On September 6, 1959, 38-year-old Ryotoku Higa, a farmer from Ie Island in the vicinity of Okinawa, lost his land to the U.S. military and was killed in a bombing (Okinawa Without a Homeland, edited by the Okinawa Prefectural Students Association, 1970). Mr. Yoshitoku Higa was deprived of his land by the U.S. military and had no choice but to live by picking up bombs that had fallen in his fields and scrapping them. He was killed in the explosion while dismantling the bomb. In April 1953, the U.S. military began forcibly seizing land on Iejima. In 1954, the U.S. military gave eviction notices to the residents of Iejima. In March 1955, about 300 armed U.S. soldiers forcibly took land from the Mahe area of Ie Island.
Ie Island, Okinawa Prefecture, was once a fierce battleground in the Battle of Okinawa. After the U.S. occupation, about 60% of Ie Island was used as a training ground for dropping bombs and paratroopers. The farmers of Iejima were supposed to live on the fertile land and farm. The U.S. military took away the farmland and demolished the houses of the farmers of Iejima. The farmers of Iejima had no choice but to stand up in desperate struggle against the American forces. Even after the Battle of Okinawa, the farmers of Iejima, who were forced to live a life of hardship, struggled long and tenaciously against the American forces. However, even though Ie Island is located only 9km northwest of the main island of Okinawa, it is still a remote island and the struggle against the US military was disposed of in secret.
Under the U.S. military's administration after the Pacific War, bases and facilities were built halfway across the country. Incidents involving vicious accidents and murders by U.S. soldiers were frequent, resulting in a series of casualties among the Okinawans. Disillusioned with the U.S. military administration, Okinawans called for the return to mainland Japan. Okinawan volunteers launched resistance movements such as the Shimagurumi Struggle. As the U.S. military was about to withdraw completely from the Vietnam War on March 31, 1973, Okinawa was reverted to the mainland on May 15, 1972, when the administration of Okinawa was returned from the United States to Japan.
