Okinawa prefecture

• Established: 1879
• Japanese: 沖縄県 (Okinawa ken)

Okinawa prefecture is the southernmost of the 47 prefectures of Japan. It is governed from the prefectural capital of Naha, on the island of Okinawa, and includes a series of islands stretching from Okinawa and its immediately surrounding islands southward, to include the Miyakos and Yaeyamas, down to Yonaguni and Hateruma, just before Taiwan.

The population of Okinawa prefecture today is around 1.3 million, the same as the State of Hawaii.

History

Meiji Period

The prefecture was established in 1879, as the last stage in the Ryûkyû shobun, or "disposal" of the Ryûkyû Kingdom. The Kingdom had been replaced by Ryûkyû han in 1872, with the king being made a han'ô, basically equivalent to the position of daimyô which had just been abolished in mainland Japan. Now, the king was made a Marquis in the new European-style kazoku peerage system, and was obliged to relocate to Tokyo. Governors, chiefly from Kagoshima prefecture (Satsuma) but all of them from mainland Japan, were appointed to head the governance of Okinawa all the way up through 1945. It was only after the end of the US Occupation in Ryûkyû, and the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty in 1972 that Okinawans were able to democratically elect their own Okinawan leadership.

Matsuda Michiyuki arrived in Naha on 1879/1/25, and the following day presented to Prince Nakijin a missive from the Prime Minister reproaching Ryûkyû for breaking the prohibition imposed by Japan on sending diplomatic missions to China, and for obstructing the implementation of Japanese law enforcement and criminal administration in the islands. The following month, Beijing sent formal communications urging Tokyo to not annex Ryûkyû as a prefecture. Kinashi Seiichirô was named Acting Governor of the not yet established Okinawa Prefecture on 3/3.

He was soon replaced by Nabeshima Naoyoshi, appointed the first official governor of the prefecture. The second governor, Uesugi Mochinori, was quite harsh on the traditional aristocracy, accusing them of having oppressed and impoverished the Ryukyuan people, and attempting to remove them from power and from elite status. Much of these initiatives were reversed by his successor, the third governor, Iwamura Michitoshi, however, who implemented a series of policies known as kyûkan onzon ("preserving old customs"). Under these policies, much of the kingdom's legal and administrative structures were left in place for a time, including incorporating many of the kingdom's scholar-bureaucrats into positions of governmental administration. While many former scholar-bureaucrats accepted positions in the new government, many others, such as Ôta Chôfu, protested by refusing to work, and refusing to aid the new officials in taking over the administration. This policy of maintaining old administrative structures was pursued, at least in part, as the result of concerns (perhaps quite valid concerns) by the Meiji government that abruptly dismantling these political and economic systems all at once could spark widespread popular resistance. Thus, all the way until 1903, the kingdom's systems of land divisions (magiri), taxation, and so forth, were left intact to a certain extent. While low-ranking Ryukyuan aristocrats lost their special status entirely, and no Ryukyuans outside of the royal family were incorporated into the kazoku or shizoku systems of gentry, middle- to high-ranking Ryukyuan aristocrats were at least permitted to retain their government stipends until 1909; these were, however, paid out of the prefecture's budget, and not out of any separate additional funds granted to Okinawa by Tokyo. While Hokkaidô, also annexed by Imperial Japan in the 1870s, received considerable investment for development, Okinawa received very little from the government. All in all, throughout the Meiji period, Okinawa paid higher taxes per capita, and received less national expenditures per capita, than any other prefecture.

Land divisions and the associated tax structure were reorganized in a major undertaking in 1899 to 1903 known as the Okinawa Prefecture Land Reorganization Project, bringing practices in Okinawa into line with systems used throughout the rest of the country. This included eliminating the payment of taxes in kind (i.e. in grain or other products), and replacing it with payment in cash.

Meanwhile, traditional systems of education were also left in place for a while, alongside national public education. However, before the end of the 19th century, assimilation efforts were stepped up. By the turn of the 20th century, nationwide efforts to provide uniform education and create a uniform culture and language were implemented in Okinawa as they were throughout the nation, inspiring the formation in 1896 by former royal prince Shô En and a number of noble supporters of the Kôdôkai ("Society for Public Unity"), which worked to strongly oppose assimilation, and to petition for the restoration of rule by Okinawans.

Mainland businesses began to expand into Okinawa, even seizing monopolistic levels of dominance in many locales and commercial sectors, pushing Okinawan local/native merchants and entrepreneurs into far weaker positions, or out of business entirely.

Around the time of the Sino-Japanese War, Okinawan politics came to be dominated by conflict or tensions between a pro-Japanese Kaika-tô ("Enlightenment Party") and a pro-Chinese Gankô-tô ("Stubborn Party").

1912 to 1945

Map of the Battle of Okinawa at Punchbowl Cemetery in Honolulu

A number of major sites associated with the Ryûkyû Kingdom were named National Treasures in the 1920s-30s, including Shuri castle, the Buddhist temples Engaku-ji (Okinawa) and Sôgen-ji, and Oki Shrine, thus appropriating them into narratives of Japanese national greatness. Shuri castle, made the site of a military garrison from 1879 until 1896, and then public space beginning in 1909, was made into a Shinto shrine in 1925. At some point in the 1930s, it became home to a major underground military headquarters, thus unfortunately inviting its destruction in 1945, and along with it the destruction of numerous irreplaceable artifacts and documents of Ryukyuan cultural and historical significance.

The Battle of Okinawa brought the destruction of much of the island, decimating homes and thousands of lives, along with most of the significant cultural, religious, and historical sites. Countless priceless artifacts and documents were lost.

Occupation

• 1970 Koza riots

Reversion to Present

Shortly after reversion, Okinawa hosted the 1975 Ocean Expo, a major expo in the tradition of the world's fairs, celebrating maritime history and culture, and in particular that of the Pacific.

Shuri castle was rebuilt in 1992, and many other sites, including Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and the like have similarly been rebuilt and serve today either as active temples & shrines, or as museums and community centers. The castle, along with the royal mausolea at Tamaudun, the reconstructed royal villas at Shikinaen, and a number of gusuku ruins elsewhere on the island, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000, and a G8 Summit was held in Nago that same year. Continuing on from the 1975 Ocean Expo, this marks certain significant discourses, as to acknowledging and celebrating Ryukyuan history and culture, and its membership within Japan.

While newspaper polls regularly show that the vast majority of people in Okinawa support remaining a part of Japan (only a very small percentage support any sort of independence or sovereignty movement), the issue of the US military bases remains a hot-button issue. US bases continue to occupy around 20% of the land area of the tiny island of Okinawa, and constitute over 70% of the US military presence in Japan. Though rapes, crashes, and other incidents are infrequent, each is one too many, and protests have become not only a regular occurrence, but a major portion of the mainstream political issues in the prefecture. As of 2014, authorities have been speaking for years of shutting down Futenma Air Base in Ginowan, but have yet to do so, while protests and political opposition has so far been successful in significantly slowing, but not yet successful in blocking entirely, the construction of a replacement base at Henoko Bay, which threatens the delicate coral reef & dugong habitat there.

Governors of Okinawa Prefecture

• Kinashi Seiichirô (1879/3/3-5/18, acting interim governor)

1. Nabeshima Naoyoshi (1879/5/18-
2. Uesugi Mochinori (-1883)
3. Iwamura Michitoshi (1883-)