military bases. okinawa is 1% of the landmass of japan, and yet what percentage of the military bases are here on okinawa? almost all of them. okinawa seems to be asked to make a lot of sacrifices for the mainland. will that ever stop? you are talking about nimby. not in my backyard. yes, yes.
the ring of island fortresses protecting japan 300 miles away. on april 1st, 1945, a u.s. invasion fleet of nearly 1,500 ships, a landing force of 182,000 people, that s 75,000 more than normandy, approached okinawa. what came next was what okinawans called a typhoon of steel. having island hopped across the pacific, allied forces saw okinawa as a key base for fleet anchorage, troop staging and air operations for the final push into the japanese mainland and victory. the fighting was brutal for both sides. the cost in lives and resources for the allied forces was tremendous. and when it was over, military planners looked at the mainland, looked at what okinawa had cost them, and projected even more appalling losses.
tyson, their handlers raise these beasts from calfs, training them, conditioning them to be monsters in the ring on the other. yeah. does one wager on this? i guess the official answer would be that gambling s illegal in japan, but intermission. time for a corn dog, some funnel cake, curly fries? no. better. much better. yakitori. yes, they have that. but when in okinawa, do as the okinawans do, yak soak
what came next, we all know. what is not widely known is that more people died during the battle of okinawa than all those killed during the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki. so they had to keep the military forces as long as possibility in okinawa so they could prepare the defenses to protect mainland japan. so ever since that battle of okinawa, okinawan people say we were sort of, what do you call it sacrificed? yes. uh-huh. masaharu ota is the former governor of okinawa.
one thing i keep coming back to every time i come back to japan. one thing that still has an unholy grip on me. for no reason that i can gather. it s the convenience store formerly of mere akron, ohio, that mutated into a massive japanese chain. behold the wonder that is lawson. what is it exactly about this place? it s got its tentacles to deep into my heart and myself. where are you? i know you re around here somewhere. pillows of love. egg salad from lawson.