was a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located in

Shimajiri District is a district located in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Etymology 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. Howev ...

Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan. It consists of three main island groups—the Okinawa Islands, the Sakishima Islands, and the Daitō Islands—spread across a maritime zone approximately 1,000 kilometers east to west an ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. As of 2003, the village had an estimated

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 5,947 and a

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

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. Life According to Ryukyu's official history, Okinawa was split into Sanzan period, three polities during the reign of Tamagusuku.Kerr, He was the third son of Eiji (Ryukyu), Eiji (r. 1309–13 ...

(all from

), was merged to create the city of

Nanjō is a 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 throughout the city. ...

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 '' Kyūy� ...

'' (1650), the creation goddess,

Amamikyu , 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 pronunciati ...

, built Chinen Castle 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 Geography of Taiwan, Taiwan: the Ryukyu Islands are divided into the Satsunan Islands (Ōsumi Islands, Ōsumi, Tokara Islands, Tokara and A ...

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

Sefa-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 native religion of the Ryukyuan people for millennia. Later as a part of assimilation of Okina ...

. 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; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

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 194 ...

. 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 clande ...

to General

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

which states that a CIA support base in Okinawa at Camp Chinen housed a covert prison, in addition to a

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

training, research and logistics facility. The memorandum read: Upon its closure as a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

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, is a branch of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). The core missionset of Special Forces ...

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