Together with the end of the Sino-Japanese War and the wave of modernization, there were moves to bring the culture and manners of the Okinawans into line with that of mainland Japan. In the first decade of the Showa era (1926-1988) this activity increased, even to the extent of having people change the pronunciation of the characters in their names to sound more Japanese.
The pending issue of rigid enforcement of the use of standard Japanese intensified as nationalist sentiment grew. In 1940 the prefectural authorities promoted enforcement of the use of standardized Japanese thorough such measures as coercion and prohibition as they took steps to "Eradicate Okinawan Dialect". The presence of such people as the Japan Folk Craft Association's Muneyoshi Yanagi (Soetsu Yanagi) in Okinawa who criticized the enforcement as going too far, ignited debates about dialect both in and outside the prefecture.
This controversy did not result in any definite conclusion but the enforcement of a unified system in Japan only got more coercive as Japan began the road to militarism and war. When the battle for Okinawa began the Japanese army regarded anyone using Okinawan dialect as a spy and used severe pressure on those who used it. During the battle there incidents where the use of dialect resulted in tragedy for those who used it.
The viewpoints of Yanagi and others began to have more influence after the war when reflection on the problems caused by contempt for Okinawans and the idea that Okinawa could simply be made to follow Japan. Reflection on these lead to reaffirmation of the richness of Okinawan culture.