Fusako Kushi

In 1932, Kushi submitted Memoirs of a Declining Ryukyuan Woman to Fujin Kōron, which incorporated themes of social discrimination and loss of her home and culture experienced due to her identity as Ryukyuan.

The Okinawa Prefecture Student Association in Tokyo condemned Kushi's work severely, accusing her of portraying Okinawan people in the same class as the Ainu people and the Korean people.[1] Although Memoirs of a Declining Ryukyuan Woman was initially planned to be published as a serial novel, the backlash prevented the publication of the rest of her Memoir series.[1]

In the following month's issue of the Fujin Koron, Kushi published a rebuttal work titled "In the Defense of Memoirs of a Declining Ryukyuan Woman," which challenged critics' internalized prejudice concerning gender and ethnicity.

Kushi wrote,

"Their outraged claims that what I wrote “demeans” and “discriminates against” Okinawans reveals, paradoxically, their own racial prejudice toward Ainu and Koreans. I don’t care whether Okinawans are identified with Ainu or with “pure Japanese” because I firmly believe that, despite superficial differences resulting from environmental conditions, we are all Asians and equal as human beings. It was in this sense that I used the word “people,” and certainly not to insult the Okinawan people of whom I myself am one."[2]

After the publication of the "Defense," Kushi retired from writing and never wrote again.[1]