Okinawa history · History of Okinawa
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History of Okinawa
History of Okinawa
Once the independent kingdom of Ryūkyū (琉球), which was a tributary state of imperial China, the islands were first invaded and brought under the control of Satsuma (modern-day Kagoshima) in 1609, who continued to use them as a conduit for trade with China, to the profit of all three parties.
However, Ryūkyū was annexed outright by Japan during the Meiji Restoration in 1879, and the Japanese proceeded to impose punitive taxes and did their best to suppress indigenous culture, language and religion. Worse was to come during World War II, when heavy bombardment and suicidal Japanese tactics, including the use of civilians as human shields, killed 120,000 Okinawans or one fourth of their population at the Battle of Okinawa. Post-war they remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, and the presence of several large American military bases on Okinawa Island remain a sore point between the local government and the Japanese national government. There has been mass resentment against the U.S. military presence on Okinawa main island for several reasons, including crimes by U.S. soldiers that have included murder and rape, noise pollution, and what some call a "feeling of being occupied". In April 2010, almost 90,000 people protested on Okinawa main island against the U.S. military base.
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Okinawa Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.