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Okinawan laborers hired by the Army dismantled the thatched-roof huts and carefully numbered each beam and board. They were loaded on trucks along with rice bowls, bundles of clothing, pans and mats. A few hundred yards away on the other side of the highway, they were unloaded in neat piles. Over a cup of tea, one of the Okinawan drivers sympathized with a dispossessed farmer. "This touches me to the quick," he muttered. He waved one arm in the direction of a sleek U.S. installation. "Like kings," he said. Of 50,000 dispossessed farmers, 92% have appealed for redress.
"Our mission is to defend this island and to ensure its uninterrupted use as a military base," says General Moore. "If we don't have land to train on, we might as well send our troops back home." But if the U.S. wants to be secure in its new island fortress and in the esteem of watching Asia, it must reach decisions soon on how it is to compensate, and how generously, for the land it has taken. Occupation, even with CinemaScope and four-lane highways, never was easy.