Impact case study database

Okinawa is one of 47 prefectures in Japan. The population and surface area of its islands comprise about of 1% of Japan’s totals but host over half of the 100,000-plus US military personnel in the country. The research achieved three types of impact:

1. Increasing public understanding in Japan of how environmental sounds can produce acoustic trauma.

The research-based film, Zawawa [3], was screened in seven public venues in Okinawa in September 2017 (3 universities and 4 community centres). The success of the multimodal design for playback was shown in the impact on audiences of the film’s demonstration that natural sounds ‘carry baggage’ related to the war and post-war periods. The broadcast featured an interview with war survivor Tamotsu Tokeshi, whose testimony about the mnemonic aspects of sugar cane featured in the film. He commented that his involvement in the film reminded him of how he associated the natural sound of the ‘whispering sugar cane fields’ with the impending bombardment that preceded the US ground-assault. The clip also showed audiences commenting on the film’s impact, making them hear familiar military aircraft sounds in new ways that reminded them of how disturbing they actually were. This impact was disseminated nationwide on the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) morning news, regularly viewed by more than 10,000,000 people, in a four-minute TV broadcast ‘Echoes of Life’ (26 October 2017). An international (English-language) version was broadcast more than 10 times in December 2017 on the NHK World’s English-language international channel and watched in 160 countries and regions. In Japan where the mainstream media focus on the noise from the military bases is in terms of current political debates and anti-US activism [A, B], the broadcast created a new awareness of the film’s importance in shaping Okinawans’ understandings of sound and war trauma. Evidence of this is the testimony of [Text removed for publication] in Okinawa’s prefectural government, who said the film and the broadcast created ‘ a new space for dialogue among people’ [B].

The research and methods have had wide appeal, as evidenced by the multiple screenings of Zawawa across Europe and North America in festivals attended by professional practitioners and public arts circles. Its presence at the Jean Rouch Festival (November 2018), a world-leading ethnographic film festival and a major cultural event in France, substantiated the importance of the methods employed and their public value. It led directly to two invitations from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) to present the film, including at the Mucem in Marseilles (January 2020) as part of the Salon des écritures alternatives en sciences sociales, an extra-mural event of the Jean Rouch International Festival. The film has also been described in the Guardian as evidence of the positive and negative effects of noise [C].

The research-based installation Cave Mouth and the Giant Voice [2] was commissioned from Cox and Argyle by Christopher Stewart and Esther Teichmann for the London College of Communication exhibition ‘Staging Disorder’ (26 January to 26 March 2015), and was accepted for the experimental film club ‘INTER #7: Sonic Spaces In Between’ (Glasgow 2016) and the SIEF congress (International Society for Ethnology and Folklore, Gottingen, 2017). It was reviewed in two contemporary art journals ( Photographers’ Gallery and Smiths Magazine).

1. Re-focusing the political issue of the effects of US bases in Okinawa around a broader concept of the sonic environment in policy and legal spheres in Japan.

The impact on policy and legal spheres of the film Zawawa and the associated NHK TV broadcast is evidenced by the testimonies of the [Text removed for publication] Planning Department of Okinawa’s prefectural government. [Text removed for publication] states that the research “ showed how aircraft noise pollution has brought back war memories to Okinawans and caused adverse impact on their health” [B]. He added that he “ learned much from [the] research” when he “ was preparing to make a plan to utilize former U.S. military sites” [B], referring to the long debated and delayed removal of the Futenma base. [Text removed for publication] said the broadcast “ showed the importance of considering the memories of individuals when conducting…environmental measures related to U.S. bases” [D], indicating the need to take into account detailed verbal accounts of sonic trauma alongside environmental surveys.

A further dimension to the re-focusing of debates about the effects of US bases around a broader concept of the sonic environment is that the soundscape concept - as it emerged in the use of multimodal sound design and playback methods to reveal listener perceptions - was apt and precise enough to be used as legal evidence. The Japan Soundscape Association (SAJ) has used the research in contesting an application to Japan’s Patent Office, which seeks to register ‘Soundscape’ as a trademark in Japan. A patent lawyer in Tokyo has advised that the word ‘soundscape’ is not suitable for registration as a commercial trademark because it was coined half a century ago and has been used within Japan as well as internationally to indicate the sonic environment. [Text removed for publication] of SAJ states that Cox’s research is being cited in the legal case as “ evidence of the term’s analytic force and applications” as it shows “ how the concept of soundscape can be part of local, national and international debates about the continued presence and activities of the US military bases in Okinawa by creating a new understanding about how ‘noise’ is constituted and how it effects public health and the environment” [E].

1. Curating cultural heritage in Okinawa: using the preservation and interpretation of sound as an integral component.

The impact of the research on the field of cultural heritage is evidenced by a commission to create the Ryukyu Island Sound Archive (RISA) comprising Cox’s recordings of Okinawan soundscapes (Okinawa is part of the Ryukyu Islands). These recordings are the primary data that underpin the playback and multimodal research methods. A contract for RISA was signed in June 2020 [F] with Alexander Street (AS) (part of ProQuest, the world’s biggest online educational provider). RISA will go live in 2021 as part of the landmark collection ‘Ethnographic Sound Archives Online’, which is one of four online collections in AS’s Anthropology Resource Library. AS has contractually committed to investing GBP220,000 in the collection (which includes an Open Access feature), of which GBP51,800 is specifically assigned to RISA.

The significance of the research and research methods to cultural heritage is highlighted by [Text removed for publication] of the Art Foundation (Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts) who says that “What makes [Cox and colleagues’] research significant is that they have been recording sounds based on the philosophy that sounds are heard by taking account of history. They are not recording sound waves that physically exist but recording sounds that exist in peoples’ memories and in their cultural and spiritual activities. Making such sounds into an art work is an outcome that is successful as a significant achievement in the cultural history of Okinawa”. He strongly believes the Archive “ will become an important resource for Okinawa’s cultural research. It will benefit all the people in the world who conduct research on Okinawa” [G].

The Ryuku Island Sound Archive also garnered the support of [Text removed for publication] the Department of Planning and the [Text removed for publication] at the Okinawa Prefectural Government. [Text removed for publication] believes the Archive will “ show a new understanding of Okinawa’s cultural heritage” [B], while the [Text removed for publication] says he intends to “inform Okinawan people living abroad [of the archive] through the network of Okinawans in foreign countries” [D] . He says, “I have a big hope that this will promote the preservation of our cultural heritage and environment and strengthen the ties of Okinawans” [D]. For the [Text removed for publication] (University of Ryukyus),“ The sound archive developed by Dr Cox and his team…would be an influential effort in the cultural activities of islands as the first attempt in Okinawa to promote preservation and usage of regional cultural heritages through sounds. As it has an open access…we will make use of the resource and inform many other people beyond researchers. I strongly believe that Dr Cox and his team’s research will make an impact on the methodology of conducting research on Okinawa and other islands in the Pacific region. It will also create a new axis to interpret sound as part of a cultural heritage” [H].

[Text removed for publication] of Okinawa Prefectural University of Art s states that the archive is “ an innovative art concept” that “ is significant as it archives sounds that should not be lost, including the sound of sanshin and of Shuri Castle” [I]. Sanshin is a local musical instrument, significant in the memories of Okinawan internees held in US military camps. Shuri, a World Heritage Site, is an old Ryukyu Kingdom palace, almost destroyed in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa and then rebuilt as a university campus, which was severely damaged by fire in 2019, meaning Cox’s recordings in the Castle are a “ precious legacy” [G].