`ky..... Click the link for more information. archipelago. Naha Naha (nä`hä), city (1990 pop. 304,836), on Okinawa island, in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan.
..... Click the link for more information. is the largest city and chief port. Okinawa is a long, narrow, irregularly shaped island of volcanic origin with coral formations in the southern part. The northern part is mountainous, rising to 1,657 ft (505 m), and has dense vegetation. Most of the island's population is in the south. Okinawa has a humid subtropical climate. Sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and rice are grown, sugar is refined, cattle are raised, and fishing and tourism are important. There is some light industry in Naha.
Okinawa was the scene of the last great U.S. amphibious campaign in World War II. U.S. army and marine forces landed there on Apr. 1, 1945, and fought one of the bloodiest campaigns of the war, while the navy offshore suffered heavy damage in resisting attacks by suicide planes (see kamikaze kamikaze (kä'məkä`zē) [Jap.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The Japanese garrison, having lost 103,000 of its 120,000 men, ended organized resistance on June 21, 1945. U.S. casualties were 48,000, one fourth listed as dead. Okinawa was placed in Aug., 1945, under a U.S. military governor and remained under U.S. control until May, 1972, when it was returned to Japan. U.S. military bases were allowed to remain on the island; about three quarters of the American forces based in Japan are in Okinawa. Opposition to the bases from local residents grew in the mid-1990s, and in 2006 the United States and Japan agreed on a plan to redeploy 7,000 U.S. marines to Guam.
Bibliography
See J. Belote and W. Belote, Typhoon of Steel: The Battle for Okinawa (1970).
Okinawa
Island of Japan, located in the Ryukyu archipelago, in the East China Sea. The largest island in the Ryukyu chain, it is about 70 mi (112 km) long and 7 mi (11 km) wide, with an area of 466 sq mi (1,206 sq km). It was the site of severe fighting between the U.S. and Japan in World War II. In April 1945 U.S. troops made an amphibious landing there, which was heavily defended by the Japanese. In a three-month-long campaign, both sides sustained heavy casualties before U.S. forces gained control of the island. In 1972 the United States returned jurisdiction over Okinawa to Japan, though the U.S. military continued to maintain installations there.
Okinawa
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