Volume 6 | Issue 9 | Article ID 2906 | Sep 01, 2008 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Focus

Border-Crossers and Resistance to US Military Rule in the Ryukyus, 1945-1953

Matthew R. Augustine

Border-Crossers and Resistance to US main island groups. Trade barriers with Japan Military Rule in the Ryukyus, 1945-1953 were relaxed in 1950, but the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed in 1951 reaffirmed that Matthew R. Augustine the Ryukyus would remain under US military rule, divided from Japan. By this time, the Sixty-six years after Japan’s annexation of the increasing cross-border interconnections former in 1879, in the waning between residents in the Ryukyus and months of the Asia-Pacific War, the American Okinawan and Amamian residents in Japan had military partitioned the from already given rise to an organized movement Japan. The replacement of calling for reversion to Japanese sovereignty. by US military rule in the Ryukyus from 1945 had profound implications, for residents of the How did the establishment of the military occupied islands. A major repercussion of the government and new postwar borders actually military government’s separation of theaffect the movement of residents within and Ryukyus was the enforced isolation of the four outside of the Ryukyu Islands? Conversely, to main island groups from occupied Japan. The what extent did the resistance of residents in Ryukyuan-Japanese border severed long- the Ryukyus and their effort to overcome their standing administrative and economic links, division and isolation influence the military while restrictive border controls prohibited free government’s border controls and related travel and interaction between the two sides. occupation policies? Most studies of migration Another consequence of this imposed barrier and border controls focus exclusively on the was the socio-economic problem of how to role of the nation-state in answering such provide for the livelihood and welfare of the questions, although some recent scholarship island residents, who thereby became entirely attempts to emphasize the agency of the dependent on the military government. These migrants.[1] I argue that what happened at the problems were compounded by the massive territorial boundary between Japan and the destruction, loss of life, and overallRyukyus was shaped by the interplay between displacement of residents in the wake of war, the national politics of border controls and the especially in Okinawa. actions of those who transcended these borders. This relationship was in turn strongly Residents of the Ryukyus responded byinfluenced by the emergence of the Cold War developing a thriving smuggling trade that conflict in Northeast Asia. This article will extended southwest from Okinawa to the therefore examine the interplay between these Miyako and , as well as to the domestic and international forces. and Japan in the other direction. The illicit smuggling trade became so rampant A transnational history of border-crossings can that in 1948 the military governmentbest reveal the interlinked relationship responded by implementing measures to between the various movements of people and promote economic integration among the four the border politics of the US-occupied Ryukyu

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Islands. Weaving together the US occupation of disposition of the Ryukyus, the document ended the Ryukyus with that of Japan proper will also by outlining policy proposals primarily aimed at help break down the barriers of national preventing Japan from using these islands history, which have largely ignored theagain for imperial expansion.[4] Okinawan experience, beyond the realm of geopolitical issues relating to the large-scale While the State Department continued to shape US military presence. The politics of drawing American policy towards the Ryukyus, the US and redrawing postwar borders as well as the military began producing detailed studies about cross-border networks within and beyond the the islands in preparation for occupying and Ryukyus developed in a relatively short period using them as stepping-stones in the military of time. This study therefore focuses on the conquest of Japan. On June 1, 1944 the Office most fluid stage of US military rule in the of Strategic Services (OSS) published a 147- Ryukyus, from the landing of Army forces on page intelligence report entitled The Okinawas Okinawa in April 1945 until the reversion of the of the Loochoo Islands: A Minority Group in Amami Islands in December 1953. Japan.[5] This report found that, while the Japanese government implemented a heavy- Borders, Divisions, and the Isolation of the handed assimilation policy, Okinawans were Ryukyus simultaneously discriminated against for not being fully Japanese. Consistently emphasizing Why were Okinawans arrested for illegal entry the cleavage between the Japanese and when they crossed into Japan after 1945? This Okinawans, the OSS report suggested that US question cannot be answered withoutforces might utilize this in psychological considering, briefly, how Okinawa Prefecture warfare and in the postwar occupation of was divided from Japan and renamed the Okinawa.[6] Ryukyu Islands during the Asia-Pacific War. Examining the wartime origins of Okinawa’s Recognizing the geostrategic importance of the division from Japan in turn reveals theRyukyus as a military base, the US Navy historical background behind the incorporation employed this logic of differentiating between of the Ryukyus as a Japanese prefecture. The Japanese and Okinawans as a convenient US State Department first conceived the idea of justification for advocating the separation of separating Okinawa from Japan while drafting the islands. On November 15 the Office of the the terms for Japan’s surrender. In advance of Chief of Naval Operations produced a longer the Cairo Conference in July 1943, thereport entitled Civil Affairs Handbook: Ryukyu Territorial Subcommittee prepared a series of (Loochoo) Islands. Although this 334-page policy studies on various island groupsreport differed from the OSS report in surrounding Japan, mapping out the territorial methodological approach and sources boundaries for postimperial Japan.[2] The consulted, both concluded that the Ryukyu policy document on Okinawa began by stating Islands and its people were not innately part of that the “postwar territorial adjustments in the Japan. Both texts also restored the former Far East will involve the question of the name, “Loo Choo” or “Ryukyu” in their titles, possible detachment of the Liuchiu Islands further emphasizing the identity gap between from the Japanese Empire.”[3] Consciously the Ryukyus and Japan.[7] Based on the referring to Okinawa by its ancient Chinese premise that imperial Japan had forcibly name, Liuchiu, the document reminded the assimilated Okinawans, the two sources reader that the Ryukyus were stripped of together raised the possibility of de- sovereignty when Japan forcibly annexed the assimilation to justify the separation and islands in 1879. Considering the futuremilitary rule over the Ryukyus.

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Dismantling the Japanese rulingmilitary command and began immediately structure—politically and culturally—in the cementing Okinawa’s political subordination. In Ryukyus emerged as one of the main objectives a symbolic statement on the new status of the of the US military invasion and occupation. On Ryukyus, the military government formed the March 1, 1945 on the eve of the Battle of Okinawa Advisory Council on August 15, the Okinawa, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz,same day that Emperor Hirohito announced Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, Japan’s surrender. The Council was the first issued a political and economic directive for the political organization entirely consisting of prospective military government in the Okinawans, thus breaking from the prewar Ryukyus. This detailed directive plainly spelled out that military occupation of the Ryukyus was Japanese system of denying the local necessary to destroy “Japan’s power ofpopulation political representation. Murray aggression and the military class whichquickly made it clear, however, that the fifteen controls the Japanese Empire.” The directive members of the Council would be limited to granted the military governor the power to assisting and advising military government remove from office all high ranking orofficials. policymaking officials, and to dissolve all Japanese patriotic or secret societies.[8] Then While the Ryukyus were denied the far- on April 1, 1945 Admiral Nimitz issued “United reaching democratic reforms implemented in States Navy Military Government Proclamation Japan, Murray recognized the value of a limited No. 1,” as the US Tenth Army combat units form of self-government to win Okinawan landed on . Declaring that “all acquiescence to US military rule. As a result, powers of the Government of the Japanese on September 20, 1945 the military Empire are hereby suspended,” the so-called government held elections for mayors and Nimitz Proclamation signaled the administrative detachment of the Ryukyus from assemblymen in the sixteen military Japan. The newly established Militarygovernment districts.[11] Another major event Government of the Ryukyu Islands thusin the political rehabilitation of the Ryukyus replaced imperial Japan’s control over Okinawa was achieved on April 24, 1946 when Shikiya in what would subsequently be referred to as Koshin, a respected local educator, was the “disappearance of Okinawa Prefecture.”[9] appointed civilian governor – a post denied to Okinawans under Japanese rule. Governor The separation and military occupation of the Shikiya expressed the hopes of many Ryukyu Islands marked the beginning of a Okinawans when he stated in his inaugural historical transformation from what Okinawans speech that, “in striving to build a better called the “Yamato (Japanese) period” to the Okinawa than before, we will achieve the “American period.” The dawning of thegolden age for Okinawa with our hands.”[12] American period represented not only a Such reform measures, however, masked the psychological separation from Japan but also fact that mayors, assemblymen, and governors the subordination of the Ryukyus to the US in the Ryukyus were directly under the control military. As soon as US military forces arrived in Okinawa, they began referring to Okinawans of the US military government. The limits of as “Ryukyuans” to discourage the islanders political power in the Ryukyus were apparent in from identifying themselves with Japan.[10] contrast to occupied Japan, where the local, Then on July 3, 1945, the day after the regional, and central government exercised Japanese surrender in Okinawa, Col. Charles I. greater authority in interactions with US Murray became the Deputy Commander for occupation officials.

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Kagoshima Prefecture after Japan’s military defeat. The Amami Islands since the period had been sending elected representatives to the prefectural assembly in , where offices and records of all departments of local government were located.[14] The public finance system there also correlated with and was dependent upon the larger financial structures in Kagoshima and in Tokyo. Furthermore, not only were family registries (koseki) and other official records of residents kept in Kagoshima, but Amamians strongly identified with Japan, rather than with the Ryukyus.

