Wait, I’m confused. So the history of the Ryukyu Islands is that they were claimed by China until the First Sino-Japanese War, at which point they fell to the Japanese. Then, after WW2, the US takes over jurisdiction of the islands as war reparations under the Treaty of San Francisco (which China, naturally, wasn’t invited to and received basically nothing from).
So, today, the Americans have a bunch of military bases there, China claims a few small islands there, Japan claims the entire chain, and the people of the island themselves want independence.
It’s a bit more complicated, really. The islands weren’t usually politically united. China lost actual control of the Ryukyu kingdom well before the first Sino-Japanese war, but maintained a claim on it for quite some time.
The US took over administration during WWII and converted many of the Japanese bases to American ones. The US doesn’t claim any of the islands anymore and has closed some installations, but a lot of bases are still active. The US is responsible for Japan’s defense. Japan would rather have the bases in Okinawa rather than in mainland Japan (although there are a few bases there as well), which a lot of Okinawans feel is unfair. Okinawa is very well placed strategically though and Japanese people don’t like foreigners (sort of… It’s weird), so don’t expect the situation to change any time soon.
BTW, if you ever want to visit Japan, Okinawa’s a great option. It’s beautiful there and it’s not hard to get by on just English.
Okinawa comprises only 0.6% of all Japanese territory, yet 75% of all United States military forces are stationed in U.S. facilities that take up 10.4% of Okinawa Prefecture i.e. 18.8-20% of Okinawa Island.
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