The U.S. continued colonial rule over Okinawa after Japan regained sovereignty in 1952

Evidence

During the postwar occupation of Japan, U.S. negotiators insisted on retaining full control of Okinawa after nominally returning it to Japan. Thus, when the occupation of Japan ended in 1952, the United States continued to rule Okinawa and smaller islands like Iwo Jima. American officials described Japan as maintaining “residual sovereignty” over these islands, but the U.S. government retained the right to establish military facilities on them, and effectively to govern them as it wished. This arrangement was politically palatable to Japanese leaders because concentrating U.S. bases and troops in a colonized part of Japan meant reducing the U.S. military’s impact elsewhere. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 843

Categorization

• DEFINE: “Residual sovereignty” is introduced and explained as a fiction masking continued U.S. colonial control.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader thesis about the harms of overseas bases and to contested-sovereignty arrangements elsewhere, like Guantanamo or Diego Garcia. — connects to: US trusteeship of Pacific islands functioned as de facto annexation — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 229