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Records of the Okinawa Prefectural Government

These are government documents created or acquired and kept by Okinawa Prefecture and the Government of the Ryukyu Islands (GRI) and its predecessors (the Okinawa Advisory Council, the Civil Administrations, the Gunto Governments, the Ryukyu Provisional Central Government) which were transferred to the Okinawa Prefectural Archives (OPA) by prefectural department.

The current Okinawa Prefecture was inaugurated on the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, and previous governments of Okinawa include the prewar Okinawa Prefecture inaugurated with the abolition of Sho Clan, and the Government of the Ryukyu Islands.

In order to fulfill the role of a government records center for Okinawa Prefecture, the OPA currently works to collect and organize materials generated mainly by the Okinawa Prefectural Government.

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Records of the Government of the Ryukyu Islands: 1945 to 1972

These materials consist of 160,000 documents from the Government of the Ryukyu Islands and its predecessors (the Okinawa Advisory Council, the Civil Administrations the Gunto Governments, the Ryukyu Provisional Central Government) which had legislative, judicial and administrative authority for the 27 years of U.S. administration. These are valuable materials that confirm the rights of prefectural residents, and are useful for historical research concerning Okinawa under the U.S. administration.

■Stacks for records of the GRI (Stacks 9 and 10)

A temperature of 21 to 22°C and humidity of 60% is maintained with 24-hour air conditioning.

■Land ownership applications: 1946 to 1951

Most of the valuation maps and public registers showing land ownership were destroyed by fire in the Battle of Okinawa, and these documents were created in the valuation surveys carried out under the U.S. administration. They are still used as evidentiary documents for establishing rights pertaining to land.

■ Military employment cards

The OPA holds approximately two hundred thousand military employment cards from 1946 through 1966.

The U.S. Military Government (Navy and Army) and the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) had created Individual labor record cards to manage Okinawan citizen laborers working at U.S. military facilities.

After being transferred from the USCAR to the Employment Department of the Ryukyu Government in 1956, they were transferred to the Historiographical Institute of the Ryukyu Government and to the OPA in 1995.

■ Okinawa Advisory Council proceedings: January to March, 1946

■ Letters exchanged with the U.S. Military Government and Civil Administration: January to May, 1954

■ Papers relating to petitions for military land: 1958

■ Papers relating to removal of chemical weapons in Operation Red Hat (military correspondence): 1969

■ Papers relating to the Ishikawa Incident: June 30, 1959

■ Poster recruiting migrants to South America with a map of migrant settlement areas

■ Papers relating to the Preparatory Commission (Reversion of Okinawa) Minutes of the 9th Representative Committee: 1972

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Chief Executives of the Government of the Ryukyu Islands

■ 1st Chief Executive: Shuhei Higa (April 1, 1952 to October 25, 1956)

■ 2nd Chief Executive: Jyugo Toma (November 11, 1956 to November 10, 1959)

■ 3rd Chief Executive: Sesiaku Ota (November 11, 1959 to October 30, 1964)

■ 4th Chief Executive: Seiho Matsuoka (October 31, 1964 to November 30, 1968)

■ 5th Chief Executive: Chobyo Yara (December 1, 1968 to May 14, 1972)

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Records of the Okinawa Prefectural Government: 1972 to the present (Includes papers from before the war and the period of U.S. administration)

This collection comprises official documents created by the various organizations of Okinawa Prefecture mainly from the reversion of Okinawa to Japan on May 15, 1972 to the present.

The OPA selects and preserves historically important items from official prefectural documents when their retention period has elapsed. These include documents from the office of the Governor, the Board of Education and other administrative offices. They are then made available for general use.

Administrative work begins and ends with documents, and the official documents record different aspects of the decision making of the prefectural officials.

The materials include items concerning important prefectural measures, the problems relating to U.S. military bases, land development, and events (Wakanatsu Kokutai, Expo 75, Uchinanchu Festivals and so on). Other materials relating to the prewar Okinawa Prefectural Yaeyama Office and malaria outbreaks during and after the war are available.

■ Papers relating to administrative change from Governor Chobyo Yara to Governor Kouichi Taira

■ Minutes of prefectural government sessions 1972, Sessions 1 to 35

■ Papers relating to approval for replotting planning and allocation of replotted land in accordance with the Land Improvement Law

■ Intermediate Storage for the records of the Okinawa Prefectural Government

Okinawa prefectural documents received by the OPA are kept in intermediate storage and a catalog is prepared for each storage container. Among these, historically important documents that pass secondary screening are entered in the main database and are put in acid-free paper folders and kept for storage in the stack.

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(Publications)

Publications issued by the GRI and Okinawa Prefecture are also collected and organized as apart of the Okinawa Prefectural documents.

■ Ryukyu Statistical Yearbook