Okinawa as US state post 1945?

Divine Intervention? The US had no desire to take over Okinawa. Too heavily populated and no historic US ties = grueling occupation.
 
When stationed there in the 1980s I learned the difference between the Okinawans and the Japanese immigrants. The older Okinawans considered the Americans as much Interlopers as the Japanese. My take is they'd had zero interest in US affiliation.
 
Japan is divided into American, Soviet, British/Australian, and Chinese Occupation zones. Upon reuinification, the country is made to be a Switzerland-style neutral entity.

The US decides to hold on to Okinawa because of the importance of Soviet containment. Without the need to try and placate Japan here, the US doesn't have an issue with outright annexing the keystone of the pacific.
 
Japan is divided into American, Soviet, British/Australian, and Chinese Occupation zones. Upon reuinification, the country is made to be a Switzerland-style neutral entity.

The US decides to hold on to Okinawa because of the importance of Soviet containment. Without the need to try and placate Japan here, the US doesn't have an issue with outright annexing the keystone of the pacific.
Darn, you beat me to this, though granted the scenario I would have proposed is something along the line of Decisive Darkness with the Keijo coup succeeding and Operation Downfall happening and the US annexing the island in question just after the Japanese unconditionally surrender in 1946; and that some ethnic cleansing happens in the process (mainly with the Japanese population being forcibly relocated out of there).
 
If you ask the average Okinawan Okinawa is still under US occupation. Recent expansion or relocation of US bases is done under direction from Tokyo over local objections.
 
Top