Mediating Environments: Ishikawa Hideaki and War-Damage Reconstruction in Occupied Japan and Okinawa, 1945–57

This paper explores the dynamics of U.S. Occupation policies regarding war-damage reconstruction in postwar Japan and Okinawa, focusing on Ishikawa Hideaki’s writings on cities and the environment. Okinawa remained under U.S. Occupation until its reversion to Japanese administration in 1972, embarking on a war-damage reconstruction path which was overshadowed by U.S. demands for military construction. However, to mitigate widespread opposition among Okinawan residents to its policies of military construction and land expropriation, the U.S. authority began to systematically invest in improving conditions of urban living in major Okinawan cities such as Naha in the 1950s. As part of this investment, urban planner Ishikawa Hideaki, renowned for his contributions in developing the War Damage Reconstruction Plan for postwar Tokyo, was invited by the Mayor of Naha in 1953 and 1955 to plan for Naha’s reconstruction. While existing literature has examined Ishikawa’s respective role in war damage reconstruction planning in 1940s Tokyo and 1950s Naha, limited attention has been given to the impact of US Occupation policies in mainland Japan and Okinawa on the formulation and implementation of Ishikawa’s planning initiatives. This paper adopts a comparative approach to analyze how Ishikawa’s writings on city planning and the environment played a “mediating” role in configuring the colonial power relations among U.S. authorities, Japanese/Okinawan officials, and local residents in both cities. Through the lens of Ishikawa’s interventions in shaping urban landscapes amidst geopolitical transformations, my paper seeks to provide new historical understandings on the divergence and convergence of U.S. Occupation policies on war-damage reconstruction, offering a nuanced perspective on the intertwined histories of occupation, reconstruction, and urban planning in Occupied Japan and Okinawa.