Despite such considerations, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the highest echelon in the US military command, decided in late December 1945 that an expanded command in the Ryukyu Islands could better secure Okinawa. The JCS was also interested in Koniya Bay in the Oshima Straits, where the former Japanese Navy had set up a deep-water base as a safe retreat in battle and from typhoons. Rear Admiral John D. Price, who replaced Col. Murray as the chief military government officer in September, initially resisted this decision, The Yamato period was thus giving way to the emphasizing the high cost of administering the American period, but where did the territorial Amami and . However, Price boundaries of the Ryukyus end and those of ultimately agreed to incorporate these islands Japan’s begin? The Supreme Commander for into the Ryukyus in exchange for additional the Allied Powers (SCAP), General Douglas personnel, civilian and military supplies, and MacArthur’s headquarters in Tokyo, pushed for improvements in communication and the 30° North Latitude as the line of territorial transportation facilities. Having secured Price’s demarcation between the two occupations in consent, on January 29, 1946 SCAP sent a Japan and the Ryukyus. This proposed border, directive to the Japanese government, officially however, was highly problematic forseparating the Amami and Tokara Islands from geopolitical and socioeconomic reasons. Most Japan and adding them as a part of the importantly, the establishment of the 30th Northern Ryukyus.[15] parallel border meant that territory in addition to Okinawa, specifically the Amami Islands and The newly expanded Ryukyu Islands was part of the Tokara Islands, would be separated initially marked by internal borders that from Japan.[13] Although the US Navy’s administratively separated Okinawa from command in the Ryukyus was interested in Amami and the other island groups. After taking over the Japanese naval base in Amami military government teams from Okinawa Oshima, these islands continued politically and assumed control of the Miyako and Yaeyama economically to function as an integral part of Islands in December 1945 and the Amami

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Islands in March 1946, autonomous governing that resulted from the imposition of stringent bodies were formed in each of the island travel restrictions in Okinawa, then applied groups. Like the Okinawa Advisory Council, later to the other island groups. Such however, these so-called “provisionalrestrictions against population movements governments” were powerless and strictly were first implemented during the Battle of controlled by the military governments set up Okinawa when the Tenth Army herded local in each of these island groups. The military residents into refugee camps. By the end of government in Okinawa thus consciously hostilities, most of the 320,000 Okinawans who divided the Ryukyu Islands geographically and survived the war found themselves confined politically into four provisional governments, as within one of twelve such district camps on the can be seen in Figure 2: one in the Northern island. Although the military government Ryukyus (Amami Islands), one in Okinawa, and initiated the resettlement program in October two in the Southern Ryukyus (Miyako and 1945, in reality, much of Okinawa was still Yaeyama Islands).[16] Under close guidance by occupied by US Army units. Tens of thousands the military government, these four separate of Okinawans were forced to relocate to one or island districts established autonomousmore camps and to live in tents for months and political structures as well as autonomous even years. In the face of US military bases economies. Furthermore, in an archipelago with ubiquitous signs that read “OFF LIMITS,” noted for its diversity of distinctive languages the number of civilians authorized to cross into and cultures, the postwar divisions reinforced a and out of designated districts was limited to a strong sense of island and island groupminimum.[19] When permission was granted, identities that distinguished, for example, the Okinawans had to register and carry with them Amamians from the Okinawans. These four special identification passes so that the military island groups, collectively renamed the Ryukyu government could closely monitor their Islands, were thus marked by multiple lines of movements. Okinawa had thus become an division, from Japan and from each other.[17] island off limits to its own native inhabitants.[20]

Population control under American military rule extended to the rest of the Ryukyus which, unlike Okinawa, had experienced neither a ground invasion nor forced seizures of land for use as military bases. The residents of Amami Oshima therefore were dismayed when rigid travel restrictions were suddenly imposed. On February 4, 1946, the military government ordered what amounted to a naval blockade of the Amami Islands, terminating all interaction between Amami and mainland Japan. As a result of the multiple divisions that Specifically, this directive entailed that: 1) characterized the Ryukyu Islands, residents unrestricted travel between Japan and Amami began their lives in the immediate postwar would no longer be permitted; 2) people who years cut off from long-established economic, desired to travel between Japan and Amami cultural, and kinship bonds within the Ryukyus would be limited to those intending to establish and beyond. The political and economicpermanent domicile (eijû) in either place; 3) isolation, which proved disastrous forthose granted permission to travel had to many,[18] was intensified by the social isolation follow provisions set up for the planned

5 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF repatriation program. Shortly thereafter, the Prefecture until the end of the Pacific War was free export and import of goods to and from large-scale international and domestic Japan was also banned.[21] Although Amami migration. In the prewar period, between 40-60 was now reincorporated into the Ryukyus, percent of the average income of Okinawans similar restrictions applied to all forms of derived from remittances sent by international interactions with Okinawa.[22] This was the migrants. Through such remittances, return beginning of what has been referred to as the migration, and by sending foreign-born isolation period in Amami’s postwar history. children to be educated in their native villages, Okinawan immigrants established what Edith The division and isolation of the Ryukyu Islands Kaneshiro has called “transnational from Japan was enforced by the military families.”[26] Networks of families and friends government’s strict border control policies. In also spread to the major industrial centers in the Ryukyus, as in Japan, the only border- Japan, from where temporary migrants crossings permitted by the military government returned with their savings. This system of was the voluntary repatriation of people transnational and domestic networks, however, displaced by the war. Thus, while the military ceased to function in the wake of the Battle of government and SCAP both stronglyOkinawa and remained suspended throughout encouraged the two-way flow of homeward- the initial years of US military rule.[27] By bound repatriation, all other forms oflimiting contact with the outside world, the unauthorized immigration and emigration were border controls of the military government thus deemed illegal.[23] In July 1946, the Army severely disrupted everyday life within the replaced the Navy in charge of the military Ryukyus. government, and the newly reorganized Ryukyus Command (RYCOM) improved joint The isolation of the US-occupied Ryukyu border control measures with the ArmyIslands compounded the residents’ daily command in Japan.[24] For example, ships struggle for survival in the desolation left seized for unauthorized entry into Japan were behind by the recent war. For example, food returned to the Ryukyus under escort of the US shortage quickly emerged as an acute problem Eighth Army. Once deported to the Ryukyus, on Okinawa Island, where the bombardment of the military government tried the crew,heavy artillery reduced agricultural and fishing passengers, and owners of the confiscated production to a bare minimum. Commercial vessels in appropriate courts for unauthorized livestock such as hogs, chickens and goats, exit or illegal trafficking.[25] Such restrictive constituting an integral part of the Okinawan border control measures were thus instituted diet, had also been mostly slaughtered. Such by occupation authorities on either side of the total devastation left Okinawan residents in 30th parallel in large part to reinforce the refugee camps completely dependent upon the separation of the Ryukyus from Japan. US military for food as well as clothing and shelter. In July 1945 the military government Intra-Ryukyuan Smuggling and thewas feeding an average of 295,000 Okinawans “Yamato Trade” every day, and by September seventy-five percent of the food supplied was covered by The establishment of stringent border controls rations. The military government was unable to fundamentally transformed the socio-economic support the growing demand for imported foundations of the Ryukyu Islands, which had rations, leading to a reduction in the rations historically relied on maintaining contact with allotted to each individual.[28] Hungry the outside world. In modern times, one of the Okinawans rummaged through cans of leftover most prominent characteristics of Okinawa food near US military bases, watering down the

6 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF collected contents to eat as soup. Desperate to the military government to work inside the supplement their food with cooking oils and bases as construction workers, drivers, cooks, fats, some Okinawans were even known to have and housemaids discovered bountiful goods used automobile oil to deep-fry what was that were denied to them. Inside the barb-wire commonly referred to by locals as “Mobil fencing, they found everything from non- tempura.”[29] rationed foods such as meat, fish, canned fruit, and milk, to durable clothing such as military Okinawans continued to rely on rations even fatigues, dress uniforms (HBTs), and shoes, as after they left the refugee camps, although well as prized tools such as nails, hammers, many also turned to the emerging black and shovels. Many Okinawans who had access markets. The military government set up local inside the military bases began taking small rationing boards in every community to receive amounts of these surplus supplies, calling them all available agricultural products forsenka, literally meaning “fruits of war.” Before redistribution on the basis of need. By early long, pilfering goods from US military depots 1946, however, the communally grown food became a widely practiced trade referred to as and supplemental goods were no longer “winning senka,” as if they were engaging in a rationed for free but began to be sold as a part battle for survival. In fact, winning senka was of postwar Okinawa’s transition back into a so common at the time that there was a saying, money economy. In May the military“men search for senka while women engage in government introduced a new monetaryprostitution,” reflecting local survival strategies system, exchanging Japanese yen currency still in response to the dire conditions in immediate in circulation to the equivalent amount in Type postwar Okinawa.[31] “B” yen, a form of Occupation script printed by the US military.[30] This controlled economy, The appropriation of surplus supplies from US however, did little to prevent a virtual state of military depots was followed by its bankruptcy from unfolding in the face of a redistribution in Okinawan society, usually growing black market trade. Stolen rations and through the black markets, but also through supplies from US military depots that flowed kinship networks. Okinawan employees at into the black markets were bartered or sold military bases often shared their hard-won with commodities smuggled into Okinawa to senka with their friends and family, but they compensate for the shortage of sundries. A sold the bulk of their goods to black market “double currency” thus emerged between the brokers who traded them with other smuggled official price and the black market price, commodities for a profit. A popular Ryukyuan resulting in rampant inflation that plagued the poem captures the distribution of labor in this entire RyÅ«kyÅ«an economy. underground trade, reflecting social conditions in Okinawa at the time: “best pickings at the While black markets became a ubiquitous part top, black markets in the middle, we at the of everyday life throughout the Ryukyu Islands, bottom must win senka.” In other words, the those in Okinawa boasted an abundance of US upper class clung to the US military for access military supplies. In the waning months of war, to power and prestige, the middle class could the US Tenth Army had unloaded large secure a decent living by trading black market quantities of surplus goods in Okinawa that goods, so the lower class was left to fend for could enable over a half-year of sustained themselves in pursuit of senka.[32] In general, battle against Japan. Since the anticipated most of the senka was supplied by those who ground warfare in mainland Japan did not worked inside or lived nearby the major materialize, these items were left stockpiled military bases in central Okinawa, then flowed inside the base camps. Okinawans employed by into the thriving black markets in southern

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Okinawa. The emergence of new social classes Before long a specialization of smuggled goods in postwar Okinawa thus developedemerged in the Ryukyu Islands according to the simultaneously with the geographicalthree main routes. Uehara Jingoro’s colorful distribution of the US military bases and black description of the variety of goods bartered and markets. sold along these routes provides a glimpse into the regional scale of the increasingly well- organized networks of underground economic interaction. Uehara maintained that the Taiwan route involving Miyako and Yaeyama islanders smuggled in large quantities of rice, sugar, and saccharine products. Sometimes foodstuff was supplemented by precious materials such as tires and rubber tubing used for bicycles that were otherwise unavailable in the Ryukyus. These goods were exchanged for senka such as military uniforms, wool blankets, and rations of canned foods.[35]

