US bulldozers destroyed century-old Okinawan terraced fields within minutes

Evidence

When a Time magazine reporter visited in 1949, he found that “the battle of Okinawa completely wrecked the island’s simple farming and fishing economy: in a matter of minutes, U.S. bulldozers smashed the terraced fields which Okinawans had painstakingly laid out for more than a century.” Four years later, Okinawa had become a neglected place. “More than 15,000 U.S. troops, whose morale and discipline have probably been worse than that of any U.S. force in the world, have policed 600,000 natives who live in hopeless poverty.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 842

Categorization

• SHARE: A detail ideal for a military-history friend interested in occupation infrastructure.