US displaced nearly half of Okinawa’s population and half its farmland
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
Category: Factual Claims
Related
- U.S. military buildup displaced nearly half of Okinawa’s population (similarity 0.97)
- The US displaced half of Okinawa’s population by the mid-1950s. (similarity 0.92)
- U.S. bases displaced about 250,000 Okinawans, nearly half the island’s population. (similarity 0.88)
- US troops policed 600,000 impoverished Okinawans after the war. (similarity 0.87)
- The US seized one-fifth of Okinawa’s arable land within a year. (similarity 0.86)
- US base-building destroyed Okinawa’s farmland economy and left its people in poverty. (similarity 0.84)
- Base land seizures destroyed Okinawa’s farming economy and livelihood. (similarity 0.83)
- Okinawa regained nominal sovereignty in 1972 but kept long-term U.S. base tenancy. (similarity 0.83)
- Okinawa’s 1972 return to Japan left its U.S. base burden largely unchanged (similarity 0.82)
- The US resettled over 3,200 Okinawans to Bolivia with unfulfilled promises. (similarity 0.82)
- The US relocated over 3,200 Okinawans to Bolivia with broken promises (similarity 0.81)
- The 1972 reversion actually increased Okinawa’s share of US bases. (similarity 0.80)
- Japan colonized Okinawa and used it as an imperial military outpost (similarity 0.80)
- US bulldozers destroyed century-old Okinawan terraced fields within minutes (similarity 0.80)
- Okinawa’s population crowds the paved southern third while the north remains green (similarity 0.79)