The Role of the Bridge Connecting the Islands of Hamahiga and Okinawa
Hisamitsu MIYAUCHI and Jun SHIMOZATO
This study has been conducted on the island of Hamahiga, Katsuren-cho.
Okinawa Prefecture in Japan since the latter half of the 1950's to observe
the dynamics of population and to determine various factors that have caused
changes and differences among different settlements on the island in relation
to the changes in the industrial structure. The construction of Hamahiga
Bridge in 1997 connected the island and hich resulted in an increased number
of households and population of the Inain island of Okinawa, w Hamahiga
island. The residents of the island who have moved in after the completion
of Hamahiga Bridge were interviewed to confirm their attributes, occupations,
types or category of moving in, and types of houses. The results of our
studies may be sumnlarized as follows :1. The island of Hamahiga was designated
as a source of supply of vegetables for the United States military installations
in Okinawa in the 1950's. A horticulture cooperative society, which collectively
shipped all vegetables including watermelon, green pepper, and onion for
individual farmers to the military bases, was established in each settlement
on the island. However, Iess expensive vegetables have been imported to
Okinawa from Taiwan since the 1960's and replaced the most of Hamahiga-made
vegetables for the U.S. military bases. The farmers on Hamahiga inevitably
faced difficulties due to the reclined demand for their vegetables and
being small sized farmers . Many farmers also did not have sugarcane fields
to compensate decreased demand for other vegetables. Therefore, many farmers
had to turn to other sources of income such as construction labor in the
central district of the main island of Okinawa. 2.As a result, the population
of Hamahiga Island decreased approximately 20% every five (5) years in
the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The downsizing of the population was especially
obvious in the settlement of Higa-district where most ofthe residents depended
on farming to make their livings. Besides, the residents