okinawa

The bigger problem with the Tokyo-Okinawa route as a hyperloop candidate is that Okinawa is an island far away from the main islands of Japan (kind of like Hawaii).

For the allies to take over Okinawa island, it took 80+ days of near constant combat, resulting in U.

Having lived in both mainland and Okinawa, the cultures are rather starkly different as well - Okinawa with a pretty typical, more laid back island culture and mainland with a bustling, busy one.

And let's not forget how many Japanese soldiers and civilians were killed in Okinawa battle.

A big tragedy is what the US lost taking Iwo Jima and Okinawa when just two B-29s from Tinian were all that was needed.

The bases at Guam and Okinawa aren't paying for themselves...

Not to sound like a crazy health nut - there are two stupendous studies on the citizens of Okinawa (The Okinawa project) and China (The China study) that leave little doubt on the long term effects of junk foods.

The US doesn't have bases in Asia to be effective in that theater with the F-22 Okinawa is pretty much outside of the combat range of the F-22.

There's still an armed border at the 60th Parallel 60 years later, US troops standing at the ready south if the DMZ with reserves in Okinawa and logistics and strategic air support in Diego Garcia.

> On a related tangent, apparently modern karate originated in Okinawa it's well documented actually, before 1900 or so no one in mainland Japan knew anything about what would later be called karate.

There is a huge unbalance between men and women (which traditionnaly don't get the same chances to work in high pressure environments, and are less subjected to karoshi) and as someone else point Okinawa people won't have the same life expectancy as Tokyo area people.

When I went there 10 years later we were teaching middle school kids English and traveling out to the boonies (because Okinawa Numero Uno was no longer the boonies) to teach, and play with the kids to give the parents a break.

They are recorded in “Voyage with a Tail Wind”, published in 1403, a portolano recounting a journey from Fujian province to Ryukyu, the old name for the Okinawa chain of islands.

I lived in Okinawa for several years and remember how loathe they were to associate themselves with the Japanese Mainland "Honshu" - even calling themselves "Okinawan" and not Japanese with adamant fervor.

Before then only a few people in the Japanese navy and the prince/emperor-to-be had seen it while visiting Okinawa.

If it's yours, would you consider (without looking) people from Kyrgyzstan, Okinawa, or Catalonia to count?

And the govt presses on, and 40,000 civilians died on Okinawa.