was a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

located in

Shimajiri District is a district located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Modern translation of Shimajiri means "Butt of the island" which may refer to its southerly position on the island of Okinawa. Compare this to Kunigami District, Okinawa. However, there are ...

, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the village had an estimated

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 5,947 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematical ...

of 602.53 persons per km². The total area was 9.87 km². On January 1, 2006, Chinen, along with the town of Sashiki, and the villages of Ōzato and

Tamagusuku was a legendary local ruler of Okinawa Island. According to Ryukyu's official history, Okinawa was split into three polities during the reign of Tamagusuku.Kerr, He was the third son of Eiji (r. 1309-1313), he was the fourth ruler of the E ...

(all from

), was merged to create the city of

Nanjō is a Cities of Japan, city located in the southern part of Okinawa Island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Translated literally, the name Nanjō means "southern castle". Many castle ruins, called gusuku in the Okinawan language, can be found throu ...

History

According to the ''

Chūzan Seikan , compiled in 1650 by Shō Shōken, is the first official history of the Ryūkyū Kingdom. In six scrolls, the main text occupies five and an accompanying summary the sixth. Unlike later official histories such as '' Chūzan Seifu'' and '' Kyūyō ...

'' (1650), the creation goddess,

Amamikyu Amamichuu, or , is the creation goddess of the Ryukyu Islands in the Ryukyuan religion. Name Amamikyu's name comes from the reading of the Chinese characters 阿摩美久 or 阿摩彌姑, which were most likely written ad hoc for the Okinawan lan ...

, built

Chinen Castle is a Ryukyuan ''gusuku'' in Nanjō, Okinawa. It is the second oldest castle in the Ryukyu Islands. The ruins consist of the old castle to the east being made out of rock and the other newer castle to the west being made out of ashlar masonry. ...

soon after forming the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

. Chinen was important for later lords and kings because of its many holy sites, most notably

Sefa-utaki ''Seefa-utaki'', meaning "purified place of Utaki," is a historical sacred space, overlooking Kudaka Island, that served as one of the key locations of worship in the Ryukyuan religion, native religion of the Ryukyuan people for millennia. Later ...

. The village of Chinen (pronounced shi-nen) was appropriated by the United States in 1948 for the purpose of building a secret

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

operated logistics base, under US Army cover, known as Camp Chinen. Camp Chinen was closed after it was exposed in

The Pentagon Papers The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 ...

. The Pentagon Papers revealed a 1961 memo from General

Edward Lansdale Edward Geary Lansdale (February 6, 1908 – February 23, 1987) was a United States Air Force officer until retiring in 1963 as a major general before continuing his work with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Lansdale was a pioneer in cl ...

to General

Maxwell Taylor Maxwell Davenport Taylor (August 26, 1901 – April 19, 1987) was a senior United States Army officer and diplomat of the mid-20th century. He served with distinction in World War II, most notably as commander of the 101st Airborne Division, ni ...

which states that a CIA support base in Okinawa at Camp Chinen housed a covert prison, in addition to a paramilitary training, research and logistics facility. The memorandum read: Upon its closure as a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

station in July 1972, Camp Chinen served as a

US Army Special Forces The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army. The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...

training center, and as a language school for U.S. soldiers studying Japanese and Korean, and for Japanese forces studying English. Camp Chinen closed in 1975.

References

Dissolved municipalities of Okinawa Prefecture {{Okinawa-geo-stub