(1)Even aside from the people who live on them, islands  have always held
some mystical appeal to romanticists and adventurers. But  their real
appeal  in the past has been to military planners and  political
strategists, although for far different reasons. Long  before the  flames
of World War II engulfed the world, the use of a nation's resources was
directly affected by its trading opportunities. With few exceptions among
the great trading nations of the world, the full benefit of possessing
exploitable resources or colonies only came with transport across the
oceans.
       Sea routes are valuable national assets and the power to control or
influence these traffic lanes is a matter of importance to all nations
which border the sea.  The ocean, and today the air, are avenues of
commerce -- lifelines to carry a nation's industrial blood, whether it be
raw materials or its processed products to world markets.
       It was opportunities for commerce that first opened the vast expanse
of the Pacific.  Later sea power was brought to bear to protect these trade
routes. But since all navies depend upon bases of fixed facilities for
replenishing, repairing and refueling their vessels, the islands in the
Pacific have always played a major role. To keep such bases operational a
navy must strive defensively to maintain control of those sea lanes leading
to its base of operations and keep them open.
       To wage offensive warfare a navy must have sufficient power to close
off the trade routes of any adversary. These units must have a secure base
preferably near or within the sea lanes they are to protect. Before the
Second World War both the United States and the Japanese appreciated this
concept very well.
       It is because of geography that the Pacific Islands have always
figured prominently and importantly in the affairs of western hemispheric
nations in a measure far beyond  their size and resources would seem to
warrant. It is frequently because of an isolated but strategic location
that some islands are considered to be of military and political importance
far in excess of their economic value. Indeed, those islands situated
relatively near the coastline of continents make ideal bases for extending
the national will of one country over another.  Rarely do such islands owe
any allegiance to the country which controls the nearby mainland. Guam is a
classic example. Not only is it relatively near the Asian continent but
from the time the Japanese moved in to control the Nanyo (Mandated Islands)
it was an American enclave within a Japanese military and economic sphere
-- a virtual thorn in the side of the Japanese military planners. Islands
most prized by the military are frequently those which can provide a navy
with a protected deep water anchorage and have defensible terrain
overlooking  the harbor.
       In former times islands served as coaling stations, relay stations
for transoceanic cables, locations for radio transmitters, etc. Today they
are sites for radar, earth satellite communication systems and fueling
stops for the jet "clippers" of the skies, which more often than not  land
on air strips which were first constructed to service the military.
       Extreme geographic, cultural, historical, economic and political
contrasts face each other across the Pacific Ocean. The oldest civilization
on earth faces the youngest. The most overpopulated continent lies opposite
the most sparsely populated. The richest country is in stark contrast with
some of the poorest. The most modernized and industrially advanced nation
faces the most technologically backward. The nation with the highest
standard of living stands in contrast to a continent with the lowest. But
this is changing rapidly.
       The Pacific is the ocean where east meets west -- ancient
civilizations with cultural and ancestral stability and with reverence for
the past are juxtaposed with the restlessness of the West and its obsession
with the future. So it was in the early forties and so it remains today.
As the strategy of the Pacific is examined it becomes abundantly clear why
Guam, Saipan and Tinian are so important to the United States.
       Before the war the Japanese developed the economies of the mandated
islands to the extent possible. By contrast, the United States did not -
electing instead to wait until the Micronesians themselves were the "rulers
of their own house." America  adopted a policy of providing funds for
public works projects which ironically, to date, benefit Japanese investors
and at some future date possibly the U. S. military. Curiously, for a long
period of time the islands were not administered by the U. S. Department of
State which carries out  America's foreign policy since to do so would be
tantamount to admitting they were "foreign." Instead, the newly
"associated"  Pacific islands were, for a period, administered by the
Department of the Interior's Office of Territorial and International
Affairs (2) where many United States' domestic policies and programs could
be applied regardless of  whether they were appropriate for  Pacific
societies and, indeed, many were not - but others were quite beneficial.
        After the United States closed it bases in the Philippines, the
Mariana Islands of Guam, Tinian and Saipan also experienced a reduced
importance to American strategic requirements  in the western Pacific.
