I am currently working on a book manuscript which examines Okinawa's relationship with mainland Japan through the rubric of cultural heritage and its preservation. I suggest that the production “Okinawan cultural heritage” by the prewar Japanese state and by Okinawan people was a way to articulate Okinawa's political membership in the Japanese state. Importantly, this process – which continues into the present – is not simply one of unilateral production by the Japanese state, as Okinawan people also used this discourse to make claims of political inclusion on their own terms.