Tenth in an occasional series By MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writer NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- On Aug. 15, 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard and introduced floating exchange rates, sending the greenback plummeting.

By the end of August, the U.S. currency fell more than 15 percent, to 305 yen from its 360 yen peg.

In Okinawa, residents panicked at news of the "Nixon shock." Less than a year later, the islands were to be returned to Japan following 27 years of de facto U.S. military rule.