History Because it's located far from mainland Japan, Okinawa's history is fairly unique. In the beginning of the fourteenth century, three small kingdoms took shape on Okinawa Island: Hokuzan in the north, Chuzan around the middle, and Nanzan to the south. In the fifteenth century, Nanzan King Sho Hashi conquered the other two states and established the Ryukyu Kingdom, which prospered through trade with neighboring countries like China and Malacca (now Malaysia). In the early sixteenth century, the Ryukyu Kingdom came under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate that ruled Japan after it was defeated by the Satsuma (now Kagoshima) clan. The Ryukyu Kingdom retained its own royal system, though, until 1879, when it was renamed Okinawa Prefecture by the Meiji-era (1868-1912) government. After the Ryukyu Kingdom was fully incorporated into Japan as Okinawa, it embarked on a modernization drive under the Meiji policy of enriching the nation and strengthening the military. As the nation entered the Showa era (1926-89), the prefecture became involved in the war in the Pacific. During World War II, it was the scene of an intense ground battle that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, including many civilians. After the war, Okinawa came under the control of the U.S. government. An agreement was signed in 1971 to return it to Japan, and the prefecture reverted to Japanese rule the following year.