prefecture for the rest of their lives as it is their birth-

place (‘jibun no umareta tokoro ga ii’). However, when faced with the question

of death, their feelings of belongingness, in addition to their decision as to

where to be buried, etc., do not necessarily connect with their idea of home as

‘(natal) homeland’. Arakaki Katsuko (83 years old), a native of Naha, returned

to Okinawa in the late 1980s. She has this to say:

Mukou wa ie mo arushi, haka mo aru. Koko ni wa haka mo naishi, ie mo nai …kochira wa ii kedo, ima wa … dakedo, dou naru ka … (In the Philippines, Ihave a house, I also have a grave. Here (in Okinawa), I have neither a housenor a grave … It’s better (to stay) here, at the moment … but, who knowswhat will happen?)12

Figure 4. Burial vaults at Oroku Church as illustrated in the church’s brochure (photo by the

author).

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Arakaki-san then shared that her children suggested that she be buried

alongside their father. Then she said, ‘dekitara, genki no uchi ni kaette, mukou nishinitai (if possible, I want to go back to the Philippines while I’m still in good

shape and die there)’ – expressing her wish to be buried alongside her husband,

being faced with the fact that she does not have a burial place in Okinawa. Her

children and grandchildren are living in both Okinawa and the Philippines, and

Arakaki-san herself spoke of several blissful memories of her 30-year stay in the

Philippines. In March 2013, I was able to talk to her granddaughter Jane, who

at that time lives in Okinawa with her husband who works on base, and she

told me that the family is concerned about her grandmother and they all hope

to bring her back to the Philippines.13 However, according to her, Arakaki-san

herself still wants to stay in the prefecture as her ‘life’ is in Okinawa.

It should also be noted that the question of death and one’s final resting

place is an issue that not only migrants, but older people in general, contend

with. In Japan, for instance, more and more older people live alone and away

from their immediate families, much like Arakaki-san, and thus concerns

regarding one’s final resting place at times become tied to more pragmatic

needs (e.g. near family members that can take care of their graves or ossuaries)

rather than nostalgia, or the place where these older people experience a sense

of belonging.

Shiroma Chieko, a contemporary of Arakaki-san who herself is in her mid-

80s and is also a native of Naha, has decided however to be laid to rest in her

natal Okinawa. The ashes of a grandson of hers are stored in the family vault

at Oroku Church. In conversations with her, I noticed that she always spoke

with pride of having bought an ossuary at the crypt of Oroku Church and that

her grandson’s ashes are currently stored there. Having been able to buy a fam-

ily vault is a source of pride for Shiroma-san, as many parishioners would say,

but in addition to this, it is the fact that Shiroma-san herself – in contrast to

Arakaki-san – has already made preparations for her ‘transit’ to the afterlife, as

well as decided where she would like to die. Moreover, the purchase of the

vault illustrates that she was able to carry out her ‘final’ responsibility as a

mother/grandmother, who initially made a ‘leap of faith’ to travel and live in

the Philippines and return to Okinawa for the sake of her children. With no

burial place in Okinawa and the unlikelihood of being buried in their natal

munchuu, the purchase of burial vaults in Catholic churches indicate, for these

women, a desire to create a ‘home’ for themselves in the final years of their

lives and into their deaths, to which Catholic churches play a significant role in

cultivating in these women a sense of belonging and identity as returnees.

In some cases though, the migrant does not express hopes of returning to one’s

homeland after being integrated in the host country and being settled there with

her family.14 Tamashiro Taeko (82 years old), a native of Nago in the northern

part of the main island of Okinawa, is one of these women. Tamashiro-san who

has been living in the Philippines for more than 60 years, points to the existence

of her family as a reason to stay her whole life in the Philippines. She calls the

Philippines her ‘second homeland (dai-ni no furusato)’, while Okinawa is her ‘first

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homeland (dai-ichi no furusato)’.15 For these women who chose to stay and die

(and be buried) in the Philippines, the decision is primarily connected to one’s

family and the desire to be with them until after death. This also speaks of

migrant agency where the place of attachment is also tied to home and that the

migrant himself/herself decides where and what home is.

Much of the causes of death for these older women are old age and disease,

with many of them spending time in elderly facilities in Okinawa, or with their

families in the Philippines, or in hospitals under medical supervision. Neverthe-

less, the nearness of death as well as the experience of dying urges these women

to make informed choices about their own passing. Walter (1996) calls this the

‘postmodern death’, where death is ‘controlled’ by the dying person, wherein

after the death, the funeral celebrates the life of the deceased (Walter, 1996,

p. 194). The dying person faces death and chooses where and how to die.

