United States of Civil Administration Criminal Courts Cases in Post War Okinawa

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03434
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Criminal law
• Research Institution: University of the Ryukyus
• Principal Investigator: Morikawa Yasutaka 琉球大学, 人文社会学部, 教授 (20274417)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 米国民政府刑事裁判所 / 沖縄戦後史 / 占領刑法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I looked into the criminal case files of the USCAR Courts kept in University of the Ryukyus Library and made a list of all criminal cases. And I examined the documents of the legal affairs department of the USCAR in Okinawa Prefectural Archives. Then I analyzed the relationship between occupation policy and criminal power based on these materials and it became clear that the operation of the criminal law for occupation policy was taken over by Japan through the succession of the jurisdiction after Okinawa's return.
I founded trial records of the Okinawa Peoples Party's Case in 1954, so I translated them and published them with commentary. And I studied several forced prostitution records in the late 1950' and wrote research papers.

Free Research Field

刑事法

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、これまで未整理・非公開であった米国民政府の裁判記録を使って沖縄戦後史を刑事法の観点から実証的に研究する初めての試みである。そのため、まずは広く研究利用が可能になるように、全事件を目録化する作業を進めた。また、土地接収時の基地立入罪等に関する事件記録を分析し、近代刑法原則に基づかない占領刑法の機能について考察し、現在の日本の刑事法においてもその機能が暗黙のうちに継承されていることを明らかにした。