Why Are We in Okinawa?: A History of Violence

In this compelling history of Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Okinawa, award-winning journalist, Jon Mitchell, illustrates the long history of indigenous Okinawans’ subjugation by Japan and the United States, and how they have responded with one of the most resilient pacifist movements on the planet.

Jon Mitchell is an investigative journalist based in Japan and recipient of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan’s Freedom of the Press Lifetime Achievement Award. An expert in the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), his scoops often top the front pages and TV news in Japan - and they have featured in reports for the US Congress. Author of four acclaimed Japanese books about Okinawa, in 2021, Mitchell’s first English book, Poisoning the Pacific: The US Military’s Secret Dumping of Plutonium, Chemical Weapons, and Agent Orange, was a winner in the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual awards. In 2023, he received Japan’s most prestigious journalism prize, the Ishibashi Tanzan Memorial Journalism Award for public service.