While civil war raged in neighboring China, the Hong Kong route involved exporting another form of senka – munitions such as cartridge The black market economy in Okinawa could cases, as well as motors, engine oil and not be contained within the artificial borders gasoline – that were recycled for use on the set up by the military government, butbattlefield. In exchange, British-made shoes, extended to other parts of the Ryukyus and hats, suits, as well as Hong Kong dollars were beyond. According to Uehara Jingoro, a native imported into the Ryukyus. Finally, American of Itoman in southern Okinawa who was medical supplies, especially new antibiotics like involved in the thriving black market trade, streptomycin for tuberculosis, sulfa drugs, and three main smuggling routes linked themorphine were in high demand on the Japan Ryukyus to the rest of the region. One was the route. These were bartered for Japanese-made Taiwan route that spread from Miyako and pots and pans, crockery, carpentry tools, and Yaeyama, using Yonaguni Island as a relay lumber for building houses. As Uehara pointed station. The Hong Kong route was a large-scale out, the specialization of commodities traded extension of this Taiwan route. The third was along these routes reflected the early postwar the Japan route, otherwise known as the conditions in each of these places. The “Yamato trade,” spreading from Amami and industriousness of the residents in the Ryukyus Tokara with Island as its main can be observed here by their ability to turn base.[33] In other words, Yonaguni, located on senka, entirely consisting of the US military the southern border with Taiwan, andimports to the islands, into a valuable export Kuchinoshima to the north along the 30th commodity. parallel border with Japan, prospered as the north-south relay stations for smuggling in the The biggest reason that cross-border Ryukyus.[34] In defiance of the militarysmuggling was a thriving business through the government, residents of the Ryukyus were early 1950s was precisely because the Ryukyus thus re-inventing new domestic andwere cut off and isolated, both from the outside transnational networks of regional trade, this world and from each other. As a result, time based on a black market economy. smuggling during this period can be broadly

8 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF distinguished between what might be called meant that businesses were permitted to “international” smuggling involving Taiwan, engage in free trade, to a limited degree, and Hong Kong and even Japan, and “intra- inter-island trade within the Ryukyus was Ryukyuan” smuggling involving the four main slowly reactivated. The material needs that island groups. The latter in particular acted as drove so many residents to join the vast and a catalyst that helped economically reintegrate growing smuggling networks at last convinced the Ryukus at a time when inter-island trade American authorities to dismantle some of the was treated more like foreign trade. Those who internal barriers that debilitated the Ryukyuan participated in the intra-Ryukyuan operations, economy. such as Ibusuki Kenshichi from of the Amami Islands, believed they wereMeanwhile, the international smuggling trade promoting free trade, not smuggling. Ibusuki continued to expand through the development was twenty-one years of age when he began of tight-knit island networks. One outstanding buying goods from black marketers in Amami example of such a smuggling network was the and reselling them for a profit in Okinawa, Itoman fishing industry based on the southern among other places. On several occasions, tip of Okinawa. Before the war, the Itoman Ibusuki arranged with his friends who were fishermen were well known for establishing employed as the crew aboard the official ferry wide-ranging fishing communities as far north liner to assist him in loading on board black as Izu in Japan and the Ogasawara Islands, and market goods that he was sneaking into and as far south as the Philippines, Micronesian out of Okinawa. Ibusuki claims that smugglers islands, and Singapore.[39] The Itoman like himself “supported and reinvigorated the fishermen utilized these prewar networks to Amamian economy in the immediate postwar build smuggling bases not only within the years.”[36] Ryukyus but all along the Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan routes. Using profits made from the Intra-Ryukyuan smuggling became solucrative Hong Kong route, the Itoman widespread that the military government fishermen expanded their smuggling activities introduced a series of reform measures in 1948 to in the Amami Islands en route to to deal with the poor state of the economy. One Kagoshima, where they could obtain Japanese of the main tasks was to fight rampant goods. In Kagoshima, the Itoman community inflation, caused in part by large amounts of managed inconspicuous inns near the harbor Japanese yen smuggled back into the Ryukyus for accommodating fellow islanders, thus by repatriates, thus further fueling the black evading the watchful eyes of Japanese police. markets. In May the military government With money earned from rent, the Itoman established the Bank of the? Ryukyus,residents of Kagoshima obtained second-hand functioning as the central bank for the four fishing boats that could be used as smuggling main island groups and thus better regulating ships.[40] Kagoshima thus became the front the flow of money. Then in July the B-Yen gate of the so-called Yamato trade, which currency became the unitary legal tender quickly extended to other major Japanese throughout the Ryukyus, and all Japanese yen harbor cities such as Osaka, Kobe, Hamamatsu, still in circulation was converted into this and Yokohama. military scrip.[37] In October military government officials finally began to re-The large profits made by those engaged in the introduce a free enterprise system in the Yamato trade highlight the stark contrast Ryukyus. This meant eliminating price controls between occupied Japan and the Ryukyu and rationing “in an attempt to transform the Islands in their respective economies. An Asahi black markets into a white market.”[38] It also Shinbun article dated December 31, 1949

9 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF reported that incidents of smuggling and the Ryukyu archipelago . . . then it bends back monetary value involved in the Hanshin area through Japan and the Aleutian island chain to that year reached the highest levels since the Alaska.”[43] The delineation of America’s new end of the war. The goods seized included Cold War boundaries in the region also rubber, drugs, sugar, and machine parts worth signaled an end to the isolation of the Ryukyus an estimated total of 73 million yen at market and the beginning of militarization there. price, but which could have been sold on the Nowhere was this more dramatically effected black market for as high as 500 million yen.[41] than in Okinawa, which was transformed into a Even though the overall pace of postwar huge military base complex that would soon be recovery was still sluggish at this point, Japan dubbed the “Keystone of the Pacific.” remained the land of economic opportunity in the region, attracting smugglers from nearby The internal and external boundaries of the territories. In contrast, the division andRyukyus had to be reconfigured after the NSC isolation of the Ryukyus, and US preoccupation in early May 1949 called for maximizing with the islands as a military base, had left the political and economic security in the islands. entire archipelago a neglected wasteland with Maj. Gen. Joseph R. Sheetz began spearheading little prospect of economic growth. Four years a comprehensive set of reform measures as after the US military invasion the islands had soon as he arrived in Okinawa as the new not approached self-sufficiency in foodCommanding General of RYCOM. On October production, and the rationing system continued 1, Sheetz issued a directive to establish a to feed a large portion of the population.[42] centralized Ryukyuan government in order to The efforts of many residents to escape from reduce the autonomous power of local civilian such wretched circumstances lured them into governments in the four main island the profitable Yamato trade, thus building groups.[44] The Provisional Government underground networks that linked them back to Assembly called for in this directive eventually Japan again. paved the way for the federal system embodied in the Government of the Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa: ‘Keystone of the Pacific’ and which gathered representatives from the four America’s Cold War Boundaries gunto governments.[45] Sheetz also called for a reorganization of the military government After years of apathy and neglect that earned along the lines of SCAP’s “indirect” US-occupied Okinawa the nickname, the administration in Japan, so that American civil “forgotten island,” the Cold War unfolding in administrators could operate through the Asia-Pacific region helped determine the Ryukyuan governmental authorities. As a future political disposition of the Ryukyu result, when the United States Civil Islands. US policy towards the Ryukyus was Administration for the Ryukyus (USCAR) overhauled in October 1948 when the National replaced the military government in December Security Council (NSC) decided to develop the 1950, it provided counterparts for subordinate archipelago as a strategic base for containing departments in the Ryukyuan government.[46] the spread of communism in the region. This Furthermore, Sheetz implemented new fateful decision meant that the Ryukyus were economic regulations aimed at stabilizing soon included in the American defenseinflation and eliminating smuggling and black perimeter, thus militarily linking the islands to market activities. In February 1950 the Japan. In March 1949 General MacArthur Ryukyu-Japan Commercial Trade Agreement referred to the Asia-Pacific as “an Anglo-Saxon was signed, resulting in the lawful circulation lake” in which the US line of defense “starts of daily convenience goods and thus decreasing from the Philippines and continues through the the significance of smuggling among

10 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF residents.[47] such as manufactured metal products and finished textile goods, as well as services such Although residents of the Ryukyus welcomed as repairs on US tanks and aircraft.[51] This what they called “the just governance of accounted for what were called the “textile Sheetz” (Shiitsu zensei),[48] in reality the industry boom” and the “metal industry boom” groundwork for the development of a military in Japan where standards of living gradually base economy in Okinawa was being laid. increased. Starting with Sheetz, to the extent that American policies were directed towardThe Ryukyu Islands also experienced a war economic growth and welfare, they pivoted on boom, especially in the form of a “construction the construction of US military bases and their boom,” albeit with a catch. Construction of US related industries. Americans first began military bases in Okinawa was mostly pouring money into Okinawa shortly after the contracted out to mainland Japanese companies founding of the People’s Republic of China in as well as those from the United States. The October 1949. Not only did Okinawa receive Japanese government aggressively financed the Pentagon’s $58 million program forJapanese construction companies, which strengthening its military reservations but also accounted for more than half of those doing the increased appropriations authorized by the US construction, reaping great profits. The local Congress in the Government and Relief in population primarily benefited from the Occupied Areas (GARIOA) funds.[49] The newly construction boom beginning in November brokered Ryukyu-Japan Commercial Trade 1951, when thousands of Okinawan laborers Agreement secured the GARIOA funds for the were hired for construction projects.[52] The construction of military bases in Okinawa, low cost of local labor was the most valuable much of which was spent on importing large commodity in the Ryukyus as far as the amounts of Japanese products. This carefully American military was concerned. By one crafted appropriation of government funds was measure, Japanese laborers on US military dubbed the “double usage of the dollar,” aimed bases in Okinawa earned, at a minimum, five at boosting both Okinawa’s and Japan’stimes more than Okinawan laborers.[53] In recovery, with Japanese industry providing the contrast to the revival of the Japanese engine of growth.[50] economic powerhouse, Okinawa was thus being rebuilt within the framework of an economy The outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, centered and dependent on the US military 1950 accelerated the militarization of Okinawa bases. and the re-integration of the Ryukyu Islands into the Japanese economy, two policies that Besides their labor power, Okinawans had one went hand-in-hand. Both the Ryukyus and other distinctive commodity for export – scrap Japan immediately became an integral part of metal – which accounted for the so-called the American war effort as forward deployment “scrap boom.” The Battle of Okinawa, bases for B-29 bombers and new F-61s and otherwise known as the “storm of steel,” had F-80s taking off for the Korean peninsula. left behind the rusting skeletons of countless Although both occupied areas also provided American tanks, jeeps, combat planes, and half- goods and services calledtokuju (“special sunken vessels.[54] RYCOM initially offered procurements”) for US military forces,Nationalist China these rusted relics of war economic recovery based on the resulting war machines so that they could be recycled and boom developed unevenly in each place. Most used against the Communists in the Chinese industrial sectors in Japan greatly benefited civil war. Enterprising Okinawans profited from from American dollars spent on these tokuju, smuggling out their share of scrap metals

