Over $700,000 of ruling Liberal Democratic Party money was funneled to the campaign of a conservative pro-U.S. candidate and distributed to municipal leaders to help secure votes in the first public election of the head of the Ryukyu government in Okinawa in 1968 while it was still under U.S. rule, according to a former campaign official.
Previously declassified diplomatic documents have shown the United States, concerned that a rival candidate who called for an immediate reversion of Okinawa to Japan without precondition would win the contest, had urged the LDP to help a conservative party in Okinawa financially.
