My diploma thesis is engaged in position of Okinawa within the frame of the postwar Japanese-American relations, in a context of military bases, local and central government and security policy. The thesis is divided into several thematic parts - Japanese-Okinawan relations in modern period, circumstances of the battle of Okinawa, post-war American administration, process of reversion of Okinawa, Okinawa within the Cold War period, and Okinawa from end of bipolar world period in 1989 up to present. Thesis describes the three- way relationship between Okinawa, Japan and United States from economic, cultural and political viewpoint, all with regard to the ever-present military bases. Keywords Okinawa, Japanese-American relations, reversion.

Throughout the period following Pearl Harbor, as one crisis in Japanese-American relations followed another, the American public opinion was divided. Some newspapers and personalities feared that there would be war over the San Francisco school board crisis, while others believed that talk of war was ridiculous. Partisan politics often affected the course of affairs on the Japanese question.