11 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF through the Hong Kong route. The Korean War concerned with another element in illegal then replaced the Chinese civil war as a border-crossings; namely, what they perceived greater source of profit, as Japanese industries to be “communist infiltration” into their were willing to pay a high price for scrap that respective zones of occupation. SCAP’s Civil could be converted into their own tokuju Intelligence Section, established in early 1948, industry.[55] Before long, entire families of functioned like the CIA in occupied Japan.[60] Okinawans left home together to gather this The primary responsibility of its Counter- valuable commodity, this time smuggling it via Intelligence Corps (CIC) was to identify and the Japan route. Although USCAR strictly monitor “subversive elements” who might prohibited smuggling what they claimed was commit “acts prejudicial to the Occupation.” the property of the US military, residents The CIC in the Ryukyu Islands was under the continued to dig up scrap metal wherever they control of RYCOM. Like the Far East Command could find it and sold it on the blackbased in Japan, RYCOM was thoroughly market.[56] committed to the containment of “communism” while preventing political activists from The US military redoubled its efforts to stamp infiltrating its command. According to Kinjo out smuggling during the Korean War,Ryoan, who was employed by the CIC, “the CIC especially after valuable scrap metals and even was not interested in smuggling per se. senka such as pistols, machine guns, and Instead, it was concerned with people who grenades began to be stolen and smuggled out entered [the Ryukyus] from the outside, since of Okinawa.[57] Just four days after the spies were using smuggling ships to move outbreak of the Korean War, the military about.”[61] The military government lent the government announced new regulationsfour Gunto police patrol cruisers to apprehend against local residents leaving the Ryukyu smugglers, while replacing ineffective civilian Islands without permission. The announcement police with American Military Police and CIC reflected US concerns that non-ferrous metals personnel. As a result of these stepped-up such as bombshells and other ammunition measures, an Okinawa Times article quoted smuggled out of their military bases might end official figures of captured smuggling vessels up in enemy hands. On August 31, 1950 the jumping from 19 in 1949 to 109 ships just military government ordered all localthrough August of 1950.[62] newspapers such as the Uruma Shinpo (later, the Ryukyu Shimpo) to publish warnings In the midst of growing concern over against smugglers, illegal entrants, and owners “communist infiltration,” a new set of travel and crew of unregistered ships.[58] In addition, regulations euphemistically called the the US Navy periodically mobilized landing “passport system” replaced repatriation ships (LSTs) – pilot ships of over 15,000-ton between Japan and the Ryukyu Islands. class – for apprehending smugglers. The Allegedly granting special permission to a defense perimeter of these ships covered limited number of temporary visitors “for Kuchinoshima to the north to the shores of compassionate reasons,” in reality SCAP and Yonaguni to the south.[59] In fact, maintaining military government authorities began strict control over these islands on the northern screening out political activists branded as and southern borders of the Ryukyu Islands agitators. Starting in August 1949 travel from emerged as a top priority for the military Japan to the Ryukyus was permitted to government during the Korean War. individuals who were not deemed a security risk, based on lengthy investigations into their From about 1948, military government and backgrounds. In order to obtain a travel permit, SCAP officials alike became increasingly a police report had to be filed to determine

12 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF whether or not the applicant had any political sides. The possibility of the Ryukyus’ return to affiliations deemed detrimental to American Japanese sovereignty was anathema to the US interests. Upon receiving the securitymilitary, which aimed to retain the chain of clearance, applicants were required to sign an islands as a valuable strategic asset. In the oath swearing that they were entering the immediate postwar years, most residents in the Ryukyus for legitimate purposes such as Ryukyus were too preoccupied with rebuilding visiting family members. In order to emphasize their lives to give much thought to political this point, travelers were warned that they issues, and the few who did endorsed autonomy would be under constant surveillance, and that and independence from Japan. Nevertheless, by any violations would receive immediatethe early 1950s the reversion issue rapidly punishment.[63] Similar regulations were emerged to the forefront of public debate in adopted in December 1949 for residents of the Okinawa, and those who had journeyed to Ryukyus requesting special permission to travel Japan, legally or otherwise, helped spur on this to Japan. process.

The passport system highlighted unresolved Some of the earliest border-crossers were questions regarding the legal status ofactually political activists who later became residents in the Ryukyus. When Okinawan and influential figures in the reversion movement. Amamian residents of Japan traveled to their Yoshida Shien, for example, was working for home islands, they were required to go through the Okinawa Prefectural Office in Fukuoka, immigration procedures. A RyukyuanJapan, when he illegally entered Okinawa in immigration official inspected their passports late July 1946.[65] The Prefectural Office issued by the Japanese government, which entrusted Yoshida to embark on a secret listed them as Japanese nationals. On the other mission to investigate postwar conditions in hand, when Ryukyuan residents traveled to Okinawa, since little information was available Japan, they carried passports issued by USCAR in Japan about what had transpired since the that listed each individual as a “Resident of the Battle of Okinawa. Entering Okinawa aboard a Ryukyus,” without reference to theirsmall steam-engine boat disguised as a fishing nationality. Although the Japanese government vessel, Yoshida attempted to meet Shikiya pushed to have residents in the Ryukyus Koshin, his prewar colleague and then- recognized as Japanese nationals,[64] SCAP Governor of Okinawa. Although Shikiya and USCAR avoided addressing complicated declined to be seen publicly with a “stowaway” legal questions surrounding nationality and like Yoshida, other Okinawan officials secretly citizenship. Furthermore, CIC agentsexchanged information about existing monitoring immigration procedures were more conditions in Okinawa and Japan.[66] Upon his concerned about the political orientation and return to Japan, Yoshida was appointed as the activities of border-crossers, including those new director of the Tokyo Office of Okinawa who espoused reversion of the Ryukyus to Prefecture. Having witnessed firsthand the Japan. devastation and poor living conditions in Okinawa under US military rule, Yoshida soon Cross-Border Reversion Movements in became an enthusiastic supporter of reversion Okinawa and Amami to Japan.

The incorporation of the RyukyuIslands into Yoshida Shien was one of the few Okinawan America’s Cold War boundaries meant closer residents in Japan who advocated reversion in ties and greater access to Japan, but the border the early postwar years, but hardly any at the 30th parallel still separated the two individual or organization within the Ryukyu

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Islands did so.[67] Instead, the Navy’s initial worked together with Tokuda or were policy of dismantling Japanese institutions won otherwise involved in the socialist movement the support of many Okinawans, as reflected in and union activism in prewar Japan also Governor Shikiya’s inaugural addressrepatriated to Okinawa. Many joined forces promising to replace Japanese rule by building with Senaga Kamejiro and the People’s a “golden age for Okinawa.” However, as Party.[70] As a result, CIC officials subjected Okinawans eager for self-government began to the People’s Party to constant surveillance, criticize Shikiya for failing to deliver on this although no evidence was uncovered at the promise, the growing opposition against him time that directly linked the Party to the JCP. led to the formation of the first political parties in 1947. On June 15, Nakasone Genwa founded Repatriation produced even more direct the Okinawa Democratic Alliance (Minshu political links between progressive forces in the domei), advocating greater autonomy for Amami Islands and Japan, leading to Amamian Okinawa, independent from Japan. On July 20, support for reversion long before any political Senaga Kamejiro founded the Okinawa People’s organization did so in Okinawa. In December Party (Jinminto), which was even more explicit 1946, for example, JCP member and Amami about the need to “destroy Japan’s military native Kuru Gizo repatriated from Japan, after clique,” “establish popular government,” and receiving Tokuda Kyûichi’s blessing to establish “liberate the Okinawan race.”[68] These and a communist party in Amami.[71] The following other political parties initially shunned Japan April Kuru formed the underground Amami while welcoming American-style democracy, Communist Party (ACP) with the help of although their quest for autonomy would later Nakamura Yasutaro, editor of Amami Times put them on a collision course with the military and a Marxist who had endured years of government. incarceration for his beliefs in prewar Japan. Nakamura subsequently managed to smuggle The repatriation of progressive Okinawans who in official publications of the JCP, such as were politically active in Japan provedZen’ei and Akahata, aboard repatriation ships instrumental in the formation of opposition coming into Amami.[72] Although the JCP parties. In particular, members of the League officially advocated independence for Okinawa of Okinawans (Okinawajin renmei) in Japan and Amami, the ACP came out in support of who repatriated after mid-1946 lentreversion, due to the strong sense of organizational experience to emerging local identification with Japan it shared with the political figures like Nakasone Genwa in majority of fellow islanders. In response to the forming the Democratic Alliance.[69] The news of a possible early peace treaty between League was formed on November 11, 1945 to the Allied Powers and Japan in mid-1947, an protect the livelihood of Okinawan residents ACP-affiliated youth organization helped throughout Japan, and soon espoused political organize a public rally where many endorsed independence for Okinawa. The League was Amami’s return to Japan.[73] Several years also closely associated with the Japanlater, the ACP joined other political and social Communist Party (JCP), which was reemerging organizations in Amami that pushed forward as a powerful political force under thethe reversion issue to the forefront of their leadership of Tokuda Kyuichi, himself an common agenda. Okinawan who supported independence. At Tokuda’s initiative, in February 1946 the JCP Popular resistance against the military sent a message to the League of Okinawans in government’s empty promises of Tokyo celebrating the detachment of the democratization, coupled with poor economic Ryukyus from Japan. Okinawans who either conditions, led to protests in 1948-49 that

