PsyOps and Okinawan Culture

Editor: In Sept 2006, I received the following e-mail from Shizuo (Alex) Kishaba about a project to gather information about the role of PsyOps and its effect on Okinawan culture. A small group of us have already exchanged information with Alex. Individuals include:

E-Mail Introductions and interest of each of the above are given below

If you have any information you would like to share, please contact Mr Kishaba

Introductory Letter From Shizuo Kishaba

Dear Professor Yoho:

My name is Shizuo Kishaba and I am the chairman of the Ryukyu America
Historical Research Society, a non profit incorporated on Okinawa that is active in retrieving lost Okinawa cultural artifacts and is also involved in educational
programs to further academic achievements for Okinawa students.

I am writing for the sake of making contact with you and hopefully with the
intent of meeting you in the near future and interview you on the role you and others played in the various psychological operations on Okinawa in the 50`s and the 60`s up
to the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972. I would like to compile this
into a documentary next year to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Okinawa`s reversion to Japan.

Presently I am interviewing Ms Chizue Sesoko who worked at Machinato
(Makiminato) 7th Psychological Operations as the writer for the Ryukyu Legends in the Shurei no Hikari monthly magazine. She also worked as a girl scout director.

I am presently reviewing your homepage and hope to learn more about the
workings of your organization on Okinawa.

Sincerely,
Shizuo Kishaba
541 Arakaki, Nakagusuku, Okinawa
Japan 901-2422

Editor's Response

I responded to Mr Kishaba and asked him for more details. I also suggested that he contact George Lane who is also interested in Okinawan Culture and has been cited on the unit page previously. George was not in PsyOps but did serve on Okinawa and throughout Asia as a civilian electronic consultant working for the military. George also publishes a web page about the organization PACFO.

Dear Professor Yoho, Thank you for your reply. 

I am copying this for Mr. George Lane and I appreciate your recommendation as you say he was on our island in the 60`s and 70`s. Those were the days when Okinawa and also the rest of Japan as well were involved in the various governmental policy confusion of that era. 

I recall very vividly that Okinawa as one of the major staging area for supplies and transport during the Vietnam War during those years. Unfortunately I was still in my early teens in the 60`s and have to turn to the "veterans" of that era for information which I feel will help to better understand the Okinawa of today. Next year, May 15th marks the 35th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan.  I am assisting Yoshioka Ko, a documentary producer, formerly with Tokyo Broadcasting who spent his early years in journalism on Okinawa, to produce a one hour documentary in the US military efforts to "placate" the Okinawans in accepting military rule and dampen the public`s clamor for reversion.

The role that the psychological operation units played under the High Commissioners is quite interesting as various means were used in order to have the Okinawans accept the military bases. Shurei no Hikari magazine was one organ of communication used and of course the censuring of information was another.

The procuring of funds to support the SIRI (Scientific Investigation of the Ryukyu Islands) was another method utilized in order to differentiate the differences between  Okinawan  and  Japanese history and culture.  Our documentary will explore the efforts and the end results of the psychological operations in trying to head off the reversion campaigns by the various political parties on Okinawa and Japan.  Much of it coincided with the ongoing Vietnam War.  40 years later we still have not pinpointed what really occured on Okinawa and I am hoping that veterans such as yourself and George Lane will be able to enlighten us by recalling those days. I understand that memories fade but I hope that you will allow us to talk and listen to you during our visit  to the east and west coast of the U.S. in the near future.

Sincerely, Shizuo Kishaba Chairman Ryukyu America Historical Research Society (Incorporated)
541 Arakaki, Nakagusuku, Okinawa
Japan 901-2422


George Lane's Response

Dear Shizuo Kishaba:

Thank you for your correspondence on a subject near and dear to my heart.  I spent 5 wonderful years on Okinawa (1967 -72) and fell in love with the beauty of the island, its history and the most courteous people.  During my tour there, I met a wonderful young man who had just graduated from senior high school and could speak English fairly well.  He had grown up in Yakena and had not traveled more than 5 miles from his home village in all of his 18 years.  I asked him if he would like to be a guide and interpreter on my various trips to see as many of the historic sites on the island as I could on the weekends.  He agreed and thus began a life long friendship.  What was fun was that he had never seen many of the places but had heard the legends.  So he was just or more excited than I when we would find one of the more remote sites. [We covered all 67 miles of Okinawa including many nearby islands with the most memorable being 3 days on Kudaka Shima (birth place of all Okinawans).  Sadly, I fear he has died as I no longer get replies to my letters since 1990.

Now to the issue at hand.  I worked in Tobaru, near Koza City, for the United States Communications Electronics and Engineering  Installation Agency (USACEEIA) Pacific Field Office.  As an Officer and then a US Army Civil Service employee, I received the classified documents about Okinawa and the political situation over those 5 years.  They were amazingly inaccurate!!!!  The US Army position was that NO COMMUNISTS were active on Okinawa!  In 1968, I was in Hong Kong and picked up an English Communist newspaper there and read about the demonstrations being held on Okinawa on May 1st, 1968!   So it was obvious to me that the US propaganda was being aimed at both to the Okinawan people and to the US military personnel.

During my stay on Okinawa I had several projects assigned which involved working with the various psychological warfare and intelligence communities.  From 1970 until 72 I worked with the technical groups working out the issues for the reversion of Okinawa to Japan.  I have always felt that the reversion agreements were to the disadvantage to the Okinawan people.  But from what I have gathered from the Internet postings is that the Okinawan people are doing well.  My fear was that big business in Japan would buy out the island and leave the Okinawans as second class citizens.

