Surrounded by beautiful views of the East China Sea, Okuma Beach has everything you need. Seven elderly Okinawan farmers owned the site and were queried as to how much they would charge for rent. The equivalent of forty dollars per farm was the amount decided. However, to make sure the farmers got a fair deal, Lt. Col. McGee dug into his own pocket and made it fifty dollars each.

The area was cleared with the help of Mr. Matsuoka, who furnished a bulldozer and operators from the Okinawa Public Work, free of charge. The Okinawans insisted that walpai (tall grass) be burned due to many habu snakes in the area. After burning the walpai, they found the charred remains of 163 habu.

The fact that the farmers had been paid for their land proved to be a tremendous asset because this pleased the town mayors. They got together and guaranteed a plentiful labor supply for construction. This was particularly significant because carpenters were scarce and in high demand. Contracting firms offered the workers all kinds of incentives encouraging them to work on Mainland Japan, but the workers stoutly refused to leave the Okuma project. Hentona High School students volunteered their time to clean the grounds one day each week.

Since they had no architect, Lt. Col. McGee designed Okuma himself. Building materials were procured in a variety of strange ways. Broken bags of wet cement were processed and weather-worn, crooked pine was scrounged from the Army depot for flooring. After fashioning planes from old Jeep springs and wooden blocks, the carpenters planed and grooved the old wood. They also made parquet flooring from damaged Japanese oak doors. The citizens of Naha donated tile flooring and watercrafts. Since lumber was not available for the framework, the industrious builders ripped apart old bailey bridges by hand, then mortised and notched them since they didn’t have nails either. Paneling came from old masonite crates that were then painted with paint procured during a “midnight requisition” from the U.S. Navy.