It was apparent at Tuesday's ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa that the past has not faded into history, with issues related to the U.S. military causing tension and sharp differences of opinion with Tokyo over the prefecture's role in maintaining regional peace and security.
Whereas the rest of the country considers Aug. 15, 1945, to be the end of the war, Okinawa recalls June 23 of that year as the day when the fighting stopped, and the August date as the beginning of a nearly three-decade U.S. military occupation.
Accommodating the heavy American military presence, Okinawa served as a giant base for the wars in Korea and Vietnam before being returned to Japan in 1972, under the condition that the U.S. military would remain.