Currently in the news is the issue of Russia returning the northern islands to Japan. Although under different circumstances, okinawa also had its period under a foreign administration, the United States.

At Hedo Cape on the northernmost tip of okinawa stands the Memorial Tower for the Reversion of okinawa. The inscription on the tower, entitled Present People of Japan and the World, proudly hails the reversion of okinawa and explains the previous dissatisfaction of being separated from Japan.

The Ryukyu Islands were under U.S. military administration from 1945 to 1972. Since the beginning of U.S. military government control, a part of the okinawa populace crusaded in the reversion move- ment. On April 28, 1952 the San Francisco Peace Treaty came into effect between Japan and the allied nations of WWII, officially proclaiming the separation of the Ryukyu Islands and the rest of Japan.

April 28 had been and still is a date when Okinawans gather at Hedo Cape to look north across the waters to see Yoron Island beyond latitude 27 degrees north, which was the designated line separating the Ryukyu Islands from the Japanese territories.

On that historic date in 1952 Okinawan ships left from Ginama Port in Kunigami Village to meet with ships from Japan along the 27th parallel, linking up and promising to unite together some day. That evening bonfires were lit on Hedo Cape and on Yoron Island, stoking the fires of the reversion movement.

Japan being such a short distance from here, Cape Hedo became the memorial place for all Okinawans awaiting the reversion.