In March 1945 the U.S. forces that landed on the Kerama Islands issued the Nimitz Declaration suspending all the political rights of the Japanese Imperial Government and declared the Nansei Islands under the jurisdiction of the Untied States Navy. From that date, Okinawa was severed from Japan for 27 years until the reversion on May 15, 1972. Okinawa experienced a very different kind of postwar life than did the mainland of Japan.
On April 1, 1945 the U.S. forces landed in the Hija area of Yomitan-son and began to establish military rule throughout the Nansei Islands.
In August of the same year Japan signed the Potsdam Declaration, ending the war. On that same day, at the invitation of the U.S. military government, Okinawan leaders from the internment camps held meetings in Ishikawa City in the central area of mainland Okinawa. This was the first democratic assembly of residents in postwar Japan. The result of that meeting was the formation of the "Okinawa Advisory Council." Mr. Koshin Shikiya was chosen to head the assembly. On April of the following year the Council became the Okinawa Civil Government, thus the Okinawan Legislature was established.
However, the military government appointed all the governor and assembly members. After that rule shifted from the U.S. Navy to the U.S. Army, and later on to the U.S. Civil Administration, but real power rested with the U.S. military.