14 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF evolved into the reversion movement of the “father of Okinawans studies,” this book was early 1950s.[74] In August 1948, for example, the culmination of Iha’s lifelong work on Okinawa dockworkers at the US Navy port in Okinawa.[79] At a time when Okinawa lay in organized a general strike to protest ruins and under US military rule, these against harsh labor conditions and low wages. smuggled books served as history textbooks for When RYCOM responded by closing allteachers and a source of pride and inspiration community ration stores and threatened to cut for Okinawan activists. Often becoming off food rations, the labor strike quickly teachers upon illegally entering Okinawa, transformed into a food ration strugglemembers of the Youth Alliance and the League (shokuryo toso) throughout Okinawa.[75] of Okinawans smuggled in copies of the new Although the ration stores were eventually pacifist and democratic Constitution of reopened, RYCOM announced in January 1949 Japan.[80] Thus finding a way to keep one that the price of rationed food would be another informed, schoolteachers soon increased by three times in order to reign in emerged as central figures in the reversion chronic inflation. Nakasone Genwa and Senaga movement. Kamejiro immediately formed a popular front, organizing mass meetings and circulating As Okinawan sociologist Ishihara Masaie petitions. They ultimately convinced all twenty- demonstrated in his seminal work on senka and three members of the Okinawa Assembly to smuggling, the Yamato trade evolved into social resign in protest.[76] The resulting food price and political networks between residents in the crisis transcended not only class and politics Ryukyus and Okinawan residents in Japan.[81] but also geographical boundaries among the Countering the censorship imposed by U.S four main island groups, affecting residents military authorities on either side of the 30th throughout the Ryukyus. In Amami Oshima, parallel, Okinawan smugglers brought back public officials who could no longer afford to uncensored information about Japan, both in live off of their low salaries resigned and joined print and by word of mouth. These returning the black market, and some police officers even border-crossers spread the news, based on reportedly walked off of their job to become their first-hand accounts, of SCAP’s captains of smuggling boats.[77] democratization as well as the economic recovery of Japan that benefited Okinawan While the majority of those who engaged in residents there but which was denied in the smuggling were motivated by economicRyukyus under US military rule. They reasons, increasing numbers did so as a form of particularly noted the booming Japanese political and social protest. For example, the economy during the Korean War, making military government’s neglect of basicOkinawans aware of the widening gap between educational needs drove teachers to join the Japan proper and the Ryukyuan economy. Once Yamato trade route to smuggle in teaching local residents recognized that US policy materials. In Amami Oshima, an incident towards the Ryukyus was centered involving two schoolteachers who smuggled overwhelmingly on protecting its military back Japanese textbooks in October 1948 assets, they began voicing their desire for received an outpouring of public sympathy reversion in order to gain political rights and when they were fired from their jobs for economic aid from the Japanese government. illegally entering Japan.[78] Then in December 1949, a member of the Okinawa Youth Alliance Although a few individuals in Japan had been in Japan smuggled into Okinawa sixty copies of advocating the return of the Ryukyu Islands to Iha Fuyu’s Okinawa Rekishi Monogatari (The Japan, Amamian organizations were the first to Tale of Okinawan History). Known as the lead a sustained reversion movement. As soon

15 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF as news broke in late 1949 that the Allied Conference.[84] Although Okinawan activists powers were engaged in peace treatyharnessed their own cross-border networks negotiations with the Japanese government, with pro-reversion forces in Japan, they were Amami residents and those in Japan began also spurred on by the surging momentum of organizing to support reversion. Shortly after the reversion movement in neighboring Amami. an Amami youth group in Miyazaki Prefecture News of the latest developments in Amami was publicly appealed for reversion in mid-February readily accessible, since as many as 50,000 1950, a student association in Tokyo and a Amamians entered Okinawa between 1950 and youth group in Naze, Amami ÅŒshima1953 to work as laborers on the expanding US responded by holding similar rallies.[82] These military bases. groups also initiated petition drives that were soon adopted by the Zenkoku Amami Rengo Political activists from Amami as well as from Sohonbu (Federation of Amami Islanders’ Japan often disguised themselves as military Association), or Amami Rengo. On November base laborers in order to enter Okinawa, thus 15 the Amami Rengo sent a four-page petition helping to spread the reversion movement to General MacArthur explaining thatthroughout the Ryukyus.[85] The defiant act of Amamians were Japanese nationals, notcrossing the 30th parallel border once again Ryukyuans, and that they opposed theserved an important role in the Amami indefinite continuation of US military rule. The reversion movement after the radio broadcast Amami Oshima Nihon Fukki Kyogikai (Amami on July 10, 1951 detailed the final draft of the Oshima Reversion Council), or Fukkyo, formed Peace Treaty. According to Article 3 of the on February 14, 1951, immediately began draft, the United States sought the right to collecting signatures of all residents over the place the Ryukyu Islands under American age of fourteen calling for the return of the trusteeship, implying that the islands’ islands to Japan. By April 10, Fukkyo had executive, legislative, and judiciary powers collected 139,348 signatures, or 99.8 percent could indefinitely be controlled by the US. of Amamians who supported the early return to Upon organizing two large-scale citizen rallies, Japan.[83] Fukkyo began conducting island-wide hunger strikes and decided to send delegates to Japan Just as the underground flow of people and to make one final appeal for reversion directly information between Japan and Amami helped to Prime Minister Yoshida. On August 10, unite the cross-border reversion movement, a eleven Fukkyo delegates from Amami illegally similar strategy was soon adopted in Okinawa. entered Japan to join hands with Amami Rengo, More than a month after the Fukkyo was capturing national attention at this critical formed in Amami, the first organized reversion stage in the reversion movement.[86] One movement was launched in Okinawa on March group was arrested and imprisoned for illegal 29 with the formation of the Okinawa Nihon entry, while the others managed to reach the Fukki Sokushin Kiseikai (Association for the Fukkyo office in Kagoshima, from where they Promotion of Reversion to Japan), or Fukki found safe passage through Osaka before Kiseikai. Following the example set by Fukkyo arriving at the Amami Rengo’s Tokyo in Amami, the Fukki Kiseikai circulatedheadquarters. In the meantime, members of the petitions throughout Okinawa calling for Fukkyo and Amami Rengo contacted major reversion to Japan. By July 1951, 199,000 Japanese news agencies such as Asahi and people, roughly 72 percent of the electorate in Mainichi, which gave extensive and Okinawa had signed these petitions, which sympathetic coverage to these delegates.[87] were sent to Japanese and American delegates Riding a wave of increasing public support, the attending the San Francisco Peacedelegates from Amami were able to meet with

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Prime Minister Yoshida, Japanese DietRyukyus. members, and SCAP officials, making a strong case for the reversion of their islands when Seven and a half years after the detachment of Japan regained its sovereignty. the Amami Islands from , the US government in August 1953 declared its Conclusions: The Ryukyu Islands Re- intention to return the island group to Japan. divided By then the Joint Chiefs of Staff were convinced that the Northern Ryukyus were of minor The San Francisco Peace Treaty signed on strategic value, especially in contrast to September 8, 1951 spelled the end of the Allied Okinawa, the “keystone of the Pacific.” The US , and its Article 3military’s initial interest in the deep-water base legitimated the division between postwar Japan at Koniya Bay in the Oshima Straits was and the Ryukyu Islands. Although mostultimately deemed irrelevant. On the other residents of the Ryukyus were disillusioned by hand, RYCOM from late 1949 put more value in the prospects of indefinite American military the airfields that were being developed in rule, the reversion movement in Amami Oshima central and southern Okinawa. The fact that only intensified as a result. In fact, the on-going the rugged and mountainous terrain of Amami Amami reversion movement was receiving such Oshima was unsuitable for airfields made it sympathetic media coverage in Japan and easier for the US military to dispense with the abroad that it prompted the US government to territory. When the Amami Islands finally conduct two investigative studies of the Amami reverted to Japan on December 25, 1953, the Islands. The first was a public opinion survey external boundary of the Ryukyu Islands compiled by USCAR’s Civil Information and retracted to the archipelago south of 27° North Education (CI&E) office, which found that the Latitude.[90] The Amami Islands were thus overwhelming support for reversion was due to transferred across the new borderline and back a combination of: a) feelings of close affinity to Japan, while the Ryukyus remained under and identification with the and American military rule. Although the US culture; b) a tendency to dissociate Amami military’s strategic and security policies were from Okinawa and other Guntos; c) a belief that paramount, the Amami reversion movement a trusteeship administration for Amami Oshima was nevertheless one of the most successful would be unsatisfactory. The survey concluded sociopolitical movements in postwar Japan.[91] that favorable attitudes toward reversion “seem to be too intense and deep-seated to be The effectiveness of the Amami reversion changed overnight by any feasible information movement can be characterized by its program.”[88] Instead of launching aunwavering dedication, high level of propaganda campaign in favor of trusteeship, organization and, most importantly, the strong the second investigative report compiled by identification with Japan and the cross-border anthropologist Douglas Haring recommended unity with Amami residents in Japan. These returning the islands to Japan. Detailing his traits rested on firm historical ties between findings that the people of the Amami Islands Amami and Japan, as well as cultural bonds were “culturally more Japanese thanthat simultaneously distanced Amamians from Okinawans,” Haring suggested that the reunion Okinawans Douglas Haring found that of the islands to Japan could help win back the Amamians themselves were often “too close to hearts and minds of Amamians.[89]the issues to see them in perspective, but there Unbeknownst to Amamians at the time, these is no question about their basic loyalties and reports would soon convince US policymakers complete psychological identification with to readjust the territorial boundaries of the Japan.”[92] Haring also observed that

