The Return of the “Japanese Army” to Okinawa

On May 15, 1972, twenty-seven years after the end of the war, the US administration of the Ryukyu Islands finally came to end with their reversion to Japan. At the Budōkan Hall, an indoor arena built for the Tokyo Olympics, Prime Minister Satō Eisaku and US Vice President Spiro Agnew presided over a ceremony attended by around ten thousand people. Satō dabbed tears from his eyes as he celebrated the success of one of the main goals of his ten-year tenure as prime minister. Agnew declared that Okinawan reversion marked the beginning of a new era during which Japan and