Japan colonized Okinawa and used it as an imperial military outpost

Evidence

For centuries, the archipelago existed as the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, best known for forsaking weapons and inventing karate. After Japan colonized the islands, it used them as a military outpost for further imperial incursions into Asia. The government banned the use of the Okinawan language in public and enforced other discriminatory policies against ethnic Okinawans. Tokyo restaurants once displayed signs saying NO OKINAWANS ALLOWED. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 837

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

Related

• Japan colonized the independent Ryukyu Kingdom and used it as a military outpost. (similarity 0.97)
• Okinawa regained nominal sovereignty in 1972 but kept long-term U.S. base tenancy. (similarity 0.83)
• Japan’s leaders accepted Okinawa’s US colonization to keep bases away from mainland (similarity 0.82)
• Japan accepted US rule of Okinawa to avoid bases on the mainland. (similarity 0.82)
• Okinawa remains Japan’s poorest prefecture partly due to US occupation until 1972. (similarity 0.81)
• The U.S. continued colonial rule over Okinawa after Japan regained sovereignty in 1952 (similarity 0.81)
• US displaced nearly half of Okinawa’s population and half its farmland (similarity 0.80)
• The US seized one-fifth of Okinawa’s arable land within a year. (similarity 0.80)
• U.S. military buildup displaced nearly half of Okinawa’s population (similarity 0.79)
• Okinawa’s 1972 return to Japan left its U.S. base burden largely unchanged (similarity 0.79)
• The US displaced half of Okinawa’s population by the mid-1950s. (similarity 0.78)
• Missile advances make close-in Okinawa bases militarily obsolete (similarity 0.78)
• US troops policed 600,000 impoverished Okinawans after the war. (similarity 0.78)
• US bases on Puerto Rico and Okinawa form colonial relationships that impoverish both islands. (similarity 0.78)