17 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF throughout the prewar period, Amamians Okinawa, the Fukki Kiseikai, split up shortly seeking social mobility moved to Kagoshima after the signing of the Peace Treaty in and beyond until nearly every Amami family September, as the movement came to a was said to have a close relative living in Japan. standstill at a time when it was gaining In the early 1950s, the Amami residents in momentum in Amami. Japan, estimated at a population of 200,000, was nearly the same size as the 219,000 people The fact that the reversion movement did not residing in the Amami Islands. These large and emerge in either Okinawa or Amami until the active Amami communities in Kagoshima, early 1950s demonstrates that questions of Hanshin, and Tokyo succeeded in linking their identity alone fail to capture the full range of reversion movement with the one unfolding motivations behind its supporters. Residents in within Amami. In this process, thosethe Ryukyu Islands expected and actively conducting hunger strikes in Amami also demanded greater political autonomy only to be received strong support from the authorities in disillusioned by details of the peace treaty Kagoshima Prefecture, which lobbied the negotiations, which revealed that the United central government for Amami’s re-States planned to continue its military incorporation into Japan.[93] occupation. The petitions circulated throughout the Ryukyus in 1951 were essentially a In contrast to Amami, US military authorities referendum against US military rule and its exploited Okinawa’s ambivalent identification draconian ordinances, which convinced with Japan in its reversion movement. While residents that indefinite occupation was support for reversion was strong in Okinawa, actually akin to colonial rule. Reversion to those with bitter memories of JapaneseJapan, on the other hand, promised democratic prejudice and discriminatory treatmentrights enshrined in the new Japanese towards them had mixed feelings. For example, Constitution, as well as the full benefits of a newspaper report on public opinioncitizenship. Pragmatic considerations of how to concerning reversion captures thisaccess Japanese health insurance, postal ambivalence. As one Okinawan explained, savings, pensions, and old-age benefits – all of “those who oppose American rule talk about which residents of the former Okinawa racial prejudice and other related problems, Prefecture were legally entitled to before 1945 but I believe that such things will be much – were crucial for supporters of the reversion worse under the Japanese.”[94] Ever since the movement. OSS report in 1944 recommended utilizing cleavages between Okinawans and Japanese in Economic considerations also motivated psychological warfare, the military government residents in the Ryukyu Islands to support attempted to foster a “Ryukyuan” identity to reversion, as many hoped to reap the benefits justify the separation and military rule in the of the resurgent Japanese economy rather than islands. Although most residents may not have remain a ward of the US military base perceived themselves as “Ryukyuan,” the economy. The political and economic barriers promise of American-style democracy and self- erected by the military government after the government in the immediate aftermath of war Pacific War suffocated the island economy, at contributed to the wavering identity ofleast until the emergence of the intra-Ryukyuan Okinawans.[95] The Democratic Alliance thus smuggling trade. Against all odds, isolated continued to champion independence while the islanders transformed a fledgling barter trade Socialist Party called for an Americaninto a thriving cross-border black market trade, trusteeship going into the elections in March spurring economic interaction among the four 1951. Even the pro-reversion coalition in island groups. The military government was

18 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF forced to respond by introducing economic in 1953, residents in the Ryukyus continued to reform measures in 1948 and 1949 that challenge the external boundaries that denied included re-introducing a free enterprise them free passage into Japan. Ishihara Masaie system and inter-island trade. On the other has keenly observed that the annual “4.28 rally hand, those engaged in the Yamato smuggling at sea” (4.28 kaijo shukai) held during the trade returned with news of just how much the height of the Okinawa reversion movement in Japanese economy was benefiting from the the 1960s was reminiscent of earlier smuggling Korean War, as evidenced by the large profits operations.[97] some of them made in Japan. The widening gap between the burgeoning Japanese economy and the military base economy in Okinawa, in turn, led many residents to support reversion. As one Okinawan economist bluntly explained, instead of advocating reversion because “Okinawans are Japanese,” he supported reversion because “economic rehabilitation in Okinawa can be sped up by reuniting with Japan.”[96]

The Yamato trade route between the Ryukyu Islands and Japan once dominated by smuggling thus began to share the scene with the cross-border reversion movement that began in the early 1950s. This indicated that the local residents’ economic struggle for survival through smuggling was replaced by a socio-political resistance manifested by the unfolding reversion movement. Political activists were now illegally traveling between Boats carrying Okinawan and Japanese Japan and Okinawa, and between Japan and activists convened at sea on the 27th parallel Amami, often on the same route and same on April 28, the “day of humiliation,” when boats as those who were smuggling black Japan regained its sovereignty, divided from market goods. Just as smugglers in the Ryukyus Okinawa. Many of these activists also protested utilized their contacts with the Okinawan and the continuing US military presence in Japan Amamian communities in Japan, thoseand Okinawa, both of which served as forward residents in Japan also sneaked into the deployment bases for the American-led war Ryukyus to investigate conditions in their home that was then raging in Vietnam. These actions islands. This two-way flow of people, goods, at sea can be seen as an extension of the and information enabled reversion activists in earlier period of economic and political Japan and in Okinawa/Amami to coordinate resistance. The demonstrations at sea their activities. Smuggling and the reversion symbolized their rejection of the border, the movement were two forms of resistance against division from Japan, and continuing US military USCAR’s tight border controls and travel rule in the Ryukyus. restrictions, as well as an overall resistance against the policy of separation between Japan and the Ryukyus. Matthew Augustine is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Columbia University completing a Even after the reversion of the Amami Islands dissertation on the transnational history of

19 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF border-crossers and decolonization in Japan Warfare in its various aspects might well be during the Allied occupation period. His article brought to bear upon the cleavage . . . between on the repatriation of Korean residents and the two Japanese groups, each with its own their illegal entry into occupied Japan appears physical type, its own history, its own in Zainichi Chosenjinshi Kenkyu. He can be dynasties, mores and attitudes.” The Okinawas reached at [email protected]. of the Loo Choo Islands, p. 122. [7] David John Obermiller, “The U.S. Posted at Japan Focus on September 23, 2008. Occupation of Okinawa: Politicizing and Contesting Okinawan Identity, 1945-1955” Notes (Ph.D. thesis, University of Iowa, 2006), pp. 87-89. [1] For recent scholarship on the subject, see [8] The directive also stated that all property Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “The Frontiers ofbelonging to the Japanese government and Democracy: Migration, Border Controls, and military was to be treated as public property Citizenship in Postwar Japan,” JCASand controlled as military requirements Symposium Series 22 (2005). dictated. Directive from CINCPAC-CINCPOA to [2] Separate policy studies were prepared for CG Tenth U.S. Field Army, subject: “Political, such Japanese-held island territories as the Economic and Financial Directive for Military Kurile Islands, Bonin Islands, and the Spratly Government in the Occupied Islands of the Islands. Nansei Shoto and Adjacent Waters,” March 1, [3] This introduction to the Territorial1945. A copy of this directive can be found in Subcommittee’s report, “T-343 LiuchiuArnold G. Fisch, Jr., Military Government in the (Ryukyu) Islands,” is cited from Robert D. Ryukyu Islands, 1945-1950 (Center of Military Eldridge, The Origins of the Bilateral Okinawa History, United States Army, 1987), pp. Problem: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.-Japan 262-271. Relations (New York: Garland, 2001), p. 52. [9] This is the title of a book written by Urasaki [4] The report ended by considering three Jun, who was an official employed by Okinawa policy proposals for the Ryukyu Islands: 1) Prefecture. Urasaki Jun, Kieta Okinawaken transfer to China; 2) international(Okinawa jiji shuppansha, 1965). The division administration; and 3) conditional retention by between Japan and the Ryukyus was actually Japan. For further details, seeOta Masahide, formalized on July 2, 1945 when Japanese “The U.S. Occupation of Okinawa and Postwar military officials signed surrender documents Reforms in Japan Proper.” In Robert E. Ward at Kadena, Okinawa. and Sakamoto Yoshikazu (eds.), Democratizing [10] Okinawans hardly ever referred to Japan: The Allied Occupation (University of themselves as “Ryukyuan,” many having seen Hawaii Press, 1987), pp. 296-297. through the US military’s adoption of this name [5] The OSS, which was the predecessor of as part of a heavy-handed effort to separate what later became the CIA, had beenthem from Japan. Furthermore, Okinawans conducting ethnographic research on the large were disinclined to identify themselves as immigrant Okinawan community in Hawaii “Ryukyuan” because mainland Japanese since since the spring of 1944. A copy of the final the prewar era had used the name, Ryukyu-jin, report by the OSS can be found in Okinawa as a pejorative term implying that they were kenritsu toshokan shiryo henshushitsu (ed.), inferior to the Japanese. The indigenous name Okinawa kenshi shiryo hen 2, The Okinawas of for Okinawans is Uchinaachu, a term that was the Loo Choo Islands (Yugen gaisha san discouraged from usage by those who insatsu, 1996). advocated assimilation to Japan before the war, [6] According to the OSS report, “Psychological but is used today by Okinawans who are proud

