In November 1968, immediately after the elections for Chief Executive called for by massive public activism, a number of base-related accidents occurred. First, a U.S. B-52 bomber crashed on take-off from Kadena Airfield and then a munition carrier crashed and overturned nearby. Okinawa during that period was an embarkation point for U.S. troops heading to Vietnam and the B-52s routinely took off for bombing runs to Vietnam. This was the context in which the Okinawan mass movements for pacifism and against war developed.
In 1970, at year's end, an accident occurred where a car driven by a U.S. soldier struck an Okinawan crossing an intersection in Nakanomachi, Koza City (Okinawa City). Residents, feeling resentment at the frequency of these incidents and the unfair handling of such cases, exploded with anti-U.S. sentiment and rioted. Over seventy cars were burned that night in the so-called Koza Riot.
This affair, occurring as it did in a town dependent on the U.S. military bases and by people regarded as obedient by the military authorities, came as a big shock to the American military. It also influenced the negotiations for reversion of Okinawa that were taking place between Japan and the United States.
The talks for reversion involving governments of both countries ignored the Okinawan people's hope for a non-nuclear island of peace and continued laying the foundation for a continued base presence on Okinawa. The Reversion Council decried the "Agreement between Japan and the United States concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands" and carried out general strikes throughout Okinawa.
Without concern for these events, the governments of Japan and the United States concluded the agreement with a joint signing in Tokyo and Washington in June 1971. The decisions made regarding the conditions of reversion ignored the demands of the Okinawan people. Okinawans, wanting a revision of the reversion agreement before ratification in the Diet, staged a massive demonstration calling for re-negotiation. However, despite the petitions brought to Tokyo by Chief Executive Yara the reversion agreement was forcibly voted on in the Diet.
