Military government on Okinawa from the first stages of planning until the transition toward a civil administration.

"In reaching his conclusions about U.S. foreign policy. Sarantakes uses recently declassified documents to craft a careful consideration of America's larger strategic purposes. His examination of the American administration of Okinawa and the problems it posed for relations between the two nations focuses on their interaction "on the ground" in the Ryuku Islands. Several factors caused the Americans to falter, while Okinawan and Japanese resistance helped speed along the return of the islands."--BOOK JACKET.

Throughout twenty-seven years of military occupation, U.S. public affairs activities aimed to persuade the local Okinawan public that the U.S. administration of Okinawa should be maintained. The U.S. maintains military bases around the globe, while advocating democratic ideals, including freedom of the press. Yet, while declaring the occupation of Okinawa necessary for the defence of democracy, the U.S. military administration vigorously repressed freedoms of speech, assembly, the media and self-determination. This landmark study explores and uncovers the labyrinthine manipulations and mechanisms established to continue to defend the hard deployment of military forces through the soft power techniques of public relations.

Uniquely Okinawan explores how American soldiers, sailors, and Marines considered race, ethnicity, and identity in the planning and execution of the wartime occupation of Okinawa, during and immediately after the Battle of Okinawa, 1945–46.

How do the Japanese and Okinawans remember Occupation? How is memory constructed and transmitted? Michael Molasky explores these questions through careful, sensitive readings of literature from mainland Japan and Okinawa. This book sheds light on difficult issues of war, violence, prostitution, colonialism and post-colonialism in the context of the Occupations of Japan and Okinawa.

This collection provides a multidisciplinary study of postwar and contemporary Okinawa. The contributors analyze the unique social and cultural transformations that have occurred outside the context of American military control or US–Japan relations.