Three Japanese nongovernmental organizations have submitted a report to the United Nations detailing human rights abuses by the Japanese government and U.S. military forces against the people of Okinawa.
In the report, sent to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, they say Okinawans have been "subjected to policies of colonialism and forced assimilation, which have resulted in various forms of ethnic discrimination" since the Ryukyu Kingdom, an independent nation, was forcibly annexed by Japan in 1879.
They cite the "abnormal concentration of U.S. military bases" and "assimilationist policy of the Japanese government" as two main factors in the discrimination.