Flag of the Ryukyu royal family.
The Ryukyu Independence Movement, also known as the Okinawa Independence Movement or the Ryukyu Restoration Movement, refers to the independence movement of Okinawa and its affiliated islands (Ryukyu Islands) from Japan.
The Ryukyu Islands had long been an independent state, and in 1609 the Tokugawa shogunate invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom, forcing the kingdom to pay tribute to the Satsuma Domain, although the Ryukyu Kingdom was allowed to retain its independence and relations with China, which lasted until the mid-19th century. In 1872, Emperor Meiji unilaterally announced that the Ryukyu Kingdom would be transformed into the Ryukyu Domain, which is known as the "First Ryukyu Domain". However, due to the diplomatic pressure of the Qing Dynasty at that time, the Ryukyu Kingdom maintained a semblance of independence. It was not until March 27, 1879 that Meiji** officially annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the Ryukyu Islands were incorporated into Okinawa Prefecture, and the Amami Oshima Group was incorporated into Kagoshima Prefecture, which was the "Second Ryukyu Disposition". The last king of the Ryukyus, Shotai, was forced to move to Tokyo, and many of the Ryukyus who were dissatisfied with Japanese rule died in the Qing Dynasty and were called Toqing people. Although there was a proposal for restoration due to the intervention of the Qing Kingdom and the United States, the Ryukyu Kingdom was opposed by King Shōtai and the Ryukyu clan because it would be forced to cede a large amount of territory to Japan after the restoration. Although the Ryukyu aristocracy has been resisting Japan's annexation in various forms for more than ten years after the fall of the country, with the defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was no longer able to support the restoration of the Ryukyu Kingdom. The death of the last Ryukyu king in 1901 once again weakened the archipelago's historical ties to the former kingdom. The current independence movement emerged mainly after the end of the Pacific War in 1945, and some Ryukyuan believed that with Japan's defeat, the Allies should help restore the Ryukyus rather than return sovereignty to Japan. However, in accordance with the 1971 Okinawa Reunification Agreement, the Ryukyu Islands will be formally returned to Japan on May 15, 1972. The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty signed in 1952, which provided for the continued U.S. military presence in Japan, and the U.S. continued to have a large U.S. military presence on the island of Okinawa, set the stage for a new political activism in the pursuit of Ryukyu independence. Activists of the Ryukyu independence movement believed that both the invasion of the Satsuma Domain in Japan in 1609 and the establishment of Okinawa Prefecture during the Meiji period were colonial annexations of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Activists have strongly criticized the abuses against the people and territories of the Ryukyus, both in the past and in the present, including the use of Okinawa land by the United States as a major military base. Okinawa occupies only 06%, but the garrison of the U.S. ** team accounted for 10 percent of Okinawa Prefecture4%, or 18 of the entire Ryukyu Islands8-20%。Over the years, the activities of the U.S. military in the Ryukyu Islands have attracted the attention of activists of the Ryukyu independence movement, and U.S. military personnel have committed many crimes in Okinawa, the most famous of which are the 12-year-old girl incident of the U.S. military stationed in Okinawa in 1995 and the Mike Brown Okinawa indecent assault incident. The continued presence of the U.S. forces is still a point of contention, especially over Futenma Air Base. The U.S. side has failed to deliver on its 1996 pledge to reduce its troop presence, and independence activists have highlighted the environmental impact of the U.S. base accepted by Japan on the islands.
History. Ryukyu Kingdom period
The Ryukyuan people are the indigenous people who inhabit the Ryukyu Islands and are ethnically, culturally, and linguistically different from the Yamato people on the main island of Japan. During the Sanzan period, the Ryukyu Islands were mainly divided into three political systems: Kitayama, Nakayama, and Nansan, and in 1429, King Shoba Shi unified the islands and established the Ryukyu Kingdom, with Shurijo Castle as its capital. The Ryukyu Kingdom formed a tributary canonization relationship with the Ming and Qing dynasties and became a tributary state of China. This tributary relationship gave political legitimacy to the rule of King Shangpazhi and provided many economic, cultural, and political opportunities in Southeast Asia under the leadership of China at the time, without any Chinese interference in the internal political autonomy of the Ryukyus[13]. The Ryukyu Kingdom maintained ** relations with Korea, Thailand, Japan, and other Southeast Asian polities, developing a unique political and cultural identity during this period. In 1609, the Japanese shoguns Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) invaded the kingdom due to the refusal of King Shoning to submit to the shogunate, after which the Ryukyu Kingdom was forced to pay tribute to Japan, but was allowed to retain and continue its independence and relations with China and **, an arrangement known as "double vassalization" and which lasted until the middle of the 19th century.
