Big Picture: Okinawa: Keystone of the Pacific

Year Published: 1952-08-20

Creator: National Archives and Records Administration

Format: 16mm/video file

Description: National Archives and Records Administration ARC Identifier 2569538 / Local Identifier 111-TV-268 Big Picture: Okinawa: Keystone of the Pacific DVD copied by Master Scanner Thomas Gideon. Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. (ca. 1974 - 05/15/1984). A little over a hundred years ago Commodore Matthew E. Perry landed on Okinawa. He was so impressed with the strategic location of the island that upon his return to the United States he urged Congress to negotiate with the islanders in the hope that Okinawa might become a United States possession. At the time Congress was uninterested. Now a century later, Okinawa is a possession of the United States, ceded to us in the Japanese Peace Treaty. Through the eyes of THE BIG PICTURE camera, the story of our Army and what it is accomplishing on this island is brought into focus. Depicting an outpost in the Pacific whose strategic location gives the Army an advance base on the threshold of Asia, viewers will learn how recent events have proven Commodore Perry correct--Okinawa is the keystone of the Pacific.