Tales of the American Empire | July 23, 2020
The Potsdam Declaration of 1945, which set out the Allied Powers’ terms for Japan’s surrender, deprived Japan of all its overseas territories. Taiwan was a Japanese territory that was freed after World War II. The nearby Ryukyu Islands that include the large island of Okinawa were also a territory the Japanese empire had invaded in 1872 and imposed its language and culture. One-third of Okinawa’s population was killed during the American invasion in 1945, yet it was not freed. The Treaty of San Francisco in 1951 granted these islands to the United States so the US military could seize land to build a massive military base complex that displaced 250,000 Okinawans; almost half the population. Objections to the large US military presence continues to grow as Okinawans refuse to accept a perpetual occupation by foreign troops.
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“The Big Picture: Okinawa: Keystone of the Pacific”; US Army; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbI6X…
“Military Government in the Ryukyu Islands 1945-1950″; US Army; https://history.army.mil/html/books/0…
“Air Combat Past, Present, and Future”; Rand study; August 2008; https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vie…
“Downsize Kadena”; Carlton Meyer; G2mil; 2012; https://www.g2mil.com/kadena.htm
“The Okinawa Solution” to remove Marines from Okinawa; Carlton Meyer; G2mil; 2012; https://www.g2mil.com/okinawa-solutio…
“Okinawa governor’s panel recommends reducing bases, dispersing US Marines throughout the region”; Stars and Stripes; March 26, 2020; https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/…
Related Tale: The American Empire’s Disastrous Defeat in 1942; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG1yL…