U.S. military buildup displaced nearly half of Okinawa’s population

Evidence

In Okinawa, neither the new (U.S.-imposed) constitution of Japan nor the constitution of the United States applied. The occupation government required Okinawans to obtain a U.S-issued travel pass to visit Japan and controlled the movement of Japanese visitors to Okinawa. With U.S. troops back at war in Korea, the military began a major base buildup. By the mid-1950s, the military had displaced nearly half the population and appropriated almost half of Okinawa’s farmland by negotiation or force. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 844

Categorization

• XREF: The scale of displacement parallels the Diego Garcia and Kwajalein evacuations the book likely covers.