Like my two other books about security and territorial issues in the U.S.-Japan relationship, The Origins of the Bilateral Okinawa Problem: Okinawa in U.S.-Japan Relations, 1945-19523 and The Return of the Amami Islands: The Reversion Movement and U.S.-Japan Relations, 4 this is first and foremost a study on the "intra-alliance" dynamics in which one country, the United States, continued to occupy and administer islands that were recognized as Japanese territory but, for a number of reasons, the United States and its wartime allies felt necessary to continue to administer. The longer this control continued, the more unnecessary it was seen by increasingly larger segments of the public and government of both countries due to the political erosion of the relationship caused by this friction. The question for policy makers and political leaders was finding the balance between security concerns, reversion demands, and national sentiment (in both countries), particularly as it related to the memory and sacrifices at Iwo Jima, in an effort to maintain friendly and cooperative relations. Eventually, the U.S. government agreed to Japanese requests to return the islands and this was done on 26 June 1968, a full four years prior to the even more problematic, but strategically important, Okinawa. |