Okinawa People's Party

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Okinawa People's Party
沖縄人民党
Founded20 July 1947 (1947-07-20)
Dissolved31 October 1973 (1973-10-31)
Merged intoJapanese Communist Party
NewspaperThe People
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left

The Okinawa People's Party (Japanese: 沖縄人民党) was a left-wing, communist-led political party in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.[1][2] It was founded on 20 July 1947 and advocated the immediate return of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa Prefecture and the Satsunan Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) from the United States to Japan.[1] This was fully realized by the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, which took effect in 1972.[3] The People's Party merged with the Japanese Communist Party the following year and became the Communists' Okinawa prefectural branch.[4]

The People's Party worked closely with the two other Okinawan parties on the left: the Social Mass Party and the Socialist Party. Unlike their counterparts in mainland Japan, the three Okinawan parties shared offices and a few top-ranking members. The People's Party and the Socialist Party also had a formal alliance named the Prefectural People's Conference.[2]

However, unlike its two allied parties, the People's Party was explicitly anti-American.[1] Aside from Okinawa's return to Japan, the People's Party also advocated against the US–Japan Security Treaty and for peaceful relations with the Eastern Bloc.[1][2] The US administration in Okinawa consequently banned the party's publication, The People (人民), for several years.[5]

See also

  • Kamejiro Senaga, member of the Okinawa People's Party who served as mayor of Naha and then as a member of the House of Representatives for Okinawa

References

  1. Eldridge, Robert D. (2013). The Origins of the Bilateral Okinawa Problem: Okinawa in Postwar US-Japan Relations, 1945–1952. Routledge. p. 396. ISBN 978-1-136-71212-8. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  2. Cockburn, Cynthia (2012). Antimilitarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements. Springer. p. 164. ISBN 978-0-230-37839-1. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  3. "Okinawa Reversion". www.cas.go.jp. Office of Policy Planning and Coordination on Territory and Sovereignty. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  4. きょう沖縄人民党合流５０年 [Today marks the 50th anniversary of the merger of the Okinawa People's Party] (in Japanese). Japanese Communist Party. Retrieved 3 April 2026.
  5. Ishimine, Tomotaka (1964). A Short History of Okinawa 1945–1963. University of Wisconsin—Madison. p. 85. Retrieved 3 April 2026.