is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in Nakagami 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 ...

. As of October 2016, the town 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 13,671 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 910 persons per km². The total area is . Approximately 85% of the town is controlled by the US Government including

Kadena Air Base (International Air Transport Association airport code, IATA: DNA, International Civil Aviation Organization airport code, ICAO: RODN) is a United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena, Okinawa, Kadena and Chatan, Okinawa, Chatan and the ...

, the second-largest base in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

Geography

Kadena faces the

East China Sea The East China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean, located directly offshore from East China. China names the body of water along its eastern coast as "East Sea" (, ) due to direction, the name of "East China Sea" is otherwise ...

to the west.

Administrative divisions

The town includes eight wards. *Kadena (嘉手納) *Kaneku (兼久) *Kudoku (久得) *Kuninao (国直) *Mizugama (水釜) *Noguni (野国) *Nozato (野里) *Yara (屋良)

Neighboring municipalities

Kadena borders three other municipalities in Okinawa Prefecture. * Chatan to the south *

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

to the east *

Yomitan is a village located in Nakagami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Geography Yomitan is located on the western coast of the central part of Okinawa Island. The village is bound to the north by Onna, to the east by Okinawa City, to the ...

to the north

History

The Kadena area has some of the oldest settlement remains, in the form of

shell mound A midden is an old dump for domestic waste. It may consist of animal bones, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occup ...

s, on

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 ...

.Kadena Town. "Kadena Town's History". Kadena Town official website. http://www.town.kadena.okinawa.jp/english/history.html (accessed 2 January 2017). The

Hija River Arabic poetry ( ''ash-shi‘r al-‘arabīyy'') is one of the earliest forms of Arabic literature. Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry contains the bulk of the oldest poetic material in Arabic, but Old Arabic inscriptions reveal the art of poetry existed i ...

, the modern border between Yomitan and Kadena, was the focus of these early settlements. A number of ruins of minor

gusuku often refers to castles or fortresses in the Ryukyu Islands that feature stone walls. However, the origin and essence of ''gusuku'' remain controversial. In the archaeology of Okinawa Prefecture, the ''Gusuku period'' refers to an archaeological ...

(castles and forts) can be found in the area.

Amawari was a Ryukyuan Lord ( Aji) of Katsuren Castle, known for his ambitions for the throne of the Ryukyu Kingdom and scheme and attack against Gosamaru, Aji of Yomitanzan and Nakagusuku. Life Amawari was born to a peasant family in Yara, in Chat ...

, an infamous warlord, was born in the Kadena area while it was still part of Chatan. Japan annexed the island in 1879, and Chatan became a village in 1908. During the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theatre, was the Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the Empire of Japan and the Allies of World War II, Allies in East Asia, East and Southeast As ...

, Japan built an airstrip in the Kadena area. During 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 ...

in 1945, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

landed on the banks of the Hija River and captured the airstrip. The airstrip became Kadena Air Force Base. On December 4, 1948, the American military government separated Kadena from Chatan and established Kadena village. The United States built Kadena

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

outside the base. On January 1, 1976, four years after Okinawa reverted to Japanese control, Kadena was elevated to town status.

Economy

The economy of Kadena is largely dependent on the presence of Kadena Air Force Base. The town otherwise produces a small amount of

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

s and

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

Education

Municipal schools include: * Kadena Elementary School (嘉手納小学校) * Kadena Junior High School ( 嘉手納中学校) * Yara Elementary School (屋良小学校) The

Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education The Okinawa Prefectural Board of Education (沖縄県教育委員会) is the prefectural education agency of Okinawa Prefecture in Japan. The board oversees municipal school districts in Okinawa and directly operates many high schools. Schools dir ...

operates . The DoDEA operates schools on Kadena AFB for dependents of American employees, although several schools are not in Kadena Town.

Cultural Properties

*Name (Japanese) (Type of registration)

Cultural Properties Cultural property, also known as cultural patrimony, comprises the physical items that are part of the cultural heritage of a group or society, as opposed to less tangible cultural expressions. They include such items as cultural landscapes, histo ...

*Hija River Estuary Southern Hill Site (比謝川口南丘陵遺跡) (Municipal) *Kadena Gusuku (嘉手納グスク) (Municipal) *Kadena Shell Mound (嘉手納貝塚) (Municipal)

Historic Sites

*Amagā-bira Hill paved road (天川坂) *Hija Bridge (比謝橋) *Noguni Shell Mound Cluster (野国貝塚群) (Prefectural) *Noguni Sōkan's Shrine (野國總管宮) *Noguni Sōkan's Tomb (野国総官の墓) (Prefectural) *Yara Castle Site (屋良城跡 (大川城)) *Yara Muruchi (Sacred) Pond (屋良ムルチ)

Natural Monuments Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

*Large banyan tree of Kadena Uganju Praying Site (字嘉手納拝所の大ガジュマル) (Municipal) *Large Deigo tree of Kadena Elementary School (嘉手納小学校の大デイゴ) (Municipal) *Large Deigo tree of the Shimabukuro Family tomb (島袋家基地の大デイゴ) (Municipal)

References

External links

Kadena official website
{{Authority control Towns in Okinawa Prefecture