is 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 Kunigami District,

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 ...

. The village lies on the island of Iejima. As of 1 October 2020, the village has 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 4,118 and the

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 180 persons per km². Ie is in a period of sustained population loss, and has the highest rate of population loss in Okinawa Prefecture. The total area of the village is . Iejima Airport serves the village. Out of 22.78 km² land of Ie, approximately a third, or 8.02 km² is occupied by Ie Shima Airfield, a training facility, managed by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

Geography

The Village of Ie covers the entirety of Ie Island, and is located to the northwest of

Okinawa Island , officially , is the largest of the Okinawa Islands and the Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Islands of Japan in the Kyushu region. It is the smallest and least populated of the five Japanese archipelago, main islands of Japan. The island is ...

off the Motobu Peninsula. The village is connected to Okinawa via ferry service.

Administrative divisions

The village is divided into five wards. *Kawahira (川平) *Higashiemae (東江前) *Higashieue (東江上) *Nishiemae (西江前) *Nishieue (西江上)

History

The Village of Ie was the site of intense fighting during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the

Battle of Okinawa The , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa Island, Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War, Impe ...

Ernie Pyle Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) was an American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the Columnist#Newspaper and ...

(1900 – 1945), a popular World War II-era American journalist and winner of the 1944

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

was killed in Ie on April 18, 1945. Pyle was initially buried on the island, but is now interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

. Approximately a half of residents lost their lives during the battle of Ie, and 1,500 villagers who survived the battle were removed to the internment camps in Kerama Islands or an arid strip of Henoko Bay, the northeast area of Okinawa island. Residents of Ie were allowed to return to the island during a two-year period starting in May 1946. Life in the village was hard after World War II; little housing remained on the island, and prewar property boundaries were difficult or impossible to determine. Residents in the immediate post-war period lived in homes made of scavenged materials and relied on American rations for food. An elementary school was built immediately after the war, and the first village hall was constructed in front of Udunyama. One third of the village remains under U.S. military control.

Cultural Properties

*Name (Japanese) (Type of registration)

Folk Cultural Properties

*Amibōja (アミボージャ) (Municipal) *Ara Utaki sacred site (阿良御嶽) (Municipal) *Māga spring (マーガ) (Municipal) *Minkazantu water tank (ミンカザントゥ) (Municipal)

Historic Sites

*Birthplace of Uechi Tarō, author of the Kumiodori play "Chūshingura" (組踊「忠臣蔵」作者上地太郎生誕の地) (Municipal) *Deer fossils of Ie Island (伊江島鹿の化石) (Prefectural) *Gohezu Cave Site of Ie Island (伊江島のゴヘズ洞穴遺跡) (Prefectural) *Gongendō shrine site (権現堂跡) (Municipal) *Hamasaki Shell Mound (浜崎貝塚) (Prefectural) *Kushibaru Shell Mound (具志原貝塚) (National) *Kwēju School site (会所跡) (Municipal) *Public pawn shop site (公益質屋跡) (Municipal)

Places of scenic beauty is a collective term used by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties to denote Cultural Properties of JapanIn this article, capitals indicate an official designation as opposed to a simple definition, e.g "Cultural ...

* Mount Gusuku in Ie Village (伊江村の城山) (Prefectural) *Wajii spring (湧出 or わじぃー) (Municipal)

Natural Monuments

*Hada plant community (ハダ植物群落) (Municipal)

Transportation

Air

The Village of Ie has a single airport, Iejima Airport, but regular flights to Naha ended in 1977. The runway of the airport were part of the Ie Shima Airfield complex built during

. Iejima Airport is primarily used in training exercises by the United States military.

Ferry

The Village of Ie is connected to Okinawa Island via ferry service. A passenger and car ferry from Port Toguchi in the town of Motobu takes approximately 30 minutes, with regular service consisting of 4 daily departures from Motobu betwee
9am and 5pm
The village is also connected to the prefectural capital of

Naha is the Cities of Japan, capital city of Okinawa Prefecture, the southernmost prefecture of Japan. As of 1 June 2019, the city has an estimated population of 317,405 and a population density of 7,939 people per km2 (20,562 persons per sq. mi.). ...

via a one-hour high-speed ferry from the Port of Tomari.

Education

The municipality has three schools: * Ie Junior High School ( 伊江中学校) * Ie Elementary School (伊江小学校) * Nishi (West) Elementary School (西小学校)

Notable people

* Uechi Kanbun, Founder of Uechi-Ryū. * Shinjō Kiyohide, 9th Dan Okinawan Uechi-Ryū Master, nine-time all-Okinawa Kata and Kumite Champion. * Anly, a Japanese pop musician, was born and raised on the island. She also serves as the tourism ambassador for Ie.

References

External links

* *
Ie official website
{{Authority control Villages in Okinawa Prefecture