Okinawa has had a tumultuous history and a scattered identity throughout the twentieth century. As a Japanese territory before World War II, Okinawans did not ever fully adopted Japanese culture as their own. During WWII, Okinawa was a major location used in the U.S. military’s island-hopping towards mainland Japan. After the Battle of Okinawa concluded in June 1945, Okinawa was under control of the U.S. Navy. During the war, up to 160,000 Okinawan citizens, young and old, males and females, were sacrificed by the Japanese army or killed by U.S. military personnel in case they were spies for the Japanese side (Sarantakes 2000). This paved an immediately uncertain and distrustful relationship between Okinawans and the U.S. military in the years after WWII.
After the war, this relationship was further hindered by the fact that Okinawan farmland began to be appropriated by the U.S. military for the construction of naval and army bases (Bugni 1997).
