Okinawan ‘Showcase”

In the election for Mayor of Naha City, capital of Okinawa, held on January 12, there were two candidates, both of whom designated themselves as Socialists. The major issue of the election, according to a New York Times report, was “not whether the Okinawans would register opposition to US rule, but how strenuously they would oppose it.” The answer turned out to be that the people of Naha would oppose US rule as strenuously as they were allowed to, for they elected Saichi Kaneshi, who had campaigned on a platform of “ousting the Americans and reuniting the island with Japan.”

This result “galled” U.S. military authorities on Okinawa. As well it might, since the election was part of a complex maneuver by which the Americans had hoped to replace an “unsympathetic” Mayor (Kamejiro Senaga) by one more to their liking. The January election was forecast back in November last year. when a brief UP dispatch reported that Lt. Gen. James...