The period of the Great Japanese Empire
During the Meiji period (1868-1912), the Empire of Japan (1868-1947) began a program later known as the "Ryukyu Partition" in an attempt to annex the kingdom, which at first maintained a semblance of independence due to diplomatic pressure from the Qing Dynasty, and was indirectly ruled by the "Ryukyu Domain" established by Japan, known as the "First Ryukyu Partition". It was not until March 27, 1879 that Meiji** officially annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom, and the Ryukyu Islands were incorporated into the newly established Okinawa Prefecture, and the Amami Oshima Group was incorporated into Kagoshima Prefecture. The last king of the Ryukyus, Shōtai, was forced to move to Tokyo, and many of the Ryukyus who were dissatisfied with Japanese rule died in the Qing Dynasty and were called the Toqing people, which was the "Second Ryukyu Disposal". Based in Fuzhou, Beijing, and Tianjin, these people demanded that the Qing Dynasty negotiate with Japan on the Ryukyu issue, which is known as the Ryukyu Case. Japan's actions aroused the dissatisfaction of the Qing **, and with the intervention of China and the United States, Ulysses Grant of the United States ** proposed a plan to restore the Ryukyus to independent sovereignty, but it was necessary to divide most of the Ryukyu islands to Japan, and Japan initially agreed to the plan and proposed to divide the Miyako Islands and Yaeyama Islands to China in exchange for the right to China and the formal recognition of the Ryukyu islands. However, this plan was opposed by the Ryukyu king Shotai and the Ryukyu nobles, and the treaty was rejected by China. Although the Ryukyu aristocracy had been resisting Japan's annexation in various ways for more than a decade after its demise, with the defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was no longer able to support the restoration of the Ryukyu Kingdom. During the Meiji period, Japan** continued to suppress the national identity, culture, traditions, and language of the Ryukyuan people, assimilating them into the Yamato clan. The last monarch of the world, King Shotai, and his sons Shoin, Sho Soon, initiated a campaign to make Ryukyu an independent and autonomous prefecture, known as the Gongkai Movement, but ultimately failed. The death of the last Ryukyu king in 1901 once again weakened the archipelago's historical ties to the former kingdom. In 1945, the Battle of Okinawa broke out, killing about 150,000 civilians, or about one-third of the island's population, many of whom were forced to commit mass suicide by the Japanese army.
