Scream from the Shadows: The Women's Liberation Movement in Japan

More than forty years ago a women's liberation movement called *uman ribu* was born in Japan amid conditions of radicalism, violence, and imperialist aggression. Setsu Shigematsu's book is the first to present a sustained history of *uman ribu*'s formation, its political philosophy, and its contributions to feminist politics across and beyond Japan. Through an in-depth analysis of *uman ribu*, Shigematsu furthers our understanding of Japan's gender-based modernity and imperialism and expands our perspective on transnational liberation and feminist movements worldwide. In *Scream from the Shadows*, Shigematsu engages with political philosophy while also contextualizing the movement in relation to the Japanese left and New Left as well as the anti-Vietnam War and radical student movements. She examines the controversial figure Tanaka Mitsu, *uman ribu*'s most influential activist, and the movement's internal dynamics. Shigematsu highlights *uman ribu*'s distinctive approach to the relationship of women-and women's liberation-to violence: specifically, the movement's embrace of violent women who were often at the margins of society and its recognition of women's complicity in violence against other women. *Scream from the Shadows* provides a powerful case study of a complex and contradictory movement with a radical vision of women's liberation. It offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the blind spots within our contemporary and dominant views of feminism across their liberal, marxist, radical, Euro-American, postcolonial, and racial boundaries.