Mainlanders have been spared the problems, such as noise, accidents and crime, that come with hosting military bases
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskYet for Okinawans the anniversary, on May 15th, is less cause for celebration than for sober reflection on unfulfilled hopes—and on new threats to their islands from tensions between America and China. “It’s been 50 years but so many issues remain,” laments Miyagi Hisakazu, a former mayor of Kunigami, Cape Hedo’s district.
The Ryukyus have often been caught between great powers. For most of their history, they formed an independent kingdom, balanced between Japan and China. Japan annexed it only in 1879, during a period of imperial expansionism. Roughly a quarter of the civilian population perished in the second world war.
The government lavished Okinawa with subsidies and helped build infrastructure such as ports and roads . Before the pandemic hit, the islands had developed a booming tourism industry. Tamaki Denny, Okinawa’s 62-year-old governor, recalls that in his youth “there were mainland bars that said, ‘No Okinawans allowed.’” Now, being Okinawan is cool.
Even so, a majority would still like to see the American bases shrink. For pacifists, Ukraine’s misfortune is proof not of the need for more powerful defences, but of the risks of entanglement in great-power competition. Even supporters of the alliance fret that large concentrations of troops and materiel, and with them ordinary Okinawans, are vulnerable to Chinese missiles. During a crisis, China might also seek to exploit division between the mainland and Okinawa.
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