The period of American domination
In 1945, according to the Potsdam Proclamation, Japan gave up all its territory except for the four Japanese islands, and the Ryukyu Islands (including the Amami Islands in present-day Okinawa and Kagoshima Prefectures) were occupied by the United States and ruled in trust. In 1951, the United States and 48 other countries, representing the Allies, signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan, in which Japan agreed that the United States would have executive, legislative, and judicial powers over the Ryukyu Islands. According to the original U.S. plan, the Ryukyu Islands would become an independent state under the auspices of the United States, thereby further distracting Japan's potential for reconstruction, and the term "Ryukyu" was used several times during Paul Calaway's reign to stimulate nationalism among the inhabitants of Okinawa and to promote the idea of separation from Japan. In 1947, a group of newspaper reporters from Miyakojima said in a conversation with a leading U.S. politician: "The people of the Ryukyus want to be in the country called the Ryukyus. In the 1948 gubernatorial election held on Yonaguni Island, one of the three candidates was an advocate for the independence of the Ryukyus, and the left-wing political parties in Japan at that time, such as the Communist Party of Japan and the Socialist Party of Japan, also supported the independence of the Ryukyus. However, after the end of World War II, the world plunged into the Cold War, when the power of the Soviet Union and communist ideas spread rapidly in the corrupted world after the war, the Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taiwan, the United States lost its most important ally in the Far East, and the communist regimes on the Korean Peninsula and the Indochina Peninsula seized power and established socialist states. At the same time, communist ideas gained popularity in the war-torn Ryukyu Islands, where communist organizations such as the Amami Communist Party (later renamed the Amami Social Democratic Party) and the Ryukyu People's Party (later renamed the Okinawa People's Party) demanded the establishment of an independent socialist state on the Ryukyu Islands. Influenced by the so-called "domino theory," the United States believed that if it was to avoid further communism in Asia, it would have to take a hard line against the spread of communist ideas. Because, the United States decided to begin to impose strict control on the local **, vetoing the previously proposed Ryukyu independence plan. On the other hand, the U.S. military forcibly requisitioned the settlements and farmland of many local civilians to establish military bases, private owners were imprisoned in refugee camps, and U.S. military personnel committed thousands of crimes, large and small, against civilians, which greatly discounted the impression of the U.S. people and continued to oppose the United States. The strong rule of the United States in the Ryukyu Islands has stimulated the desire of the Ryukyuan people to return the Ryukyu Islands to Japanese rule. In 1960, the Okinawa Prefecture Council for the Return of the Motherland was formed, which advocated the return of the Ryukyus to Japanese rule. At the same time, Ryukyuan people's opposition to American rule intensified. In 1965, there was a peasant riot in Miyako; In 1970, there was the Hucha riots. In 1971, there were riots and a second riot. At this time, the United States was mired in the Vietnam War, which exhausted the American military, so under the instructions of Lyndon Jensen, the American ambassador to Japan, Lai Shihe, proposed to Japan that the United States had the consideration of returning the entire Ryukyu Islands. On June 17, 1971, the United States and Japan signed the Okinawa Return Agreement. The U.S. occupation of the Ryukyu Islands was opposed by leftists in Japan and the Ryukyus, and on November 10, 1971, the Okinawan General Strike police killed in Uraso, Okinawa. On the 14th of the same month, Japanese left-wing groups also held a demonstration in Shibuya, Tokyo, in support of the Ryukyu movement, for the Shibuya riots. However, the decision could not be reversed, and on May 15, 1972, the United States handed over the Ryukyu Islands to Japan.
After the return of power to Japan
Although the U.S. handed over the Ryukyu Islands to Japanese administration, the U.S. military still has a large number of military bases on the islands. The Ryukyu Islands occupy only 06%, but 75% of all US troops currently stationed in Japan are in Okinawa. Both Japan and the United States ignored the ** of the local Ryukyu residents and continued to reach agreements to ensure the maintenance and expansion of US military bases. One of the key slogans of the reunification campaign at that time was that the people of the Ryukyus would be able to enjoy Japan's post-war political freedom and economic prosperity after the reunification. However, after the transfer of the Ryukyu Islands to Japan, Okinawa's economy still lagged behind that of the Japanese mainland, and the US military facilities had a serious impact on the local economy and environment, and because of the presence of US troops, the Ryukyu Islands became one of the most dangerous areas during the Cold War, and they were only "victims" used to defend US hegemony. Ryukyuan people felt deceived, anti-American sentiment and independent ideas began to emerge again, and the crimes committed by the U.S. military in the Ryukyu Islands, such as the 1995 indecent assault of a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa Prefecture by the U.S. military** and Michael Brown Okinawa indecent assault, triggered many anti-American movements. The continued presence of the U.S. forces is still a point of contention, especially over Futenma Air Base. The U.S. has failed to deliver on its 1996 pledge to reduce its military presence, and independence activists have often emphasized the environmental impact of the U.S. base accepted by Japan on the archipelago.
Status quo. 
The headquarters of the Kariji Club, which supported the independence of the Ryukyus.
The presence of the U.S. team remains a sensitive issue in local politics, with the Ryukyuan people often openly critical of Japan, the emperor (especially Emperor Hirohito) and the U.S. side, and they have repeatedly held and even refused to sing the Japanese national anthem. For years, the Japanese emperor avoided visiting the Ryukyu Islands because he believed his visit might cause a stir, such as when independent activists threw Molotov cocktails at him during a visit to Okinawa in July 1975.
