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In the 1950s and into the 1970s, "Interestingly, completely unofficial but very strictly observed social segregation took place among American servicemen. Thus, there were certain sections in Koza [now Okinawa City] in which only black American soldiers and airmen were welcome; other areas were recognized as being for whites only. Numerous official investigations were made of this segregated situation. The Government of the Ryukyu Islands (GRI) was urged to and did pass laws making such segregation illegal, but such laws were difficult to enforce. In the late 1960s the GRI passed laws outlawing houses of prostitution. Thus passed an old custom of having so-called licensed quarters which had flourished for over a century in districts such as Naminoue in Naha." [source: The Ryukyu Islands, McCune, 1975]

You can read of my own experience with the segregated area of Koza known as The Bush [HERE] when I was a medic in the early 1970s.

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