Despite the personal and individual decision of the subject concerning death,

this nevertheless involves family and kin, owing to the collectiveness of the

death/dying experience which does not only affect the dying subject but the

family and close relations as well.

In March 2013, I was with three friends (whose grandmothers are Okinawan)

at a beach-side hotel in Onna Village in the north-west of the prefecture, when

one of them, Kevin, talked about his Okinawan grandmother’s funeral that took

place in the Philippines in the previous month. I first learned about his grand-

mother’s death when he posted about it on the social networking site, Face-

book, and he, subsequently making a short trip to Manila to attend the funeral.

With a cool breeze blowing and the light sound of waves hitting the shore,

Kevin shared how his grandmother’s funeral was sort of a celebration rather

than a day of mourning. He said that they were all sad, but happy at the same

time, as his grandmother – he calls her ‘lola’, the Tagalog word for ‘grandma’ –

has been reunited with his grandfather. He said that his grandmother requested

that everything to be used for the funeral – flowers, clothes – be white; an

apparent turnaround from the black colour of mourning worn in Japan and in

the Philippines.16 It was also her choice to be buried (not cremated) in her

adopted country to be close to her husband ‘in spirit’. This illustrates what

Walter calls a ‘postmodern death’ where authority rests with the dying person

and his/her negotiation with his/her family that goes beyond tradition (Walter,

1996, p. 204).

Meanwhile, Zukeran Yoko (87 years old, a native of Tengan, Okinawa), who

migrated to Davao in the southern Philippines with her Filipino husband in the

1950s, only gets to visit Okinawa on special occasions, the recent one primarily

to attend the funeral of her sister. Zukeran-san’s case17 is interesting in that

being the only Okinawan woman in her community, she had to assimilate her-

self into it, learning the language and local customs, thus causing her to forget

much of the Japanese and Okinawan languages she used to speak. She only

speaks the Visayan language spoken in Davao City.

While she told me (through an interpreter) that she had regrets migrating to

the Philippines and feels that life in Okinawa is ‘better (guwapa)’, she also has

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no desire to go back to Okinawa and said that she would rather die in the

Philippines. This is because she does not want her body to be cremated, as is

now customary in Okinawa. She said that she is ‘afraid (hadlok)’ of having her

body burned and would rather be buried in Davao.18 More than religious

beliefs – Zukeran-san is a Catholic convert – this may point to how one per-

ceives corporeal issues regarding death, which in turn influences one’s decision

to return to one’s natal homeland. In Zukeran-san’s case, her fear of being

burned (or her lifeless body being burned) was enough reason for her not to

want to die in Okinawa. This is in contrast with a study on how women viewed

burial in Britain, where many preferred cremation over burial, as the latter

paints an image of the body rotting, while the former destroys the body fast

(Davies, 1996, pp. 21–22).

Interestingly, Arakaki-san also prefers not to be cremated. When I spoke to

her again in October 2012, she told me that she still does not have a tomb in

Okinawa nor has she purchased a burial vault at Oroku Catholic Church as it

costs a large sum of money (i.e. millions of yen).19 Her case contrasts with

Shiroma-san’s wherein the latter has already bought a burial vault; the purchase

of which may indicate not only a fulfilled responsibility, but also access to eco-

nomic resources that enabled her to purchase a vault. With this, it can be said

that economic status also plays a role in issues regarding death and burial, as it

translates to wider choices and possibilities available for these older women.

Concerning how she wants her body to be handled after death, Arakaki-san

told her family that she prefers to be buried with her body intact (maisou); how-

ever, this is not allowed in Okinawa at present. This preference for burial over

cremation may also point to the fact that traditionally, Okinawans buried their

dead, and that cremation was a ‘modern’ method that only came to be intro-

duced in the late 1930s. For these women who left Okinawa in the 1950s to

live in a society that used to frown upon cremation due to religious reasons, it

can be said that these women’s attitudes towards cremation may have been

shaped not only by Okinawan tradition but also by the host society they had

assimilated into (and the fact that most of them are Catholics). It should be

noted here that Catholicism used to frown on cremation as it was associated

with pagan burial customs as well as the burning of witches and heretics in the

middle ages (Sorensen, 2009, p. 115). Burning was also said to be a capital

punishment, as referenced in the bible, and there was also the belief that

cremation would render bodily resurrection impossible (Ibid).

