Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the Ryukyu Islands with a geographic area of 2,280 km² (880 sq mi). Naha is its capital and largest city, with other major cities including Okinawa, Uruma, and Urasoe.
Okinawa Prefecture encompasses two thirds of the Ryukyu Islands, including the Okinawa, Daitō and Sakishima groups, extending 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) southwest from the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture to Taiwan. Okinawa Prefecture’s largest island, Okinawa Island, is the smallest, and southernmost of the Japan's main islands and home to a majority of the population.
Okinawa Prefecture’s indigenous ethnic group are the Ryukyuan people, who also live in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture.
These fascinating color photos were taken by Jim Roger Webb that show street scenes of Okinawa from 1970 to 1972.
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| East West Gift Shop |
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| Baby in the car |
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| Bingata production line |
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| Burned cars |
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| Bus driver |
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| Candy market |
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| Cute little girls |
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| Doll factory |
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| Doll making factory |
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| Flower lady |
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| Fresh meat |
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| Fresh octopus and squid at Kokusai market seafood |
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| Glass factory. Huge mountain of unsorted soda bottles, soon to be recycled into something beautiful |
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| Glass factory. Wrapping up the finished product |
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| Kokusai poultry market |
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| Living dolls |
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| Naha Civil Air Terminal |
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| Naha. A group of girls in their school uniforms walking on Kokusai Street |
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| Naha. Kokusai Dori Street |
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| Naha. Wakamatsu Street |
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| Naha. Wakamatsu Street |
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| Naha. Wakamatsu Street |
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| Nakagusuku Castle walls |
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| Ryukyuan dancers at Obon Festival |
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| Somebody important (presumably) |
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| Somewhere in Naha |
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| Standard day-to-day dress for the Okinawan business men |
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| Street musician |
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| The beautiful bride and her bridesmaids |
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| The gardener |
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| The groom and his family |
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| The women of Wakamatsu |
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| Three wheeling |
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| Todoroki Waterfall |
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| Watching under a blazing sun at Obon Festival |
Brings back many good memories from when I served with 62d MP Company, Camp Sukiran 1972/1974!
ReplyDeleteI was there at the same time. I Worked at Evans Dispensary as a medic. Went across the street to the Ebb Tide NCO club a few times. And lived at the barracks kitty corner from there. Camp Buckner just up the hill. Got my own place in Oyama just below MCAS after they closed the dispensary and our barracks Sept. 74 and transferred me to Machinato.
DeleteHad it good, real good!
Served in the USAF at Naha. While there, started the Tomigusuku Seisho Senkyo Kyokai Church near the Tomigusuku Koen park. Returned as missionaries in 1971, serving our Okinawan family some 18 years. The church is still going strong. Okinawa is our second home! Thanks so much for all the memory photos!
ReplyDeleteA lot of great memories. Served with the Army MP's 1973-1976 anda again with the USMC Cp Butler as a civilian employee 1993-1996
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures. Served at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma with MATCU-66. 76-77
ReplyDeleteThe US military presence in Okinawa for the past 78 years has been like living with a slowly metastasizing cancerous tumor. Get the US out of Okinawa and Japan forever.
ReplyDeleteWow I don’t really remember the street pictures but I do remember the Koza riots. I was there 69-70. I lived in Sukiran Futenma Housing and went to school at Port Wheel in Naha. I was in the first class of Port Wheel Nine if anybody remembers that.
ReplyDeleteI was there from 70-72 and remember the koza riots and the burning of cars at Kadena's main gate.
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