The criminal behavior of the US military has also sparked a trend of independent thought. The U.S. military in Okinawa is completely unfettered by the law and has extraterritoriality, and the philosopher Tetsuya Takahashi quoted a statistic pointing out that between 1972 and 1999, the U.S. military and its affiliates committed a total of 4,953 cases in Okinawa, of which more than 500 involved homicides, **, etc. The events of 1995 sparked a wave of nationalism in the Ryukyus. In 1996, Ryukyu independence activist and poet Akira Shinkawa wrote a book called "Okinawa: The Antithesis of the Japanese Nation-State", advocating against Japan and Ryukyu independence.
Between 1997 and 1998, the debate on Ryukyu independence increased significantly, and intellectuals held heated discussions and symposia that attracted national attention. In February 1997, a member of the House of Representatives asked what was needed to make the Ryukyus independent, and replied that it was impossible because the Constitution did not allow it. Nagajo Oyama, who was the mayor of Okinawa for a long time, wrote a best-selling book, The Okinawa Declaration of Independence, and said that Japan is not the motherland of Okinawa. Okinawa Prefecture Jiro (City Labor Union) prepared a report on autonomy measures. Some see Okinawa's autonomy and independence as a reaction to Japan's "structural corruption" and demand administrative decentralization.
In 2002, scholars of constitutional, political and public policy at the University of the Ryukyus and Okinawa International University initiated a project, the Okinawa Autonomous Research Group, where many seminars were held, in which they proposed three basic paths; 1) Take advantage of Article 95 of the Japanese Constitution and explore the possibility of decentralization 2) Seek formal autonomy with the right to diplomatic relations 3) Complete independence.
The topic of autonomy and even independence for the Ryukyus has entered mainstream politics in recent years, when Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Okinawa Governor Masahiro Nakai sparked opposition from the local population for granting permission for the US military to expand new military bases in the archipelago, and was defeated in the November 2014 election by Onaga Hiroshi, who was opposed to the relocation of Futenma and the autonomy of Okinawa. After taking office, Weng Chang maintained a strong anti-US military base stance and revoked his predecessor's administrative license to build new US military bases. The Liberal Democratic Party** then filed a lawsuit in court against Onaga for his move. At the end of 2016, Japan's Supreme Court ruled that Onaga's decision to cancel the administrative license was unlawful, and Onaga and Okinawa Prefecture** lost the lawsuit, allowing the U.S. military to expand its base. Onaga immediately expressed his intention to hold a referendum in Okinawa, and the people decided to expand the new military base, and he even hinted that a referendum on independence similar to Scotland would be held, but due to the pressure of ***, it still did not work out before his death.
On May 15, 2013, Yasukatsu Matsushima, a professor at Ryukoku University from Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture, and Tomochi Masaki, an associate professor at Okinawa International University, organized and initiated the establishment of an independent organization called the "Ryukyu National Independence Comprehensive Research Society". The society was formed by a number of university professors and politicians, social activists and members of civic groups in the Ryukyus, and the possibility of Ryukyu independence was to be promoted. While studying the experiences of other countries on independence, the Society will also look for opportunities to directly state its desire for independence to the United Nations. On the afternoon of May 15, the "Ryukyu National Independent Comprehensive Research Society" held a press conference in Okinawa Prefecture**, followed by an inaugural meeting at a university in Okinawa. The concept of independence is set on the "island of peace", and it is the first time that an independent consensus has been reached through the analysis of actual interests by considering the establishment of a buffer zone in East Asia to maximize the possibility of development.
In January 2015, the Japan Times reported that Yasukatsu Matsushima, a professor at the University of the Ryukyus, and other civil society groups pursuing autonomy in the Ryukyus called for the Ryukyu Islands to become an autonomous republic, and although he pointed out that many people believe that Japan will never ratify independence, according to Matsushima, Japan's ratification is not required because the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on self-determination. His team envisioned the creation of an unarmed neutral nation, where each island in the arc from Amami to Yonaguni could decide whether to join or not.
