What is the historical background against which we should understand the meaning of the US military presence on Okinawa Main Island and the local protests it provoked? This background has been most usefully illuminated by the idea of a ‘historical narrative of victimization’, which focuses not on a single event or period but on a succession of marginalizing events1

that stretches back to the days of the Ryu¯kyu¯ Kingdom. This dominant narrative . . . is punctuated with keywords like Ryu¯kyu¯ Shobun, sotetsu jigoku (palmtree hell – the starvation period of the 1920s), tetsu no arashi (the Typhoon of Steel: Battle of Okinawa) and fukki (reversion). This historical narrative of victimization culminates in the kichi mondai (base issue) and Okinawa’s unfair treatment at the hands of the central government.