In 1959, with a passport issued by USCAR (United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands) , I went to Tokyo as a scholarship student. The nationality at that time was “Ryukyu,” and I sat in the front row alongside Southeast Asian students at the university’s entrance ceremony. Okinawa was part of Japan but was treated as a foreign country.

“The 60-year struggle for Japan-US security” became a trigger to think about the relationship between the return of Okinawa and Japan-US security. In 1963, I returned home. At that time Okinawa was under the situation of the Kokuba-kun issue. Mr. Kokuba was crossing with a green light when he was killed by a truck driven by a US soldier, who was found not guilty. The words of junior high school students who appealed at the protest rally are still remembered. “If we cannot cross with the blue, what color should we cross with?” I was made shockingly aware of the reality of Okinawa and the mission of the teacher. After that, in class, we tackled the theme of “How to teach Okinawa.”

Faced with the need to prevent the bill to restrict teachers’ rights (in Japan, it was called the issue of kyoko-niho), high school teacher members of the Okinawa Teachers’ Association formed a union. I devoted all my energy to the education and return movement as its full-time general secretary. The efforts of “Special Class” were later tackled in all prefectures. That is because Shuri High School conducted “thinking Okinawa to 4. 28,” “6. 23 the day of memorial” was born from the “unified homeroom.

The postwar history of Okinawa was the history of people who barely survived from the battlefield of Hell, and the history of struggle against the absurdity and unreasonableness of the US military occupation control. To protect lives and livelihoods and to realize peace and democracy, it is inevitable to learn “Okinawa in the base.” As the Constitution says, “constant effort” was necessary to preserve the freedom and rights guaranteed by the Constitution. “Return to Japan” was its important process as the “constant effort.”