Okinawa is a Japanese island in the western Pacific Ocean, southwest of Kyushu. People often use the name for the main island and for the wider island group. In 1945, near the end of World War II, a long and terrible battle was fought there between the United States and Japan; many soldiers and many island people died. Though actually, Okinawa is not only a war name in a history book: it has its own older history, its own food and music, and a language related to Japanese but not the same. There are still large US military bases on the islands. For learners, the first facts are: it is Japanese, it sits south of Japan's main islands, and that 1945 battle is why the name shows up in history class.