The assemblies of Okinawa Prefecture and two cities in the prefecture — Naha and Urasoe — on Tuesday unanimously adopted resolutions protesting comments by a U.S. official that allegedly disparaged the Okinawans. Other Okinawan assemblies will follow suit.
In an off-the-record lecture in Washington in December before 14 students who were about to visit Tokyo and Okinawa, Mr. Kevin Maher, head of the office of Japan affairs at the U.S. State Department, allegedly said "Okinawans are masters of 'manipulation' and 'extortion' " when they deal with the Tokyo government and that "although Okinawans grow goya (bitter gourd), other prefectures grow more than Okinawa. Okinawans are too lazy to grow goya."
He reportedly says that an account of his lecture made available to Kyodo News is "neither accurate nor complete." Even so, the alleged comment by a person who served as the consul general in Okinawa from 2006 to 2009, will likely deepen distrust of the U.S. government among the Okinawan people.