Yoko Uema was born in Okinawa and is currently a professor at the University of the Ryukyus. Her first book, Barefoot Runaways: Girls on the Streets of Okinawa, is a collection of essays based on interviews she conducted with young women in Okinawa experiencing multiple forms of violence. Her second book, I’ll Give You the Sea, from which this essay is drawn, is a collection of personal essays that address the impact of the American military bases on daily life in Okinawa through the lens of Uema’s relationship with her young daughter. It won the 2021 Japan Booksellers’ Award for Nonfiction.