 Alan Christy emphasized that Okinawa must be included in studies of Japanese colonialism.Historians supporting the interpretation that the annexation of Ryukyu did not constitute colonialism make the following historiographical arguments

Some pre-war Okinawans also resisted the classification of Okinawa as a Japanese colony, as they did not want to consider their experience as colonial.This position originates in the prewar period when the Meiji suppression of Ryukyuan identity, culture and language resulted in self-criticism and inferiority complexes with respect to perceptions that Ryukyuan people were backward, primitive, ethnically and racially inferior, and insufficiently Japanese.