Okinawan Reversion in Retrospect

Abstract

ANY PEOPLE in Okinawa wonder why they favored reversion IVI. now that the prices are higher under Japanese commented a member of Japan's House of Councillors, Kyan Shinei, after his re-election inJuly I974. There were always conflicting estimates of how strongly native Okinawans wanted to return to Japan, of how much they like the Japanese, or disliked the American military government which ruled them from I 945 to I 972. Disagreements of this type are best revealed in public opinion polls which are the basis of this article, but even they are not always clear. Anyone wishing to study the impact of reversion on Okinawan opinion should also consult Americans with long experience in the islands, Japanese officials and their Okinawan counterparts, and experts among the Okinawan academic and business communities. This article* is based mainly on the author's interviews in Tokyo and Naha in the summer of I974, and on poll data obtained over the years from the two main newspapers in Naha (the Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Shimpo). It deals first with the cultural self-perceptions and Okinawan expectations of Japan, then with the economic costs of return to Japanese control, and finally with the critical issue of American military bases and the presence of 5,500 Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in Okinawa. It is too early to reach firm conclusions about the impact of the 27 years of American rule, although Professor Mikio Higa of the University of the Ryukyus has noted that according to a study of this problem the task is badly needed, and that his own institution was engaged only in piecemeal studies of the American period.' Part of the problem