History
In the fifteenth century, the islands that now make up Okinawa were united for the first time into the Ryukyu kingdom , governed from Shuri Castle in present-day Naha. This period is seen as the golden era of Ryukyu culture. Trade with China, Japan and other Southeast Asian countries flourished, while the traditionally non-militarized kingdom maintained its independence by paying tribute to China . But then, in 1609, the Shimazu clan of Kagoshima (southern Kyushu) invaded. The Ryukyu kings became vassals to the Shimazu, who imposed punitive taxes and ruled with an iron hand for the next two hundred years, using the islands as a gateway for trade with China when such contact was technically outlawed. When the Japanese feudal system was abolished in the 1870s, the islands were simply annexed to the mainland as Okinawa Prefecture . Against much local opposition, the Meiji government established a military base and tried to eradicate local culture by forcing people to speak Japanese and swear allegiance to the emperor, forbidding schools to teach Ryukyu history. By the early twentieth century, Okinawa had been fairly successfully absorbed into Japan and became a key pawn in Japan's last line of defence during the Pacific War . Following the battle of Iwo-jima in March 1945, the American fleet advanced on Okinawa and, after an extensive preliminary bombardment, referred to locally as a "typhoon of steel", the Americans invaded on April 1, 1945 . It then took nearly three months of bitter fighting before General Ushijima, the Japanese commander, committed suicide on June 23 and the island surrendered. The Battle of Okinawa left 12,500 American troops dead (plus 37,000 casualties) and an estimated 250,000 on the Japanese side, nearly half of whom were local civilians. It's estimated that one third of the population of Okinawa died in the war, many in mass suicides that preceded the surrender, and others from disease and starvation. But the islanders' subsequent anger has been directed at the Japanese government rather than America. Most people feel that Okinawa was sacrificed to save the mainland - this was the only major battle fought on Japanese soil - and that they were misled by Japanese assurances that they were luring the American fleet into a trap. Compounding this was the behaviour of Japanese troops, who are accused of denying locals shelter and medical treatment, and ultimately of abandoning them to the Americans. By comparison, the American invaders were a welcome relief, despite the islanders' worst fears. They brought in much-needed food supplies - Spam was an instant hit in this pork-loving country - and gradually helped restore the local economy. This wasn't wholly altruistic, of course, since Okinawa was ideally placed for monitoring events in Southeast Asia. As the 1950s Korean War merged into the Vietnam War, so the American bases became a permanent feature of the Okinawa landscape . In fact, Okinawa remained under American jurisdiction until 1972, when local protests forced them to return it to Japanese sovereignty . Since then, the two governments have colluded to maintain an American military presence on the island despite growing opposition, which reached a peak when three American servicemen were found guilty of raping a 12-year-old schoolgirl in 1995. In response to this and other incidents, local leader Governor Ota made vociferous demands for a complete withdrawal of the military. However, in a five-year bilateral agreement drawn in 1996, the immediate future of the bases was secured and local wishes largely ignored. In November 1998, Ota was beaten in local elections by Inamine Keniichi , a pro-development politician eager to embrace the essential cash injections from Tokyo for the bases (some US$2.5 billion in 1999) that basically keep Okinawa's otherwise impoverished economy afloat. Indeed, the location of the high-profile G8 Summit in Okinawa in July 2000 was seen as a financial reward to the islands that constitute Japan's poorest prefecture and which has the nation's highest unemployment rate. The summit was considered a success, and certainly raised Okinawa's international profile, if only for the renewed opportunity it gave anti-US base demonstrators to vent their anger.
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