Naha , Okinawa's capital, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island. Although Okinawa Prefecture comprises just 0. The indigenous people of Okinawa Prefecture are the Ryukyuan people , comprising the Okinawan , Miyako , Yaeyama and Yonaguni subgroups.
The oldest evidence of human existence on the Ryukyu islands is from the Stone Age and was discovered in Naha [8] and Yaeyama. The first mention of the word Ryukyu was written in the Book of Sui. Also during this period, many Gusukus , similar to castles, were constructed.
The Ryukyu Kingdom entered into the Imperial Chinese tributary system under the Ming dynasty beginning in the 15th century, which established economic relations between the two nations. In , the Shimazu clan , which controlled the region that is now Kagoshima Prefecture , invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom.
The Ryukyu Kingdom was obliged to agree to form a suzerain-vassal relationship with the Satsuma and the Tokugawa shogunate , while maintaining its previous role within the Chinese tributary system; Ryukyuan sovereignty was maintained since complete annexation would have created a conflict with China. The Satsuma clan earned considerable profits from trade with China during a period in which foreign trade was heavily restricted by the shogunate.
Although Satsuma maintained strong influence over the islands, the Ryukyu Kingdom maintained a considerable degree of domestic political freedom for over two hundred years. Four years after the Meiji Restoration , the Japanese government, through military incursions, officially annexed the kingdom and renamed it Ryukyu han. Ryukyu han became Okinawa Prefecture of Japan in , even though all other hans had become prefectures of Japan in A third of the civilian population died; [19] a quarter of the civilian population died during the Battle of Okinawa alone.
