Not far from the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz lies the curiously out-of-place Japanese farming district of Colonia Okinawa. Many of those living there are descendants of Okinawan farmers, forced off their land – by bulldozers or at bayonet point – by American soldiers in the 1950s. Some of the dispossessed were persuaded to make a new life in Bolivia. But when they arrived, instead of the fertile land they had been promised, they were dumped in the jungle where many died of hunger or unfamiliar diseases. Only the more fortunate made it on to Colonia Okinawa, now considered a model of Bolivian development.
离玻利维亚圣克鲁斯城不远，有一个与周围环境格格不入的日式农区，称为“冲绳垦殖区”(Colonia Okinawa)。许多生活在那里的居民都是日本冲绳岛农民的后裔——上世纪50年代，美国士兵用推土机和刺刀，将他们的先辈赶出了家园。一部分失去土地的冲绳人被劝服，到玻利维亚开始新生活。可一旦踏上该国土地，他们并没有得到美方许诺的肥沃土地，而是被扔到了热带丛林中，许多人因饥饿或陌生的疾病而丧命。只有比较幸运的生还者才坚持到“冲绳垦殖区”落成的那一天，如今，这里已被推崇为玻利维亚的一个发展典范。