20 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF of their distinctive identity. I would like to Islands, pp. 111-112. thank Steve Rabson for this clarification. [17] Namihira Tsuneo, “Amerika gunseika no [11] Okinawan men and women over twenty- sengo fukko:1950 nen zengo no okinawa, five years of age were eligible to vote, a soshite amami.” In Nakano Toshio and Yakabi historical event that preceded universalOsamu (eds.), Okinawa no senryo to Nihon no suffrage in Japan by three months, asfukko: shokuminchishugi wa ikani keizoku enfranchised women turned out to vote in high shitaka (Seikyusha, 2006), pp. 221-223. numbers. [18] Following the Nimitz Proclamation that [12] Quoted from Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, administratively separated the Ryukyus from Keystone: The American Occupation ofJapan, Navy Military Government Proclamation Okinawa and U.S.-Japanese Relations (College No. 4 prohibited foreign trade and financial Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000), transactions. p. 34. [19] The free movement of residents in [13] Geographically speaking, as shown in Okinawa during daytime was first permitted in Figure 1, Okinawa and Amami Oshima are the March 1947, and the curfew at night was two largest islands among what the Japanese finally lifted in March 1948. Until then, even refer to as the Nansei Islands; the former local residents traveling to a neighboring belongs to the subgroup called district without permission from the police while the latter are referred to as the Satsunan were arrested for trespassing. Miyagi Etsujiro, Islands.The Nansei Islands consist of the entire Okinawa senryo no 27-nenkan: Amerika gunsei island chain southwest of Kagoshimato no henyo (Iwanami Shoten, 1992), pp. Prefecture in Kyushu, Japan. The Amami 11-17. Islands are located approximately halfway [20] According to Wakabayashi Chiyo, the between Kagoshima and Okinawa, while the expression “off-limits” held two meanings in Tokara Islands are closer to Kagoshima than symbolizing the American occupation of they are to the Amami Islands. Okinawa. One was an Okinawa under the [14] In fact, the Amami and Tokara Islands had exclusive control of the US military, cut off not been a part of the Ryukyus since 1609. As a from international society. Another aspect result of a military expedition led by Shimazu referred to the internal manifestations of this Iehisa against the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609, the condition by which people were driven out and Amami and Tokara Islands were incorporated swept out of their villages, and which became into the . From 1609 until off-limits in their own native island. See shortly after the in 1868, the Wakabayashi Chiyo, “’Ofu-rimittsu’ no shima,” Amami and Tokara Islands remained a part of Gendai shiso, March edition (Seidosha, 1999), the Satsuma domain, which also dominated the p. 24. Ryukyu Kingdom. When the Meiji government [21] Murayama Iekuni, Amami fukkishi (Nankai established modern-day prefectures in 1871, Nichinichi Shinbunsha, 2006), p. 50. the Amami and Tokara Islands were included in [22] According to a military government Kagoshima Prefecture while the Ryukyu Islands proclamation on February 3, 1947, south of 27° North Latitude became known as unauthorized travel between Okinawa and Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. Amami became a punishable offense. Satake [15] This SCAP directive, “Governmental and Kyoko, Gunseika amami no mikko, mitsuboeki Administrative Separation of Certain Outlying (Nanpo shinsha, 2003), p. 222. Areas from Japan” (SCAPIN 677), formally [23] SCAP explicitly prohibited unauthorized separated the Ryukyus, the Ogasawaras and immigration and directed the Japanese other former Japanese territories. government to mobilize its police force to be on [16] Fisch, Military Government in the Ryukyu guard against illegal border-crossers. SCAPIN

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244, November 8, 1945. [30] For a short time after the war this [24] According to Arnold Fisch, by early 1946 currency was used simultaneously with the new the Navy found that the anchorages in Buckner yen being circulated in Japan proper. From Bay, Okinawa, were “not as desirable as 1948, however, the circulation of the new originally thought,” and subsequently “lost Japanese yen was prohibited and the B yen interest in the Ryukyus except as a location for became the only legal currency used in minor facilities.” Military Government in the Okinawa. Ryukyu Islands, p. 174. On January 1, 1947, the [31] Okuno Shuji, Natsuko: Okinawa Army’s command in the Pacific wasmitsuboeki no jo’o (Bungei shunjÅ«, 2005), pp. reorganized as the Far East Command138-139. Trafficking senka was so common that (FECOM). RYCOM was placed under the from February to September 1946, 1200 out of jurisdiction of the general headquarters of the 1260 cases handled by the Okinawa civil FECOM in Tokyo. courts involved senka and trespassing. [25] General Headquarters, SupremeNamihira, “Amerika gunseika no sengo fukko,” Commander for the Allied Powers, “Treatment p. 221. of Foreign Nationals,” History of the[32] This Ryukyuan poem, or Ryuka, and its Nonmilitary Activities of the Occupation of explanation can be found in Yakabi Osamu, Japan, 1945 through 1950. Volume VI, Part 4, “Ekkyo suru okinawa: Amerikanizumu to bunka pp. 133-134. hen’yo,” Kindai nihon no bunka-shi, vol. 9 [26] Edith Kaneshiro, “Our Home Will Be the (Iwanami Shoten, 2002). p. 249. Five Continents”: Okinawan Migration to [33] Okinawa Taimusu, Okinawa no shogen: Hawaii, California, and the Philippines,gekido 25-nenshi, vol. 1 (Okinawa Taimusu-sha, 1899-1941” (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of 1971), pp. 205-206. California at Berkeley, 1999). [34] By the time the Chinese Communists drove [27] Wakabayashi Chiyo convincingly argues the Nationalists into Taiwan in 1949, the that one of the major transformations of smuggling activities in the Taiwan and Hong postwar Okinawan society was that residents Kong routes gradually came to a halt, replaced were prevented from maintaining suchby the Japan route via Kuchinoshima. Yakabi transnational links with overseas Okinawans. Osamu, “Kokkyo no kengen: Okinawa yonaguni Wakabayashi Chiyo, “Jeepu to sajin:no mitsuboeki shÅ«soku no haikei,” Gendai senryoshoki okinawa shakai no henyo to henyi,” shiso, vol. 31, no. 11 (September 2003), pp. Okinawa bunka kenkyu, vol. 29 (March 2003), 187-188. pp. 244-45, 254. [35] Okinawa Taimusu, Okinawa no shogen, pp. [28] The amount of rations authorized to 205-206. Okinawans was initially set at 1990 calories per [36] “Round-table discussion on the age of day, but was later reduced to 1530 calories per smuggling,” Satake, Gunseika amami no mikko, day due to food shortage. From the Deputy mitsuboeki, pp. 209-233. Commander for Military Government to the [37] Military Government Special Commander, NOB Okinawa and Chief MG Proclamations No. 29 and 30, dated July 21, Officer, “Final Report of Military Government 1948, stipulated that Japanese yen had to be Activities for Period from 1 April 1945 to 1 July converted to the Type “B” military yen under 1946.” Dated July 1, 1946. Found in Military penalty of law. Archives Division, National Archives and [38] Fisch, Military Government in the Ryukyu Records Service, RG 260, Box 25. Islands, pp. 149-150. [29] Okinawa Taimusu (ed.), Shomin ga tsuzuru [39] For more details, see Itoman City’s official okinawa sengo seikatsu-shi (Okinawa Taimusu- website, “The Development of Itoman’s Fishing sha, 1998), pp. 32-38. Industry.”

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[40] Ishihara Masaie, Kuhaku no okinawa [51] John Dower provides a more detailed list of shakai-shi: senka to mitsuboeki no jidaithese tokuju, which he estimates brought an (Banseisha, 2000), p. 239. Itoman residents in estimated $2.3 billion into Japan between June Kagoshima often came in contact with Amami 1950 and the end of 1953. See John W. Dower, residents, who had an equally well-organized Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of base for their smuggling network. World War II (W. W. Norton: New Press, 1999), [41] Asahi shinbun, December 31, 1949. The pp. 541-542. editorial section of the Asahi shinbun on March [52] Fisch, Military Government in the Ryukyu 18, 1950 carried another article describing a Islands, pp. 144-145; 164-165. high-profile arrest of nineteen people involved [53] Another figure showed that Japanese in the Ryukyus-Japan trade based in the laborers at military bases earned, at the Hanshin area. The authorities in this case minimum, $0.83 (99.6), which was eight to estimated that the total amount of trade was nine times more than Okinawan laborers who worth anywhere between 200 to 500 million earned $0.10 (11.0). Obermiller, “The U.S. yen. Occupation of Okinawa,” pp. 216-217. [42] The apathy and neglect that characterized [54] Further destruction caused by strong U.S. military rule helped Okinawa earn the typhoons as well as other war-damaged military nickname, the “forgotten island,” during the vehicles from the Far East Command dumped early postwar years. This nickname was coined in Okinawa resulted in an estimated 2.5 million by journalist Frank Gibney after his visit to metric tons of available scrap iron, copper, Okinawa in 1949. See Frank Gibney,brass, and other non-ferrous metals. “Forgotten Island,” Time. November 28, 1949. [55] Ishihara, Kuhaku no okinawa shakai-shi, [43] MacArthur’s quotation is from The New pp. 234-235. York Times, March 2, 1949. [56] In the meantime RYCOM’s export of scrap [44] U.S. Military Government, Ryukyu Islands, metals increased dramatically until it surpassed Directive No. 30, October 1, 1949. sugar as the number one export from Okinawa [45] The four gunto, literally meaning island in 1951. Okuno, Natsuko, pp. 337-338. group) governments, with directly elected [57] American G.I.’s also sold military-issued governors and assemblymen, were inaugurated supplies to civilians on the black market. The in November 1950. The ProvisionalMilitary Police were on guard against such Government Assembly, made up ofillicit transactions, especially when they representatives hand-picked by U.S. authorities involved the loss of US munitions. from throughout the Ryukyus, was inaugurated [58] Yakabi, “Kokkyo no kengen,” pp. 195-196. in April 1951. Both were replaced by the [59] Ishihara, Kuhaku no okinawa shakai-shi, establishment of the Government of the Ryukyu pp. 236-238. Islands in April 1952. [60] SCAP’s Civil Intelligence Section included [46] For further details, see Fisch, Military the Public Safety Division, the Civil Censorship Government in the Ryukyu Islands, p. 128. Detachment, and the 441st Counter- [47] Yakabi, “Kokkyo no kengen,” pp. 193-194. Intelligence Corps. See Takemae, Inside GHQ, [48] Namihira, “Amerika gunseika no sengo p. 167. fukko,” p. 237. The Japanese word, zensei [61] Okuno, Natsuko, pp. 87-88. means “good governance.” [62] Okinawa Times, December 13, 1951. Cited [49] Takemae , Inside GHQ: The Allied in Okunon, Natsuko, p. 271. Occupation of Japan and its Legacy[63] Violators were imprisoned or fined 30,000 (Continuum, 2002), p. 513. Yen. For further details, see Edith Kaneshiro, [50] Fisch, Military Government in the Ryukyu “‘For Compassionate Reasons’: Okinawan Islands, pp. 162-163. Repatriations during American Occupation of