Yes, there was a very concerted effort by the US Government to convince the Okinawan people that their history and origin was not Japanese.  I remember reading and hoping that Okinawa would become independent as a UN protectorate which was the prevailing propaganda at the time.  George Kerr's (Army) History of Okinawa promoted the Ryukyuan dynasty.  Shurei No Hikari also pushed that issue in their FREE color magazines.  Interestingly, the Chinese Communist party also pushed the notion that Okinawa was more Chinese than Japanese. [In 1974, I returned to Okinawa for a month and met with my good friend Akio from years ago.  We then traveled to Taiwan for a month (his first time to a foreign land).  While there we visited some of the aboriginal villages where Akio's Okinawan dialect was well understood by the older people there.  I still have no idea why the aboriginals could understand him when the Taiwanese could not understand a word!]   In the end, the Japanese Communist Party won out on Okinawa in 1972.  As far as I know that was the end of the Chinese influence on Okinawa.

I was mostly an observer on Okinawa but I did keep a number of items that may be of historical interest.  I have over 2 years of the Shurei No Hikari magazines both in Japanese and in English.  I will make a listing of the ones I have and send them soon.  I also have the briefing notes prepared by the 7th PsyOp staff for the US High Commissioner's visits to various islands and villages.  They contain historical facts, names of prominent people as well as socioeconomic material.

At the request of Prof. Yoho, I am in the process of documenting an unofficial history of PsyOp activities on Okinawa.  Much of the material has been obtained off the Internet and from my personal memories.  I have found about 40 pictures involving PsyOp/ Civil Affairs activities on Okinawa from 1945 through about 1960.  Several feature films were produced in Japan for showing on Okinawa with US propaganda themes and funded by the United States Information Agency.  Interestingly, I worked for that Agency here in Washington DC from 1983 until I retired in 1996 but knew nothing about their involvement on Okinawa except for the Voice of America station.

Let me know if I can be of any further help in your project.  In closing, I do firmly believe that the US position was to find a way for Okinawa to be independent of both the US and Japan.  But by the late 1960's it was obvious that the Communist Party was in control no matter how much the US Army said it wasn't.  Nixon had upset the Japanese Government by a surprise reconciliation with Red China [ping pong diplomacy] without prior consultation so he had to do something to improve the relations with Tokyo and that was the reversion of Okinawa.  But if I understand what I see and hear from Japan now is that the efforts by the US PsyOp groups to identify the differences between Okinawan and Japanese origins is playing well in the current media and renewed interest in Okinawa and her people. Perhaps it has even strengthened the pride of the Okinawan people and their remarkable history!

Best wishes for your project,

George Lane


Input From Warren Rucker

Editor: Warren was an Information Specialist in th 18th who served from 1962-63:

Folks..... One aspect of U.S. influence on Okinawa that hasn't been mentioned in this correspondence is the scholarship program. Though not funded through, or part of, psychological operations, the scholarship program created and cemented many Okinawa-U.S. relationships. In 66 - 67, while working as a  U.S. civilian educator on Okinawa, I taught an American studies/ESL evening course at the University of the Ryukyus. The students were Okinawan college graduates who were competing for a year or two of fully-funded (by the U.S. Government) college study in the United States.  In my one class alone (one of four or five such classes that year) were a future Vice Governor/Japanese Diet member (Tomon) and a university president (Toguchi). A review of U.S. - Okinawan relations and influence during the 60s would not be complete without taking a look at the scholarship program and the accomplishments of some of the students involved. I live in Virginia, about one-hundred miles south of Washington, DC. My wife and I are members of the Washington area Okinawa Kai.

Warren Rucker

E-Mail From Shizuo Kishaba to Rob Michael

Dear Mr. Rob Michael,

My name is Shizuo Kishaba (Alex). Chairman of the Ryukyu America Historical
Research Society, nonprofit incorporated.

We have compiled many documentaries related to Okinawa history and due to
Chizue Sesoko`s donation of her manuscripts to our society, we have decided to make
a documentary on her and her work with Shurei no Hikari as well as the 7th
psychological operations work during the tenure of General Paul Caraway when he
implemented his policy of separating Okinawa from Japan in contrast with the policy of the US State Department.   The holdings at the Military History in Carlisle show that
subsequent high commissioners were selected based on their compability with the State
Department and that Paul Caraway`s policies were put on the backburner as Nixon and
Sato began to make plans for Okinawa`s reversion.

We would like to interview individuals who were part of Shurei no Hikari as
well as members of the 7th psyop.  Tim Yoho mentiones that you were the assistant editor to the magazine and we are very interested in hearing about your work.  May we interview you for our documentary?

Do you remember the Ryukyu Legend writer, Chizue Sesoko?  She is around 84
years old now and we have interviewed her at length. Also would  you possibly know other Okinawans or Americans who worked in the Shurei no Hikari department who we can interview?

I am presently compiling a tentative schedule for our January trip to the
US.  We will first go to Hawaii to interview Carl Yasuda and work ourselves up to the East
Coast to interview Tim, George Lane, Warren Rucker, Tom Ransburg, and other former civilians who worked in the earlier Ryukyu military administrations.

Hoping to hear from you.
Alex kishaba
Chairman
Ryukyu America Historical Research Society, nonprofit incorporated
541 Arakaki, Nakagusuku, Okinawa, Japan 901-2422
tel: 011-81-90-9785-3370

Rob Michael