美国占领琉球时期始于1945年4月1日，27年后的1972年5月15日，美国将琉球群岛“施政权”移交给日本；但重回日本的琉球人却不断推进反日运动或琉球独立运动，重拾并强化历史记忆，以凸显自我族群的独特性。琉球曾历经独立王国时期（1429-1879年）、日本殖民时期（1879-1945年），经由日本实施的“大和化”“皇民化”教育，琉球人被迫隐匿原有的族群认同。随着太平洋战争爆发，美国根据其人类学家调查报告，认为可利用琉球人和日本人业已存在的裂痕，制定将琉球分离于日本本土的统治政策，借以重塑琉球族群认同，使“冲绳县民”相信自己是琉球人而非日本人，进而实现美国在琉球的战略利益。美国建构琉球族群认同的举措主要包括：创办学校、编撰教科书；修复琉球独立王国时期的历史遗迹；创设博物馆、开办文化会馆；设计琉球国旗、国歌；等等。但因同期国际局势嬗变，美国对日媾和，加之琉球回归势力、日本本土势力汇聚成历史合力，促使琉球回归日本。最终，美国重塑国民方略并未导致琉球独立，却勾勒出复杂的琉球族群认同的历史镜像。本研究依据美国国家档案馆、冲绳县立公文书馆等地所藏相关原始档案文献，运用文本分析、集体记忆和族群认同理论，诠释美国占领时期“亲美离日，扶持琉球主体性”的历史意蕴，剖析美国建构琉球族群认同意识的动机、实施及其影响，得出结论：美国占领时期，倾力向琉球人传播美式文化观和价值观、助力琉球去日本化并强化琉球人独立意识，其结果虽与美国重塑国民初衷相悖，却建构了独特而复杂的琉球族群认同。

On May 15th, 1972, in the 27th year after the occupation of the Ryukyu Islands by the U.S. on April 1st, 1945, the administration of the Ryukyu Islands was transferred to Japan. However, the Okinawa（Ryukyu）people who returned to the Japan rule has since resumed their anti-Japanese movement, pursuing the their independence by restoring their own historical memory and reviving and strengthening the consciousness of the unique ethnicity of their group.The history of the Ryukyu Islands had undergone the independent kingdom period (1429-1879) and the Japanese colonial period (1879-1945). Under the assimilation education and imperial rule implemented by Japan, the Ryukyu people were forced to hide their ethnic consciousness and gradually lost their original identity. With the outbreak of the Pacific war, the United States, based on the researches of the anthropologists, came to the conclusion that it could take advantage of the existing rifts between the Ryukyuans and the Japanese to make a policy to separate the Ryukyu Islands from Japan, and thereby to realize the United States’ strategic interests in the Ryukyu Islands with help to restore their own ethnic identity, believing that they are the Ryukyuans rather than the Japanese. The measures taken by the United States mainly include: establishing schools and compiling textbooks; restoring historical sites and relics from the independent kingdom period; founding museums and cultural clubs; designing Ryukyu national flag and national anthem; and so on. However, due to the facts that peace treaty was made by the U.S. and Japan, and efforts were pooled by Ryukyu and Japan under the changing international situation in the same period, the Ryukyu Islands were eventually returned to Japan. As a result, the American strategy of “remolding the nation” failed to lead to the independence of the Ryukyu Islands, but mirrored the complex historical image of the ethnic identity of the Ryukyu Islands.With the original archives collected in the U.S. National Archives and Okinawa Prefectural Archives, and aid of the theories on textual analysis, collective memory and ethnic identity, this dissertation examined and interpreted the historical influences of “pro-U.S. and separating from the Japan, strengthening the initiative of natives.” policy imposed by the U.S. during its occupation, and analyzed the motive, practice and historical significance of the plan of the U.S. in re-establishing the consciousness of ethnic identity in the Ryukyu Islands, and came finally to the conclusion that the U.S. did all possible as it could to encourage de-japanization and strengthen the consciousness of independence among the aboriginals by spreading American cultural values, although those efforts did not leaded to the end intended by the American makers of “remolding the nation”, but contributed to give rise to the consciouness of unique and complex ethnic identity of the Ryukyuans.