U.S obtained control over the Ryukyu Islands after the war until 1972 due to the San Francisco Peace Treaty (Heinrich, 2004: 163), and returned to Japan till now. After the war, strong assimilation policies were not longer in force, and there were even promotion of Okinawan Languages during US occupation. Despite all of these changes, the trend of language shift to Japanese remains.

 

Battle of Okinawa

 

          Back to the Pacific war in 1945, Battle of Okinawa was the final turning point in World War II (Tzeng, 2000: 96). By March, Okinawa was the last island of Japan’s Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere under Japan’s control and this marked the last battle of the entire war (ibid). According to Rabson, the battle was an opportunity for Okinawan to prove their loyalty and identity as Japanese (Rabson, 1996). However, the battle had led to massacre of the Okinawan civilians by Japanese soldiers to reduce food consumption, and many Okinawans were accused of being spies because of a few words in Okinawan dialect (ibid)  The war caused the death of more than 200,000 Okinawa resident (ibid) and 110,000 Japanese soldiers (Heinrich, 2004, p.163) which estimated one fourth of the population of native Okinawan (Brooke,2005).

 

U.S. Occupation

 

          U.S obtained control over the Ryukyu Islands after the war until 1972 due to the San Francisco Peace Treaty (ibid). This treaty fortified U.S. administrative control over Okinawa and started a wave of dissimilation movement of Okinawa controlled by the U.S. (ibid). For the U.S government, independence of Okinawa is a tool to prevent the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese, which may impose greater restriction on their military base on the island (Rabson, 1996)

 

          Hence, a series of campaigns were funded by the U.S army such as history research on Satsuma’s invasion, discriminatory policies and the negative attitude of Japan to encourage anti-Japan thought and movement.(Rabson,1996). Furthermore, cultural artifacts were displayed in museums and exhibitions to promote the culture of Ryukyu Kingdom.(Rabson, 1996).

However,

 ​

          “...after the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty there were virtually no political activities in Okinawa

           aimed at political independence or at association with the United States.’’     

                                                                                                                                           -  (Heinrich,2004:163)

 

          Ironically, Japanese nationalism was heightened to a new level at that time. Okinawan noticed the movement was just a propaganda play to secure American occupation.(Rabson, 1996). Locals and teachers insisted Okinawa belongs to Japan, and they even brought back the dialect tag to schools to punish children speaking local dialects (ibid). Despite the promotion of the use of Ryukyuan language, American failed to use Ryukyuan language in local schools due to the lack of modern Ryukyuan scripts and resource to make the textbook, and standard Japanese was inevitably the lingua franca in Okinawa (Heinrich ,2004: 164). The use of standard Japanese and Japanese nationalism was then supported by the Okinawa teacher's Association (Heinrich,2004:165). This movement was called “return to the fatherland” and echoed with the ‘Movement for Return of Okinawa’ in the Japan (Heinrich,2004: 164). U.S. occupation actually strengthened the bond between Okinawa and Japan as huge amount of American military bases set up on the island and the denials of legal rights by the Americans (Rabson, 1996).

 

Return to Japan

 

          In 1969, reversion agreement was signed between the Japanese government and U.S. government (ibid). Despite of the return of sovereignty of Okinawa to Japan, Okinawa was forced to allow the occupation of land for American bases and sacrifice the control over those lands (ibid). The 32 military bases on Okinawa occupy one fifth of the land on the main island,(Mitchell) which greatly hinders the economic development in Okinawa. Moreover, Japanese corporations bought vast amount of coastal area for luxury accommodations and golf courses for tourism and leaving limited land for social development (ibid).