Naha

Naha is the largest city on the largest island of Okinawa, and served as the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The population is just over 300,000, or about a quarter of that of the entire Okinawa archipelago. Naha is filled with Americans--American soldiers--as 20 percent of Okinawa-Honto (the island on which it is located) is occupied by US military bases. To put that into perspective, 75 percent of American bases in Japan are located on Honto, or just under 30,000 US troops. It's no wonder then that Okinawans resent this presence, a stale leftover from the US handover of Okinawa to Japan in 1972. (Okinawa was independent until Japanese annexation during the Meiji Restoration.) In 1995, Okinawans voted overwhelming in a referendum to end the occupation, and Governor Ota attempted to make good on his promise to do so. The Japanese Supreme Court overruled Ota's authority, and the largest airbase, Futenma, remains an eyesore just north of Naha (in the middle of Ginowan, population 90,000). The current proposal is to move the base northwards near the second largest city of Nago, to destroy the massive Henoko Matsuda reef, and float Futenma on a heliport in the Henoko Bay. In a blatant subversion of democracy, all subsequent (post-1995) referenda by the people of Henoko and Ginowan--again, overwhelming in favor of ending the occupation of their land by US soldiers--have been flagrantly ignored by the US and Japanese governments:

Prime Minister Koizumi told Kaga “we are now discussing things with together with the Americans. The most important thing is to be of the same mind within our government inside Japan. We must,” Koizumi emphasized, “not be of different opinions.”

A Pentagon official visiting Japan this week was more frank. “If Futenma’s transfer problem will not clear,” he said, “America is not going to think about returning a part of the base at Kadena, the southern military port, or on reducing the number of Marine Corps troops here.”

Sanshin concert in a restaurant on Kokusai-dori:


Tennyo-bashi, a bridge to the building Bezaitendo. It was built in 1502 to house a Buddhist scripture presented to the Ryukyu Kingdom by the king of Korea in the 15th century:

The remains of the late 15th century Enkakuji, once the head temple of Rinzai Buddhism in Ryukyu.

Stone gate of the Sonohyan-utaki, a shrine built in the early 16th century. The shrine itself was destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa:

Shuri-jo, the castle of the Ryukyu king, in service from the early 1400s until 1879 (the year of the Japanese annexation). It was largely destroyed in the Battle of Okinawa, though it was meticulously restored about a decade ago:



Seiden, the main palace at Shuri-jo:

Throne room: