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5 An Occupied Homeland (1945–1972) With many still not knowing whether their relatives had survived the battle, Okinawans on the mainland had varied reactions to the emperor’s radio broadcast on August 15, 1945, announcing Japan’s surrender. Oyakawa Takayoshi, then twenty-nine, was staying in the countryside of Nara Prefecture when he heard it. By that time, I thought Japan would lose the war. And, given the country’s politics and ideology, I imagined there would be fighting to the last Japanese soldier. Then, after the military was decimated, the enemy would come after the civilians, who’d end up wandering in the countryside, where they’d either be killed or die of starvation. The possibility of unconditional surrender never even occurred to me.1 Also age twenty-nine at the time, Shimabukuro Hisako was “totally shocked. Why, then, I wondered, had we endured such hardships on the home front and so many of us died in the war.”2 Konawa Anka, thirty-three at the time, was aboard a train stopped at Kobe Station when an announcement came over the loudspeaker that “His Majesty will now address the nation.” The emperor’s words echoed through the abruptly hushed train cars, announcing the end of the Greater East Asia War. Some people choked back tears; others wept openly. This was understandable. I was also overcome with emotion. But after the train pulled out of the station and things settled down, I started thinking how happy my family would be. Arriving at our station, I felt absolutely buoyant, totally different from usual, as I sped on my bicycle back to where we were staying.3 Even before the Pacific War ended, Okinawans on the mainland were feeling the effects of American military occupation. By mid-August 1945, when Japan’s government leaders finally made their tragically belated decision to surrender, the occupation of Okinawa, which had started officially with the An Occupied Homeland (1945–1972) | 139 Nimitz Proclamation4 on April 1, was well under way. With civilian communications cut off, rumors spread on the mainland that everyone had died “the death of honor” in the Battle of Okinawa, ending their lives rather than surrendering to the enemy.5 Okinawans living on the mainland learned only later that more than 120,000 of Okinawa Prefecture’s residents, between one-fourth and onethird of its wartime population, had died during or shortly after the battle and that most families had lost at least one member.6 Many on the mainland also lost their homes in Okinawa, and even their land when the American military later seized thousands of family farms and home lots to expand existing bases and build new ones. The number of Okinawans on the mainland had grown from a recorded 88,319 in 1940 to an estimated 200,000 by late 1945. Of the approximately 110,000 who came after the 1940 census, some 20,000 had been brought for war-related labor in factories, 60,000 had evacuated there before the Battle of Okinawa, and 30,000 were repatriated from overseas at war’s end. Evacuees from Okinawa were treated kindly in many communities where they were relocated, but not all local residents welcomed them. Like evacuees from other prefectures, they faced food and lodging shortages that created tensions. Children suffered especially, from malnutrition , which was sometimes fatal, and from bullying by local children. When it was learned that not everyone had “died the death of honor” in the Battle of Okinawa, some mainlanders claimed the survivors must have been spies for the enemy. In parts of Kyushu, the local military reportedly told residents to deny evacuees food rations because Okinawan spies had supposedly been responsible for Japan’s defeat in the battle.7 The Black Market and Other Survival Strategies By war’s end, millions in Japan’s cities had lost their homes under the charred rubble of their neighborhoods. The death toll mounted daily from starvation and untreated disease. As in Okinawa, the U.S. military on the mainland distributed relief supplies that saved countless lives, but the Occupation’s misguided rationing and pricing policies for daily commodities had the effect of making food legally unobtainable for many. Enforcement of the largely unenforceable regulations was haphazard or nonexistent, spurring the growth of a widespread black market. Taishō Ward resident Kaneshiro Yoshiaki, an eleven-year-old middle school student at the time, was staying with his father and older sister in Kita-Okajima. Without a radio...

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