Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima was a bureaucrat at the now-defunct Ministry of International Trade and Industry when Okinawa reverted back to Japanese control in 1972.
Asked about his emotions at the time, Nakaima, 72, said in an interview in early March that he felt he "had become Japanese both in name and substance," after spending nearly 30 years under the postwar rule of the United States.
With Okinawa preparing to mark the 40th anniversary of its reversion May 15, the governor last month shared his thoughts and views about his childhood years in the prefecture, the changes he has seen there since 1972, and the contentious presence of U.S. military bases.