Over the 50 years since Okinawa Prefecture’s reversion to Japan from United States control on May 15, 1972, former Gov. Keiichi Inamine has witnessed countless changes to the islands.

Going from the lasting devastation of the Pacific War — where Okinawa was one of the few Japanese territories to experience near-total destruction from ground warfare — to its current role as a tourist destination and logistics hub for Southeast Asia, the island chain 700 kilometers off the southern coast of Kyushu is now, in many ways, almost unrecognizable from how it was at the time of the handover.

Despite economic and infrastructural developments contributing to a brighter and more prosperous future, Inamine identifies the continued presence of U.S. military bases on the islands as a troubling reminder of a darker past.

“One thing that never changes is the base issue,” he said. “In all other areas, be it development of the tourism or information industries, if you put in the effort, you see the rewards. But the base issue, no matter what you do, it’s always there, and with very little real progress ever made.”

Restoration

The large-scale presence of occupying U.S. forces began in Okinawa at the close of the Pacific War in 1945. Over the next 27 years, the U.S. occupation resulted in what Inamine describes as the administrative and social detachment of the islands from mainland Japan.

“There was no freedom of movement between Okinawa and the rest of the country,” he said. “You needed to have a passport to go anywhere, and we used the dollar instead of the yen. It was like living in a foreign country.”

Having left for Tokyo, initially studying at Keio University and then becoming an employee of Isuzu Motors, Inamine watched from afar as Okinawa rejoined Japan in 1972.

“Although I wasn’t there,” he said, “I could sense from the outside looking in that the mood had changed in the buildup to the restoration. The Okinawan people were genuinely happy and excited about the prospect of rejoining Japan. They had hope.”

That hope was short-lived, however, as the biting social and economic realities of the reversion hit home.

“I think many Okinawans viewed our return to Japan through rose-tinted glasses,” he said. “Unfortunately, the yawning gap between dream and reality left a lot of people extremely disappointed.”

Adjustment

A large part of that disappointment stemmed from the belief that, as an administrative district of wider Japan, the islands would gain an equal footing with the mainland, both from an economic perspective and in terms of the country’s security relationship with the United States.

At that time, 58% of the total U.S. military presence in Japan was based on the islands. Okinawan residents believed that, over time, many of the bases would be moved to other areas of the country in a more equitable distribution of the burden. However, the managed reduction of the U.S. military presence on the mainland over the next 50 years meant that Okinawa now has 70.3% of the total land mass occupied by U.S. forces in Japan.

At first, restoration also did little to address the economic disparity between Okinawa and the rest of the country. There was sparse investment in infrastructure unrelated to the U.S. military, while regional industry in general struggled to wean itself from dependence on the bases.

“It was the reality of the time,” Inamine said. “Everything we had was wiped out by the war. We found ourselves in a situation where we couldn’t live without the bases.”

Many found it hard to make ends meet as an influx of Japanese businesses brought competition and a new way of doing things.

“Many in the prefecture began to view the restoration in a negative light,” Inamine said. “The confusion appeared to come out of nowhere, the established way of doing things no longer seeming to work. It took a long time for us to adapt to the new conditions, exacerbated by the further expansion of U.S. bases.”

What can a governor do?

Returning to Okinawa in the mid-1970s, Inamine took the reins of his father’s company, Ryuseki Oil, before embarking on a political career that would eventually lead him to the position of prefectural governor in 1998, a post he held until 2006.

During that time, the prefecture — which continues today to have the lowest per capita income of Japan's 47 prefectures — recorded a record-high unemployment level of 8.4% in 2001, higher than the 5% average across the rest of Japan at that time.

Part of Inamine’s response was the fourth Okinawa Development Program, which aimed at establishing a self-reliant Okinawa led by the private sector.

“As soon as I became governor, the first thing I told the central government was that they could keep their fish. All I wanted was a rod” he said. “Fish is a subsidy. If you eat all the fish, that’s it. But with a rod, you can catch the fish yourself. And that’s enough for us.”

With infrastructural support from the central government, Inamine — along with his immediate successors — saw a huge growth in a tourist industry now worth ¥519 billion a year.

“We went from around 500,000 visitors a year at the time of the restoration to over 10 million before the coronavirus pandemic hit,” he said.

He also laid the groundwork for Okinawa’s development as a regional “smart hub,'' with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in particular emerging as a center of academic excellence.

“Big industry isn’t a good fit for Okinawa,” Inamine said. “The U.S. occupation left us without the necessary infrastructure. But now that we’ve planted the seeds, we have the tools for our leading university to become a top globally ranked school in certain fields. The OIST really is the key to our future development.”

Similarly, the projected return of the tourist industry — should the government follow through with a recent pledge to review COVID-related overseas travel restrictions — should continue to propel economic development on the islands.

“It was in the year 2000, during my time as governor, when we held the international (Group of Eight) summit in Okinawa, that the world really got to see what an amazing tourist destination Okinawa had become,” Inamine said.

Some of the world’s most renowned political figures were there, enjoying the islands' blue skies and crystal clear waters.

“Vladimir Putin was there. As a martial arts enthusiast, he attended a local judo event, where he even allowed the children to throw him a few times. He made a very good impression actually,” Inamine said.

As did Bill Clinton.

“The U.S. president sweated through an hourlong ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in the blazing July heat,” Inamine revealed. “He then impressed us further by saying that he understood the pressure placed on Okinawans by the presence of U.S. military bases, a sentiment that we obviously all appreciated.”

Compromise

Inamine’s period as governor also coincided with a number of globally significant events — not least the 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — that would deeply impact Okinawan society and its economy.

As with fears of Chinese and North Korean aggression in the current security environment, such events only ever seemed to prolong the U.S. military presence on the island, against the overall wishes of Okinawans themselves.

As governor, Inamine found that the act of balancing the expectations of the Okinawan people with directives issued from Tokyo and Washington — particularly on the base issue — presented the greatest challenge.

“Just simply following the government line is clearly not the way to go, as this would lead to opposition within the prefecture,” he said. “But then, similarly, you can’t simply promote the anti-base position of most Okinawans, as this would damage the security arrangement between Japan and the U.S. It’s an incredibly difficult compromise.”

Despite the staggering progress of other areas of prefectural life over the fifty years since restoration, it is this compromise that continues to loom large over the islands, both for Okinawan residents and politicians alike.