Local newspapers and folk refer to other Japanese people as "Yamato", and call themselves Okinawans, and the Japanese people also have "natives" (uneducated aborigines) and even Chinese, etc., during many protests, Japan transferred riot police from the mainland to prevent the local police from having sympathy for the locals, and in a protest in October 2016, riot police transferred from Osaka shouted at the crowd: "Idiot! Native! Shut up! caused an uproar, and afterwards *** extinguished the fire and said that "it is impossible to judge that the natives have discriminatory implications". * In October 2016, 65-year-old Hiroji Yamashiro, one of the leaders of the anti-al-Qaeda movement, was arrested for damage, and then re-arrested on suspicion of obstructing business after the expiration of the detention period.
On April 19, 2018, at the 17th Forum on Indigenous Issues held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA, Shinako Shinako, a member of Japan's "Ryukyu National Independence Comprehensive Research Society" who advocates "Okinawa independence", proposed that Japan should recognize Okinawans with inherent culture as "aborigines", and also called for solving the problem of the concentration of US military bases in Japan in Okinawa. He argues that the Ryukyus were once an "independent country" but were "invaded" by Japan in 1879 and are still suffering from "colonization and militarization." She also said that in the 1920s, researchers had taken human bones from cemeteries in Okinawa and brought them to universities outside the prefecture and were demanding their return, which led to the establishment of the Ryukyu Ethnic Remains Returnee Research Society. In addition, she said that the presence of US military bases raises threats to sexual violence against women and educational environments for children.
China's role
The Ryukyu Islands have a long history of close relations with China, and the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the two sides were very close. After the Ryukyu Kingdom was annexed by Japan, the Qing Dynasty also exerted diplomatic pressure on Japan, and a large number of remnants of the Ryukyu Kingdom went into exile in China, but after China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty was no longer able to support the restoration of the Ryukyu Kingdom.
Today's China** does not openly question Japan's sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands in its official position, and the Ryukyu Islands are considered part of Japanese territory in official documents and maps. However, as relations between China and Japan deteriorated, especially the issue of sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, the question of the ownership of the Ryukyus was raised from time to time on some unofficial positions. For example, in July 2012, China's state-run Global Times suggested that Beijing would consider challenging Japan's sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands. In May 2013, another official Chinese newspaper, People, published a similar article by two Chinese scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, saying that "the Chinese people should support Ryukyu independence," arguing that not only the islands of Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands, and the Penghu Islands will be returned to China, but the unresolved Ryukyu issue in history will also be reconsidered. There is no shortage of voices in China's online world that support Ryukyu independence. For example, Tang Chunfeng, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce, has claimed that "75% of the Ryukyu residents support Ryukyu independence" and that "the culture of the Ryukyu Islands was completely consistent with the culture of the mainland before the Japanese invasion." However, despite the increase in domestic voices in China, it is generally believed that this does not represent the views of China**, at least not the official position on the surface. However, these voices, mainly from the public, have provoked a strong response from Japanese political circles, such as Yoshihide Suga, who said that "Okinawa Prefecture is undoubtedly a Japanese territory historically and internationally." In 2010, the Preparatory Committee of the Chinese Ryukyu Special Autonomous Region was registered and established in Hong Kong, with businessman Zhao Dong as its chairman. The organization is active in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, with offices in Shenzhen. The group has also been in contact with Taiwan's Bamboo Union Gang and the China Reunification Promotion Party, a party that sent Chen Zhongxiong, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to visit the organization's office in Shenzhen in 2015, and in the same month, Chang Anle, the leader of the United Promotion Party, traveled to Okinawa for sightseeing and was received by the Xuliu Association cadres. Zhang Anle said, "Ryukyu's relationship with China in history is water, and it is his responsibility as a Chinese to let Ryukyu secede from Japan."
In December 2016, Japan's Public Security Investigation Agency issued a report saying that China** "formed an alliance with the Okinawa independence movement through academic exchanges, with the intention of creating a new cause in Japan**", but this finding was criticized by Okinawan scholars who support independence, saying that it is groundless, and that Japan will only use China as a shield.