Some background information on Okinawa...be sure to read the following post with the letter

Okinawa is in red at the bottom.

The name Okinawa means "rope in the open sea", a fairly apt description of this long stretch of islands between mainland Japan and Taiwan. Consisting of 49 inhabited islands and 111 uninhabited islands, Okinawa has a subtropical/tropical climate. During World War II, when heavy bombardment and suicidal Japanese tactics, including the use of civilians as human shields, killed 120,000 Okinawans or one fourth of their population at the Battle of Okinawa. Post-war they remained under U.S. occupation until 1972, and there remain several large American military bases on Okinawa Island. There have been a number of protests against the presence of the US military, usually after a high profile crime committed by a service member. However, the US bases contribute to the economy of the Okinawa main island. 5.3% of the Gross Prefectural Profit of Okinawa comes from the business related with the US bases. 

Okinawa-jima

Okinawa Island is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. The island has an area of 1,201.03 square kilometers. It is roughly 640 kilometres south of the rest of Japan.  The island is 7 miles wide at its widest part, but most of the island is only 2 miles wide.  

The island is 70 miles long.

A map of the island of Okinawa

Population: 1.385 million (2009)

Coral reefs

White sand beaches

Climate

The island experiences temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F) for most of the year. Okinawa and the many islands that make up the prefecture contains some of the most abundant coral reefs found in the world.  Rare blue corals are found off of Ishigaki and Miyako islands as are numerous species throughout the chain.

Food:

Okinawan cuisine is distinctly different from that of mainland Japan and bears notable Taiwanese influences. Okinawans too proudly proclaim that they use every part of the pig except the squeal and pork makes an appearance in almost every dish, including bits like ears, trotters and blood which are generally disdained by the Japanese. Even Spam has a distinct following.

Other Okinawan ingredients include vegetables rarely seen on the Japanese mainland such as bitter melon (ゴーヤー; gōyā) and purple yam (紫芋;murasaki-imo). Okinawan tropical fruits including mango, papaya, pineapple, dragonfruit and the sour lime-like calamansi (シークァーサー; shīkwāsā) are delicious when in season. Dark cane sugar (黒砂糖 ; kurosatō) is also a popular snack, eaten both as is and made into a vast variety of candies and pastries.

LANGUAGE:

Okinawa has its own language group, known as Ryukyuan (琉球語 ryūkyūgo in Japanese), which it shares (along with much of its culture) with the Amami Islands in Kagoshima prefecture. These languages are related to Japanese (together, they form the "Japonic family"), but are generally incomprehensible to Japanese speakers. The largest of these languages, the Okinawan language (Okinawan ucināguci, Japanese 沖縄語 okinawago), is spoken on the main island of Okinawa and the surrounding islands, and is not used much these days. Most people under 20 can't speak it, the most common exceptions being people who were raised by their grandparents and people who grew up in rural areas. To further complicate things, each of Okinawa's major islands has its own distinct dialect, some of which are different enough to be considered their own languages by some.