As it enters its 50th year since the reversion, the monument built to commemorate it stands over an island closing a tumultuous 2021

As it enters its 50th year since the reversion, the monument built to commemorate it stands over an island closing a tumultuous 2021

The “Monument in Commemoration of the Reversion of Okinawa to Japan,” which stands at the northernmost tip of Okinawa’s main island – December 30, 3:00 a.m. in Cape Hedo, Kunigami (photograph by John Matsumoto)


December 31, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo

By John Matsumoto

 

Disrupted by the coronavirus and damaged by pumice created by an undersea volcanic explosion, Okinawa finally looks to end a tumultuous 2021.

2022 will mark the 50th anniversary of Okinawa being reverted to Japan after being under US control following the Pacific War. On December 30, just before the turning point of this important milestone, the “Monument in Commemoration of the Reversion of Okinawa to Japan,” which stands at the northernmost tip of Okinawa’s main island in Cape Hedo, Kunigami, can be seen wrapped in the starry night sky and the sound of waves crashing.

The Monument in Commemoration of the Reversion of Okinawa to Japan tells the story of Okinawa being returned to Japan, and was built in April of 1974. Yoronjima, one of Kagoshima Prefecture’s Amami islands, can be seen far off on the horizon.

As Okinawa looks toward the end of its first half-century since the reversion, it is still burdened with many of the same issues it faced at the time of the reversion, with the Japanese government’s strong-armed approach to new base construction in Henoko, and continued damage caused by the US military bases. From Okinawa’s northernmost point, the monument still casts its gaze over the island in this era much like the last one.

 

(English translation by T&CT and Sam Grieb)

 

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