402 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 47 



sanitation, and medical care took heavy toll. One out of eight died 

 as a result of the invasion and the losses of able-bodied men and of 

 infants were proportionally much higher. 



The Okinawan civilians were crowded into Military Government 

 camps back of the lines (see pi. 2). Until the salvaged food in the 

 area of these camps was exhausted, most interned Okinawans were 

 fed enough to sustain life. None were fat, and emaciation, while not 

 the average condition, was common enough. By early summer, their 

 losses in body weight were not as great as their hardships would lead 

 one to suppose. 



In midsummer of 1945 most of the 300,000 civilians were transported 

 to new Military Government camps in the more barren northern part 

 of Okinawa. There they suffered great privations despite American 

 efforts to take care of them properly. Housing was most primitive 

 (see pi. 4, lower) , sanitary facilities and water supply were meager, and 

 food was considered abundant if one day's supply was on hand. In 

 the early fall a nutritional survey (Culbert and Lewis, 1945) reported 

 that 10 percent were on the borderline of starvation, while 43 percent 

 showed signs of early malnutrition. Average body weights taken by 

 ages were down 10 percent as compared to the early summer figures. 



Commencing in the late fall of 1945, the internees were gradually 

 released and permitted to settle in their home areas. The homes of 

 90 percent of them had been destroyed during the invasion, and many 

 of their fields had been ruined or were reserved for military installa- 

 tions. Part of the tremendous task of resettling involved aiding them 

 in building new homes, reclaiming and releasing arable land, and 

 feeding and clothing them until they could become self-sufficient. 



The problems of Military Government were somewhat less difficult 

 on the less war-torn islands. In 1947, however, the total Ryukyu 

 acreage planned for cultivation was only about 60 percent of the pre- 

 war figure. This reflects the over-all dislocation of Ryukyu economy, 

 and explains why even in the first half of 1947, one-third of the food 

 consumed in even the most basic rations had to be imported from the 

 United States. These imports are being gradually reduced, pending 

 the time when the Ryukyus will be self-sufficient in food supply. 



While this reconstruction of Ryukyu economy was going on, over 

 200,000 Rynkyuans from all over the Pacific were brought back to 

 their homeland. This repatriation began in early 1946 and was vir- 

 tually completed that year. This brought the June 29, 1947, popula- 

 tion to 44,000 more than the early 1944 figure, so that the RyulDj^us are 

 now as overcrowded as they ever were. The current hope for render- 

 ing the Ryukyus self-sustained in food supply is the work of mechan- 

 ized land-reclamation teams, cooperating with the farmer's associa- 

 tions. If all the arable land is utilized (see p. 386), it may be suffi- 

 cient to support the present population. Rehabilitation of the fishing 



