米統治下沖縄における日本復帰運動の意義

Abstract

The first part of the paper is led by a major question: what meanings did the movements for the reversion of Japan in postwar Okinawa have? To examine the question, the following three specific questions were formulated and examined. (1) Why did the Okinawan people demand the reversion to Japan? A. The "reversion to Japan" was an alternative claim to anti-U.S. rule and reflected hope for Japan that was considered to have been reborn after the war. (2) How did the reversion movement affect the actual reversion of Okinawa? A. The reversion movement, which developed as an island-wide mass movement, put pressure on the U.S. and drew out the Japanese government's commitments to realize the reversion. (3) What did the reversion movement aim for? A. The reversion movement aimed for Okinawa's independence by the mid-1960s. However, when the movement became Japanized in the late 1960s, the Okinawan-specific aspects of the goals were retracted. The second part of this paper considers an important issue that this study did not address: the unitness of Okinawa. The diversity of Okinawa in terms of geographical conditions, population distribution, war experiences, and location of U.S. military sites raises awareness of the difficulty Okinawa faces as a political unit. For Okinawa as an "international being," this difficulty has especially important meaning. The reversion movements in Okinawa may have been attempts to address this difficulty.