The Okinawans have good reason to distrust the sincerity of the mainland as it strives to 'understand their concerns'. Here is an article written by an Okinawan, Masayo Tomimura, which gives some insight into Okinawans distrust of the mainland, and their discomfort with the Japanese flag or 'Hinamaru'.

On October 1987, Mr. Syoichi Chibana burned the Japanese flag while it was being raised for the Kaiho National Athletic meet in Yomitan, Okinawa. This incident not only shocked Okinawans, but also Japanese. Why did Mr. Chibana do this? It is the same reason that Okinawans refuse to raise the Japanese flag at official events, which is related to Japan's emperor, the Japanese Imperial Military, and the World War II Battle of Okinawa.
Until the end of World War II, Japan taught its people their emperor was a god, and the flag was one of the emperor's embodiments. The Japanese Imperial Military took advantage of these teachings, and "Umi Yukaba," the Japanese Navy's anthem, is a good example of how they did it. "Listen" to the words:

This song shows us the emperor's influence on the Japanese people in those days. The relationship between the Showa Emperor (Emperor Hirohito) and the Japanese Imperial Military was very close. Okinawa was the only place where there was a land battle in Japan during WW ll, and it was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. In addition to the Japanese military people who died fighting in the Battle of Okinawa, more than one third of the civilian population, 100,000 people, died. The Okinawa victims were not only killed by bombs and shells, but also by the Japanese military. There were three incidents where the Japanese military killed Okinawans in the name of the emperor.

The Japanese military butchered Okinawans for many reasons. One of them was for non combatants who disturbed the Japanese military in their hiding places. During the battle, people hid in the many caves on Okinawa. At first, there were only civilians, but the soldiers also took refuge in the caves after the fighting became intense. During the many fierce battles, the babies in the caves started crying. Their mothers tried to stop the crying, but the soldiers, being afraid of being found by the enemy, murdered the babies at once. This brutality was not unusual to the Okinawans. They were also killed over small amounts of food. "At midnight, soldiers would wake up Oknawans and take them to the beach. Then they chose Okinawans at random and threw hand grenades at them. (Moriguchi, 1992)" Dead people do not compete for limited food supplies.The suspicion of being a spy was another reason why Okinawans were killed. We found classified World War II Japanese military documents describing punishment for Okinawans who didn't speak Japanese. They were declared spies, and killed for speaking their own language. Additionally, Japanese soldiers shot Okinawans who wanted to surrender to Allied Forces appealing to them to quit fighting. The Japanese military commanders were afraid of their subordinates losing their fighting spirit while watching civilians surrender. So they killed innocent people to prevent their troops from losing morale.

During March 1945, there was an intense battle on Yaeyama Island. The Japanese military forced people to evacuate from their towns to the mountains even though malaria was prevalent there. Okinawans, without food and medicine, lost 54% of the island's population to starvation and disease. After WW II, the government told us the Japanese military didn't know malaria was prevalent on Yaeyama Island, however we have found some evidence they knew about it before evacuating the Okinawans to the mountains. The bereaved families of the malaria victims filed a law suit against the government for its responsibility.

The Princess Lilies was an organization made up of girl students, 15 to 16 years old, who participated in the battle as nurses. There were seven girl's high schools in Okinawa at the time of WW II. The Princess Lilies were organized at two of them, and a total of 297 students and teachers joined the group and eventually served the Army as nurses. Two hundred and eleven died. Most of the girls were put into caves, which served as temporary clinics, and took care of injured soldiers. There was no medicine, food or water. Many of the young girls died while trying to get water for the wounded soldiers. The Japanese military also told these girls that if they were taken prisoner the enemy would rape and then kill them, and then gave the girls hand grenades to commit suicide with before being taken prisoner. One of the Princess Lilies explains this by saying, "We had a strict imperial education, so being taken prisoner was the same a being a traitor. We were taught to prefer suicide to becoming a captive. (Moriguchi, 1992)" Many students died saying "Tenno Banzai." which means "Long live the Emperor." Why did these girls participate in the battle? The board of education, made up entirely of mainland Japanese, required their participation. Teachers opposed to the board of education, insisting the students be evacuated to somewhere safe, were accused of being traitors. Yet the cowardly mainland Japanese on the Board of Education, who required their young girl students to participate in the battle, didn't participate themselves.

The allied forces attacked the Kerama Islands 15 times, killing 31 Japanese soldiers, taking 121 soldiers and 1,195 civilian prisoners. But these figures didn't include the 700 civilians who committed suicide, because of the mistakes in Japanese imperial military's strategy. The Japanese imperial military only planned for a naval battle at Kerama, not for the landing of traps. They also assumed the enemy would attack Okinawa first, so there were not enough soldiers and facilities on Kerama to protect the islands. The headquarters of the Japanese imperial military in Shuri, Okinawa, ignored the serious situation on Kerama. After WW II Col. Yahama, who was the chief of Staff on Okinawa, said, "We knew it was 50% probable the Kerama Islands would be attacked by land forces, but we took a gamble there would only be a navel battle.(Ota, 1977). The battle for the Kerama was getting intense and the people couldn't evacuate to anywhere on those small islands. Thus, they obeyed their cultural teachings to commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner. The Japanese imperial military gave them the hand grenades used to kill themselves for "the soldier; the emperor; Japan." "On March, 28, 1945, soldiers of the Allied Forces were bivouacked on Tokashiki island, and they heard several explosions at night. Later, they found 150 dead Okinawans. One man bound himself his two children and both parents with a sash, so they could all die together.(Ota, 1977)" This was only one of the incidents which eventually took 700 civilians lives in the Kerama Islands.

Why were so many Okinawans killed by the enemy, by the Japanese military, and by their own hands? The Japanese military educated imperialism to the Japanese people and used the flag as one of the symbols of the emperor. Japanese soldiers butchered Okinawans in the name of the emperor, forcing them to evacuate into mountains infected with malaria, compelling young girls to participate in the battle, and driving the 700 Kerama Islanders to commit suicide.

The Japanese flag reminds Okinawans about Japanese imperialism. Requiring Okinawans to raise the flag at official events makes Okinawans anxious. When the government makes them follow orders, it reminds Okinawans of the Japanese Imperial Military and the military's atrocities.
As an Okinawan, I hope we have learned from history and never have to suffer these misfortunes ever again.