For Arakaki-san, sending her body home to be buried beside her husband

would be very expensive, so she is also thinking of having her body cremated

and her ashes sent to the Philippines to be buried alongside her husband, which

is a cheaper alternative. While showing a non-preference for cremation, she

may end up having to choose this out of practical reasons. For a person like

her in her twilight years, she told me that she has to think about these things

(i.e. death and burial) because ‘(I) will have to go to that place anyway (douse

ikanakereba ikenai tokoro dakara)’. While Arakaki-san spends her daily life in

Okinawa busily engaging in church activities, koto (Japanese zither) lessons and

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other volunteer work, it can be said that she considers death as ‘going home to

where she belongs’. While her current ‘life’ is in Okinawa, the fact that she said

that she does not have a home (she rents her apartment) and a grave there, to

be buried in the Philippines with her husband also becomes a means for her to

reclaim her sense of belongingness.

Home is ‘something that is sought, imagined, and recreated’ (Abdelhady,

2008, p. 63). For these returnees, the question of death likewise poses ques-

tions on where and what home is to them. The notion of home to them is more

often than not, linked to their migration (and return migration) experience,

which are mostly defined according to family relationships and familial and/or

maternal obligations (Zulueta, 2011, pp. 178–179). While this is reflected in

ways according to how they live their lives as migrants and as returnees, one of

the most significant illustrations of this, I argue, is their perceptions of death

and dying, as well as the choices they make towards this. Indeed, the migrant,

as a conscious subject, constructs what and where his/her home is up until the

last breath.

Last words: a conclusion

Death is part and parcel of the life course and its inexorableness adds to its per-

ceived mysteriousness. Nevertheless, the notion of death is inherently social

and cultural, and the dying process itself is wrought with choices that reflect

the person’s cultural and social beliefs, not to mention other factors shaped by

ethnicity, gender and identity. For return migrants (and those who chose not to

return), the question of death remains a significant, if not a poignant one that

reflects their perceptions of what and where home is. As Okinawan burial cus-

toms prescribe women to be buried in their husband’s family’s munchuubaka,

these returnees had to carve out a place for themselves by negotiating their

experiences of migration, cross-cultural marriage and religion with their con-

structions of home. For those who chose to remain, and die and be buried in

the Philippines, death does not necessarily mean a return to one’s natal home,

but rather points to how these women have formed their perceptions of what

and where home is, which is tied to family and their roles as mothers.

These older women returnees had to make choices that not only involve

themselves, but also family and kin as well. The choice to be buried or cre-

mated, the choice on how one wants to be laid to rest, indeed is a general con-

cern of individuals who are facing death. Nevertheless, for these older women

returnees, these choices also tellingly show us that migrant experiences of

traversing two (or more) places and being in contact with two (or more)

cultures shape migrants’ end-of-life decisions.

The concept of death in migration is significant to further understand

migrant agency especially with regards to migrants’ experiences, and in this

case, of homes and returns. Migratory processes and experiences are influenced

by several factors such as culture, ethnicity, gender, and class and choices made

by the migrant himself/herself with regards to death and dying speak volumes

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of how the issue of death is likewise construed through various sociocultural

factors. These aspects influence death, and in turn death (or more precisely

perceptions of it) also influences these sociocultural elements that narrate sto-

ries of migrations as not only those of the living but also those of the departed.

While death is commonly regarded as ‘incompatible’, a ‘contradiction’, an

‘anomaly’ in the migration project, death and dying will always be a part of the

experience of migration.

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 20th Anniversary of the

Transnational Sociology Program of Hitotsubashi University’s Junior Scholars’

Workshop on 21 June 2013. Professors Alejandro Portes, Luis Guarnizo, and

Mirjana Morokvasic were guests during the workshop and I am grateful for

their comments. I would like to extend my gratitude to Professor Ruri Ito of

Hitotsubashi University for giving me a chance to present at the workshop as

well as for her comments and suggestions on the first draft of the paper. Some

parts of this paper were presented in Japanese at the 24th Annual Meeting of

the Japan Association for Migration Studies at Wakayama University on 29

June 2014. I also would like to wholeheartedly thank the two anonymous

reviewers for their encouraging comments and suggestions for me to further

improve on the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research(KAKENHI) received in2011–2013. Interviews were conducted with the support of the Shibusawa Research Grant forGraduate Students received in 2010–2011.

