What Are the Consequences of the Battle of Okinawa and theU.S. Occupation for Minorities in Okinawa?

Abstract

Any journalist in Okinawa cannot avoid tackling such issues as the damages,

accidents, and incidents that took place during the Battle of Okinawa and

the 27-year-long occupation by the United States. The changes to ways of life

and the environment after Okinawa’s reversion to Japan are also major issues

that journalists must work to cover. June 23, the day when the Battle of

Okinawa ended in 1945, was designated as Okinawa Memorial Day by an

Okinawa Prefecture bylaw established in 1974 to remember and pray for the

victims of the Battle of Okinawa as well as to desire world-wide peace for all

time. Every year around Okinawa Memorial Day media organizations produce

special feature programs and articles regarding issues related to the U.S. occupation

and the presence of military bases. At major anniversary years commemorating

the end of the war or Okinawa’s reversion to Japan, like the 50th

anniversary of the war, almost every media organization runs year-long special

feature programs or articles. We often see a special team formed to work on

the feature programs and a journalist assigned to deeply and extensively cover

specific topics regarding the Battle of Okinawa and the stationing of the U.S.

Army in Okinawa. The number of programs aired and articles written regarding

such issues is enormous. However, many stories are still left untold.

　　There are many issues hard for the persons involved to tell and for journalists

to ask about even after the passing of many years since the war. Issues

concerning minorities are examples of such difficult topics. What happened to

mentally handicapped persons during the Battle of Okinawa? How about physically

handicapped persons and the patients of Hansen’s disease? It took more

than 70 years after the end of the war for journalists to review history from the

perspectives of the victims of sexual violence and mentally challenged persons

and reconsider the mental damages caused by the war and occupation. These

issues may not be new and may not have been unknown. However, these issues

have seldom been discussed and their amount of coverage has been extremely

limited, which may have had the consequence of hiding them from the public

eye. With the background that the Japanese government forcefully put forward

the plan to build a new base in Okinawa against the will of local inhabitants, the

author considers the Battle of Okinawa and the history of the U.S. occupation

from the viewpoints of minorities.