Permanent Exhibit
Room１ (Road
to the Battle of Okinawa)
 Shows the
course of Okinawan history leading up to the Battle of Okinawa and its
causes.
The Meiji government executed the ∩Ryukyu
Disposition" with threats of force against the Ryukyuan court, and annexed
the kingdom as a prefecture of Japan. Consequently Okinawa
became rapidly japanized under the assimilation policy aimed at making the Okinawans
as faithful subjects of the Emperor.
On the other hand, Japan, in a great rush for modernization,
adopted a policy to ∪enrich the country with a strong army∩ expanding armaments
and setting out to invade its neighboring countries. The national war effort escalated
into the Manchurian Incident, the Shina-Japanese War and the Asia-Pacific War,
in which Okinawa became the last battle ground
of the so-called ∪15 –year war∩ that started in 1931.
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