Arab News Japan

TOKYO: The reversion of the island prefecture of Okinawa to Japan from the American occupation was featured on Saturday in a photo exhibition organized by the Japan Press Research Institute at the Tokyo International Forum.

Archival images from Kyodo news agency, the Ryukyu Shinpo newspaper, the Okinawa Times newspaper and others, including reports on the various historical events that have taken place since the battle of Okinawa, were displayed in the exhibition.

Images of the signing of the treaty of transferring the archipelago administration from the United States to Japan on May 15, 1972, were also available to be seen by visitors.

Pictures showed American soldiers facing protests from Okinawans in the 1960s, demanding that American soldiers leave Okinawa. Also, modern historical events were on display, such as the rape of a Japanese girl by three soldiers in September 1995 and a US Army helicopter crash on the university campus in the city of Ginowan.

More negative accounts of the events unfolding in Okinawa are exhibited, including photos of a Japanese journalist from the Mainichi newspaper who tried to disclose politically sensitive information concerning the reversion.

The exhibition evokes contemporary subjects such as the presence and the expansion of the American base at Henoko, which remains a source of agitation in the political and social news reported in Japan.

The show also has successive Okinawa governors who opposed American bases and stood up to the Japanese central government, such as Governor Takeshi Onaga, whom the current incumbent, Dénis Tamaki, succeeded.

The exhibition continues until May 15, the anniversary date of the 50th anniversary of the return of the island to Japanese control.