The Ryukyus on the Eve of Reversion

Abstract

AW THEN THE RYUKYU ISLANDS are returned to Japan, twenty-seven years will have elapsed following their separation. During this time, both Japan and the Ryukyus have changed; some of the changes will make the reversion process easier, others may make it more difficult.* The integration of the Islands into the Japanese economy will have been eased by their transformation under U. S. administration to an area now enjoying the highest per capita income in Asia after Japan and Singapore. However, political integration may well encounter problems: in the latter years of U. S. administration the Islands were virtually self-governing for internal affairs; after reversion, dependence on Tokyo-based administrative agencies and the receipt of budgetary allocations as one of the many prefectures may not be a fully acceptable substitute for self-government, despite Ryukyuan full participation in the Japanese national government. The Ryukyu Islands form an archipelago of I25 islands stretching southwesterly from Kyushu to Taiwan. The largest island is Okinawa (453 square miles), the site of the U. S. bases. U. S. control of the Ryukyu Islands followed the battle for Okinawa (April-June i945). During the Korean War, permanent military bases were constructed on Okinawa and in December i950 the administration of the islands, which had been run as a military government under the Army's Far East Command in Tokyo, was transformed into a Civil Administration responsible directly to the Department of the Army in Washington. Although the islands were formally separated from Japan under the Peace Treaty of April I952, the United States recognized Japan's residual sovereignty in the Ruykyus. In December I953, the northern portion of the Ryukyus (Amami Gunto) was returned to Japan. On June i7, I97i, a treaty was signed providing for the return of the Ryukyus to Japan during I972. The governing authority in the Ryukyu Islands under U. S. administration was the High Commissioner, a Lieutenant-General of the Army who simultaneously was in charge of all army troops in the Islands. An indigen-