[Background of Okinawa's Acceptance of Dispatched Physicians and Its Current Status]

In response to the Japanese government's decision to dispatch psychiatrists to Okinawa to improve a significant delay in the establishment of psychiatry there following World War II, the Okinawa Psychiatric Care Cooperation Committee (former Okinawa Psychiatric Care Committee) was established by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology to ensure the stable dispatch of physicians. A total of 83 psychiatrists were dispatched to Okinawa, and they markedly contributed to the development of psychiatry in the prefecture. Shigeo Shima, one of the physicians dispatched to Okinawa, decided to stay there, and provided psychiatric treatment for twenty years. He established a basis for and promoted normalization in Okinawa.