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Japan.” In Ryukyu University, Kenkyu seika [70] Aharen Yukitomo, for example, was a labor hokokusho, sengo okinawa to amerika: ibunka union organizer and member of the leftist sesshoku no sogoteki kenkyu (RyukyuOkinawan organization called the Sekiryukai in University, 2005), pp. 330-331. the Kansai region in the 1920s. He repatriated [64] The Japanese government’s ordinance to Okinawa in 1946 and was subsequently (seirei) no. 85 issued on April 27, 1947 selected as a central committee member of the recognized the family registries (koseki) in People’s Party. Okinawa as Japanese family registries. The [71] Kuru returned to Japan in June to become possession of a Japanese family registry has a liaison between the ACP and the JCP been the basis for Japanese citizenship both in headquarters in Tokyo. For further details, see the prewar and postwar eras. Kato Tetsuro, “Aratani hakken sareta [65] Yoshida Shien was a public official for ‘Okinawa/Amami higoho kyosanto bunsho’ ni Okinawa Prefectural Government before the tsuite,” Okinawa no higoho kyosanto shiryo war. With the “disappearance of Okinawa (Fuji shuppan, 2004). Prefecture” after the war, he was employed by [72] In August 1948 Nakamura was arrested the Okinawa Prefectural Office in Fukuoka. for being in possession of Communist Party [66] Governor Shikiya did not meet with journals and other materials that had been Yoshida out of fear of potential repercussions if smuggled into Amami Oshima. See Nakamura the military government discovered thatYasutaro, Sokoku he no michi: Kobei 8 nen Yoshida had illegally entered Okinawa.Amami no fukki undoshi (Tosho shuppan, Matayoshi Hirokazu, the Vice Governor, was 1984). pp. 164-176. among seven or eight people who met with [73] Tokuda Toyomi was one of Nakamura Yoshida Shien. This episode of illegal entry into Yasutaro’s former students and a member of Okinawa was retold by Zukemura Tomonobu, the youth organization who made a speech at who accompanied Yoshida Shien on thethe rally calling for reversion. See Nankai journey. See “Hikiagesha no kikan to mikko,” Nichinichi Shimbun (ed.), Gojyunenshi, p. 117. Yonabaru-choshi, shiryo-hen, 1, IminCited in Robert D. Eldridge, The Return of the (Yonabaru-cho kyoiku iinkai, 2006), pp.Amami Islands: The Reversion Movement and 217-228. U.s.-Japan Relations (Lexington Books, 2004), [67] One exception was Nakayoshi Ryoko, p. 35. former mayor of Shuri, who submitted a [74] As David Obermiller argues, the protest petition to the military government on August movements that preceded the reversion 4, 1945, requesting that Okinawa be reunited movement reveals the core impulse that with Japan. Realizing that his repeated appeals propelled the reversion movement; namely, were falling on deaf ears, however, he left “popular resistance to foreign occupation and Okinawa on July 23, 1946 and moved to Tokyo Okinawa’s neo-colonial status.” See Obermiller, where he took his case directly to SCAP and “The U.S. Occupation of Okinawa,” p. 201. the Japanese government. [75] Miyume Tanji, Myth, Protest and Struggle [68] Ota Masahide, “The American Occupation in Okinawa (Routledge, 2006), p. 58. of Okinawa and Postwar Reforms in Mainland [76] After the Okinawa Assembly resigned en Japan,” Essays on Okinawa Problems (Yui masse on March 2, 1949, Senaga and Nakasone shuppan, 2000), pp. 191-192. conducted a public meeting on May 1, 1949. At [69] Yamashiro Zenko and Kuwae Choko, for the May Day demonstration, the popular front example, were a part of the League’sadopted the following three slogans aimed at leadership before repatriating from Tokyo, and obtaining greater democracy and economic soon thereafter became actively involved in the relief: 1) direct elections for governor and Democratic Alliance. assemblymen; 2) rollback of the 1948 income

24 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF taxes; and 3) increase rations of supplementary Amami native and member of the underground military goods. For more details, seeAmami Communist Party, who entered Okinawa Obermiller, “The U.S. Occupation of Okinawa,” in March 1952 as a laborer while mobilizing pp. 226-235. Okinawan laborers to form a united front in the [77] Nankai Nichinichi Shimbun (ed.),reversion movement. For a comprehensive Gojunenshi, p. 109. Citation found in Eldridge, treatment on Hayashi’s underground political The Return of the Amami Islands, p. 67, activities in Okinawa, see Mori Yoshio, “Ekkyo footnote 29. no zen’ei, Hayashi Yoshimi to ‘fukki undo no [78] Fukasa Genzo and Morita Tadamitsu rekishi,” in Nishi Masahiko and Hara Takehiko entered Japan by sneaking aboard the Kanato (eds.), Fukusu no okinawa: Diaspora kara kibo Maru, a ferry liner which was to be docked in he (Jinbun shoin, 2003), pp. 311-347. Kobe for repairs from June 1948. For a full [86] After the announcement on July 10 that the treatment of this incident, see Satake, “Kanato trusteeship clause in Article 3 could indefinitely Maru to kyokasho mikko jiken,” pp. 87-133. isolate the Ryukyus from Japan, over 200 [79] The Okinawa Youth Alliance published the households are said to have similarly departed original version of this book in November 1946. illegally from the Amami Islands between Shinmon Minoru, a full-time member of the August 1 – 20. See Satake, Gunseika amami no Okinawan Youth Alliance in Kanagawamikko mitsuboeki, pp. 137-144. Prefecture, smuggled in Iha Fuyu’s books. [87] As a result of the deluge of appeals that Ishihara, Kuhaku no Okinawa shakai-shi, pp. poured in from the Japanese public, the police 219-228. eventually released the arrested men, who [80] See Ishihara, Kuhaku no Okinawa shakai- were allowed to join the rest of the Amami shi, pp. 218. delegates in Tokyo. Satake, Gunseika amami no [81] Based on his groundbreaking book, mikko mitsuboeki, pp. 144-145. Kuhaku no okinawa shakai-shi, I was able to [88] USCAR, CI&E Department, “The Reversion confirm with Ishihara Masaie that theMovement on Amami Oshima, Final Report,” Ryukyuan residents’ economic struggle for Scientific Investigations in the Ryukyu Islands survival through smuggling in the early(SIRI), March 1952. Copy of this report is postwar years was later replaced by a more available in the Amami Branch of the socio-political resistance as witnessed by the Kagoshima Prefectural Library in Naze City. reversion movement. Author’s interview with [89] Douglas G. Haring, “The Island of Amami Ishihara Masaie, September 26, 2006. Oshima in the Northern Ryukyus,” SIRI [82] Nankai Nichinichi Shimbun (ed.),(Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, Gojunenshi, p. 125. For further details, see October 1952), p. 86. A copy of this report is Eldridge, The Return of the Amami Islands, p. also available in the Amami Branch of the 41. Kagoshima Prefectural Library. [83] Murayama, Amami fukkishi, p. 248. [90] USCAR Proclamation No. 27, dated According to Eldridge, while this figure was December 25, 1953, subject: “Geographical probably exaggerated, it nevertheless shows Boundaries of the Ryukyu Islands.” the residents’ overwhelming support for[91] Robert Eldridge demonstrates that the returning the islands to Japan. Eldridge, The Amami reversion movement not only exercised Return of the Amami Islands, p. 71, footnote “a clear influence on the policies of the 88. Japanese government, but also had a significant [84] In addition, 88 percent of those in Miyako impact on the decision making process of the signed similar petitions. See Takemae, Inside US government . . .” The Return of the Amami GHQ, p. 514. Islands, p. 31. [85] One such activist was Hayashi Yoshimi, an [92] Haring, “The Island of Amami Oshima in

25 6 | 9 | 0 APJ | JF the Northern Ryukyus,” pp. 17-18. The CI&E Okinawans as “spies” during the Battle of Department’s public opinion survey found that Okinawa weighed heavily on the minds of 89 percent of respondents never identified ordinary people when thinking about their themselves as Ryukyuan because Amami was future political disposition. historically an integral part of Kagoshima [95] Koji Taira has argued that the U.S. effort Prefecture. CI&E Department, “The Reversion to force Okinawans to choose a semi-colonial, Movement on Amami Oshima, Final Report,” p. marginalized Ryukyuan identity over a 8. Japanese identity was “a thinly veiled racist contempt for Okinawans as an inferior people.” [93] Eldridge argues that the support and For further details, see Koji Taira, “Troubled lobbying that the Governor of Kagoshima National Identity: The Ryukyuans/Okinawans,” Prefecture, Shigenari Kaku, undertook would in Michael Weiner (ed.), Japan’s Minorities: The prove critical in raising awareness of the issue Illusion of Homogeneity (Routledge, 1997), pp. throughout the prefecture and Japan. Eldridge, 160-161. The Return of the Amami Islands, p. 32. [96] This quotation from Okinawan economist, [94] “Kizoku mondai meguri machi no koe wo Takamine Akitada, can be found in kiku,” Uruma shimpo, dated April 23, 1951. Ikemiyagusuku Shui, Okinawa hankotsu no Cited from Naha shishi: Shiryo-hen, Vol. 3, No. jyaanarisuto: Ikemiyagusuku Shui serekushon 3, pp. 435-437. This quotation is evidence that (Niraisha, 1996), p. 22. the Japanese military’s enforcement of[97] Ishihara, Kuhaku no okinawa shakai-shi, p. collective suicide and false accusations of 243.

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