Kerama Islands
Approximately a half of residents lost their lives during the battle of Ie, and 1,500 villagers who survived the battle were removed to the internment camps in Kerama Islands or an arid strip of Henoko Bay, the northeast area of Okinawa island. Residents of Ie were allowed to return to the island during a two-year period starting in May 1946. Life in the village was hard after World War II; little housing remained on the island, and prewar property boundaries were difficult or impossible to determine. Residents in the immediate post-war period lived in homes made of scavenged materials and relied on American rations for food.