After the battle: Following the end of active combat on Okinawa in September 1945, the entire island fell into an odd never-land experience. The majority of the inhabited portions of the island had been devastated. In Shuri heights of the 2,500 individual residences the highest remaining wall would have reached your ankle. Large portions of the southern portion of the island was off limits to the Okinawans, because they had been turned into active military camps. The Military Island Government was hard pressed to support the numerous and dispersed civilian internment camps. As the reality finally became apparent that the war was over. Life began to be rebuilt in Okinawa. Because of the devastation that covered the entire island, raw materials were hard pressed to come by. Large numbers of supplies had been shipped to Okinawa for the invasion of mainland Japan. But in the chaos of a quick end of the war no orders were received in regards with what to do with the materials. The Okinawans took to raiding the American dumps for scrap material and goods. This helped to bring about the rise of the black market on Okinawa which would see its peak reached during the Korean war until it would begin its decline.