Notes

[1] Oroku Catholic Church is being served by the Capuchin Order, which has a 60 year pres-ence in the prefecture when two Capuchin priests arrived in 1947 on Amami-Oshima (ofthe Amami Island group) and the Ryukyu Islands (then under American Occupation). TheCapuchin Friary in Okinawa is also located in the church compound of Oroku CatholicChurch (Anzai, 1978, p. 245; Capuchin Custody of Japan homepage, http://www.japancaps.com/japan-capuchin-history.html, accessed on 22 April 2013).

[2] Interviews conducted in 2009 were done with the support of the Shibusawa ResearchGrant for Graduate Students, while those in 2012 were conducted through the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), received when I was a Japan Society for thePromotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow.

[3] When I started visiting Oroku Catholic Church in 2009, there were seven of these retur-nees who regularly attend mass there. One of these Okinawan women who I interviewed in2009 however, checked in at an elderly facility in 2012 and does not go to churchanymore. Visits to other churches have supported my observation and other people’s

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claims that Oroku Church has the most number of older Okinawan women returnees asparishioners.

[4] The average age of the women I interviewed is 84 years old (as of December 2014).[5] Ohno (1991) and Hosoda (2010) call these women ‘war brides’ and Okinawan woman

(Okinawa Uuman), respectively.[6] Information gathered through interviews with the Okinawan women themselves, as well as

from conversations with their children.[7] When I visited the Philippine Okinawan Society’s office in February 2012, I asked for an

updated list of members to track the number of Okinawan women members of the organ-isation, only to be told that the list has not been updated since my initial visit in 2003. Asof the 2003 directory, there were around 1000 recorded members, although there are otherwomen living in other parts of the country who are not members.

[8] My translation. The complete Japanese quote reads: ‘Okinawa wa, ootasuu ga dentouteki nasosen suuhai no kanshuu no naka de seikatsushiteimasu. Tsuma wa otto no munchuubakani, otoko no ko wa chakushutsushi de arouka hi-chakushutsushi de arouka kankeinaku, chichino munchuubaka ni hairu to iu seido ga arimasu. Chichi-oya ga gaikokujin no ko wachakushutsushi, hi-chakushutsushi ni kankeinaku munchuubaka ni iretemoraezu, tera niazukeraretari, munchuubaka no tonari ni kari no noukotsudou wo tsukutte shorisareru to iubaai ga ooi you desu.’

[9] These returnee parishioners at Oroku Church only got acquainted with each other upontheir return to Okinawa and never knew each other when they were living in thePhilippines. Being bound by the same experience of migration and cross-culturalmarriages, they form a tightly knit group of Okinawan parishioners in the church (i.e. theyalways sit together, at times speaking in the Okinawan language, after mass and go to thenearby mall after church services).

[10] The suffix ‘san’ refers to Mr/Ms/Mrs in Japanese.[11] Taken from Genesis 3:19 of the King James Bible, http://kingjbible.com/genesis/3.htm,

accessed on 18 April 2013.[12] My translation. Interviewed on 14 September 2009.[13] In February 2014, Jane went to California with her husband as he was assigned to serve at

a military facility there.[14] In interviews as well as conversations with the children of these women in both the

Philippines and Okinawa, many of them told me that one reason why their mothers did ordo not want to return to Okinawa was because many of them have severed ties with theirfamilies in Okinawa for marrying a Filipino.

[15] Interviewed on 8 March 2012, San Pedro, Laguna.[16] Black is traditionally worn at funerals in the Philippines. Although wearing white is not a

rarity, it is not the norm. For the ethnic Chinese, white is worn.[17] Interviewed on 10 February 2012, Davao City.[18] With the rising cost of burial spaces as well as the problem regarding availability of burial

plots, cremation is now gaining popularity in the Philippines particularly in urban centressuch as Manila. For a long time, the Catholic Church in the Philippines used to eschewcremation, but now allows it. Some people though still prefer interment and the traditionalburial rather than cremation. (See: Mateo, More Pinoys want cremation (2012), http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2012/11/01/862206/more-pinoys-want-cremation, accessed on 26April 2013.)

[19] Interviewed on 9 October 2012, Naha City.

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OTHER DOCUMENTS

UNITED STATES CIVIL ADMINISTRATION OF THE RYUKYUS (USCAR) LABOUR CARDS.

Biographical Notes

Johanna O. Zulueta received her doctorate degree in March 2011 at Hitotsubashi University inTokyo as a Japanese Ministry of Education scholar. Her main research interest is on East Asianmigrations, with emphasis on return migration and perceptions of home among ethnic migrants.She is editor (with Lydia N. Yu Jose) of Japan: Migration and a Multicultural Society, published bythe Ateneo de Manila University Press (2014).

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