O K I N A W A J I M A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Okinawa Jims is one of the islands in the Nansei Shoto island group. In the geography books the Nansei Shoto islands were called the Ryukyus or Southwestern Islands and it was taught that they stretch from the bottom of Japan proper in a southwesterly direction to Formosa, covering about 1000 miles of distance on the way. As the Japs at present however, own a major part of this territory it is temporarily necessary to call the islands by Japanese symbols which will necessitate a short lesson in Japanese.

To the Japs what we call an island is to them a "jima" or a "shima" and what we call a group of islands is to them a "gunto". Then if you take a bunch of "jimas" and "shimas" and "guntos" and mix them up together you come out with a "shoto" which means a large island formation. For instance Saipan could have been called a "jima" and Saipan and Tinian together could have been called a "gunto". So you take Saipan and Tinian and Guam and all the islands on the way up to Iwo Jima plus some more to the north and you get a "shoto". Just like the Alectians.

Well, that’s what the Nansei Shoto is --- a collection of guntos and jimas and shimas. There are three gunto groups. Okinawa Gunto being in the middle with Sakashima Gunto, which the British hit the other day, to the southwest and Amami Gunto to the northeast. In the Okinawa Gunto group there are about 60 islands, but only a few of them are of any importance. Okinawa Jima is the largest and most important single island. In addition to being the biggest and most populous single piece of real estate in the Nansei Shoto, it is also the seat of Japanese Shoto defense headquarters.

Nobody ever paid much attention to Okinawa and the rest of the islands before the war started; there never was any reason to. The Japs and the Chinese had several arguments about who the islands belonged to, and in the final dispute the Japs came out ahead. Back a heck of a long time ago the Okinawans in comparison with the rest of the world were about equally civilized. They had a king and a queen and did business with a lot of countries. The trouble was they didn’t have anything to do business with and weren’t getting anywhere anyhow. The Chinese came along and set up head quarters and took over local management about 700 A.D. However, it was easier for the original Jap to island hop and so he and a lot of his friends came along and ran out the Chinese in the 19^th century.

This caused quite a stink for a while and the Japs and Chinese raised a lot of rumpus which cooked up the first good Chinese – Japanese brawl back in the 1800’s. Meantime, the Okinawans were having a dickens of a time picking the winner and consequently were sitting on both sides waiting for the final decision.

The Sino – Japanese war in 1894 settled all arguments and the Japs took over, but the imprint of ancient Chinese culture had left its mark and it still remains imbedded in the island’s customs and traditions even today.

During all of the argument over who was going to win the real estate, Japanese pirates were doing business from islands around Okinawa. The pirates would hide in the bays of the numerous islands and make forays to raid China coastal traffic. Occasionally they carried out commando raids and collected up a group of Chinese women to take back to their hideouts. As the Japanese strain and the Chinese strain became intermingled the resultant product was a sort of a cross that didn’t speak either Japanese or Chinese and looked like both, but not like either. Anyway, they didn’t care who took charge of the islands on account of up to then it wasn’t interfering with them in their business anyway.

Physically they differ slightly from usual useless Jap. Okinawans are small, dark and may have either wavy or straight hair.

There are about 820,000 people in the Nansei Shoto group. Of these 450,000 are on Okinawa, while the rest are spread around Shoto. Almost all of the islands, except the very smallest, have some sort of inhabitation.

It’s better to be away from Okinawa than in it. There is no particular reason for a person to want to settle down and spend the rest of his life around the Gunto. There are no industries, no good education and health conditions are poor.

The largest city is Naha, which has about 65,000 inhabitants. It has been reported almost totally burned since the attacks commenced on the island several months ago. There are no tall buildings and modern conveniences. Other larger towns are Shuri 17,000, Toguchi 20,000, Okaneku 17,000, Itoman and Yonabaru 5,000.

No one ever seemed to care much about stopping off for any period of time in the Gunto. Last time a census was taken it showed the outsiders numbered 204 Formosans, 48 Chinese, 20 Koreans, 10 Russians and a couple of Americans (who probably were stranded tourists). This population probably has been changed since the war with a lot of labor battalions being sent in to work on military installations.

The cops are Japanese but they aren’t very busy. There isn’t much crime in the Gunto, mainly because there’s not much of anything to commit a crime over. There’s a bit of petty thievery, but that’s about all. The Jap police are easy to bribe and usually are open to inducement.

According to the way things are run in Japan proper there’s only one political party in the Gunto. This is called the "Imperial Rule Assistance Association," and a guy either belongs to that party or he doesn’t fool around with politics. Doesn’t make much difference anyhow – if the Japs don’t like who was elected in the one-party election, they put in some guy they had picked out already for the job.

The standard of living is lower than in Japan, which would make it lower than the dickens by American standards. Dress is usually according to American and European styles, but a guy in Okinawa can wear just about anything he wants and get away with it. There is no outside influence other than Japanese. As far as Okinawa is concerned its world lies only up the chain of islands to Japan proper. There are about 1500 radio sets in the island, but it’s against the rule for Okinawans to listen to outside broadcasts. The Japs spend all their time bragging about the invincibility of the Japanese empire and trying to convince the Okinawans that the democracies are greedy and off the beam.

During an invasion the Okinawans probably would give active resistance to the invaders, but soon after discovering there’s money, food and freedom of thought and life behind Allied lines they probably would change their mind. Okinawans don’t lose any love for the Japs. The Japs consider them socially inferior and treat them as lower caste peoples. The languages are even different.

Just about the meanest and most dangerous of all snakes the Habu, Hime-Habu and Mamushi are found in Okinawa. There are three kinds, all of them smaller than our American rattlesnake out mighty plentiful and the bite of any one of them is fatal. Wild boars are a menace and will disagree with anything or anybody in sight. Flies are prevalent. All types of diseases are found, including all the known vernal diseases plus some new ones.

No one will ever freeze to death in Okinawa, nor will he suffer heat prostration. The climate always is fairly mild and compares with California, even to the rain and fog. The land is hilly and mountainous but the terrain is not rugged. The beaches are forward from coral, and the usual coral reefs abound.

When the Japs had enough of a navy to conduct war games before they started war with the United States, Okinawa was the scene of the fleet problems. There are two great fleet anchorages on the west coast. From the west coast of Okinawa to the China coast is but a short distance and the water throughout the East China sea is less than 100 fathoms deep.

From Naha, the principal town it is 845 miles to Tokyo. Other distances Pearl Harbor 4,000, Ulithi 1,200, Saipan 1,2000, Iwo Jima 750, Manila 790, Hong Kong 780 and Shanghai 450. It is easy to see that control of this island means an opportunity to bomb and control the Japanese empire.

In the Gunto proper there could be constructed numerous airfields. These would range from the big fields for the B-29’s, down to little strips for fighters and observation planes.

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