However, It is because of their geographic location in proximity to the
Asian Continent as well as the Great Circle Sailing Routes (shortest
distance) between the United States and the Philippines, the Strait of
Malacca at Singapore and the Lombok Straits in Indonesia that the United
States is expected to continue to exhibit  interest, albeit at a reduced
level, in the area far into the twenty-first century. The Malacca and
Lombok Straits are the passages through which super tankers and their vital
cargo  of oil from the Middle East must travel enroute to the United States
west coast and the ports of its Japanese ally and trading partner.
       The Mariana Islands are geographically situated so as to be the
farthest United States possessions in the Pacific west of Hawaii. Situated
in a universe of water, the Marianas archipelago are the farthest stars out
in the American galaxy. As a contingency the United States military has
leased a portion of Tinian   (originally 17,799 acres of which 12,000 acres
have been leased back to the CNMI ). Several U.S. military supply vessels
are already based in Commonwealth waters.
       However, the islands may  have lost much of their strategic appeal
as geographic assets. Not only is the land area available for military use
limited, but a  diminished threat from the former Soviet Union (now the
Commonwealth of Independent States) and the modern technology of weapon
systems has certainly reduced the strategic importance of the islands.
       At the end of World War Two and during - and after - the Korean
conflict and the Vietnam War, the United States was preoccupied in
southeast and northeast Asia with a policy designed to contain the Soviet
Union and communism. Japan was ideally situated geographically to
facilitate  the effort with the result that the United States greatly
assisted in the economic  recovery of its former adversary after the
devastation of the Pacific war with the result that, within the span of
less that four decades, Japan  became one of the strongest economies in
the world.
       After World War Two and the emergence of the Soviet Union on the
world economic scene  along with the threat of communism, the United
States, in an attempt to offer the developing nations of the world an
alternative to this economic philosophy, opened its vast markets to
industries in Asia. This was an "economic carrot" offered as a alternative
to communism and to aid in building an alliance against the Soviet Union.
In so doing some of  the United States’ domestic industries started their
long decline. Who, for example in 1950, could possibly imagine that
American automobile manufacturers would lose out on their own home
territory. But this is what has happened along with steel, shipbuilding,
electronics and a myriad of other industries. If it continues  one must
wonder what the American worker will produce in the year 2000 to earn the
money to continue to represent a substantial export market for the growing
quantity of Asian manufactured items of high quality. But with the collapse
of the Soviet Union and the current strong economies of Korea, Taiwan,
Japan and others the United States no longer seems to have to offer the
"carrot" of free market access or low tariffs on the American side of the Pacific.
       With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991,  America finds itself
with no real military threat in the western Pacific and Japan's geographic
location no longer as important in containing Soviet expansion in east
Asia. This was the principal reason for United States reconstructing
Japan's economy after World War Two - to make the nation a bulwark against
communism. With the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union
the United States is left without  a military challenge in the region but
finds itself faced with an economic threat from Japan, a country which is
very weak militarily but one of the most wealthy nations in the world.This
is a nation consisting of  a group of small, crowded  islands in comparison
to the entire American continent and, in contrast to North America, a
country totally dependent upon overseas  trade to sustain its economy.
       Geopolitics in the western Pacific will continue to be influenced by
the United States with Japan becoming an increasingly major player. With
the second largest economy in the world, Japan must import all its raw
material and export its finished manufactured goods to markets throughout
the world. The highways for this commerce are the sea lanes of all the
world's oceans. For this purpose Japan needs guaranteed and secure ocean
trade routes - security  which the U. S. has provided since the end of the
war. Japan must eventually come to realize that it must contribute to the
security  of these sea lanes as well as  its overseas investments and must
therefore become a military and political power to balance its wealth and
economic position in the world. This could be viewed with alarm by the
United States as a future threat in the Pacific and elsewhere unless the
two giants form an economic and military union, the like of which has never
before been witnessed in the world.
(1) Publisher's note:  Portions of this section were taken from the
author's  book, “ Ghost  Fleet of the Truk Lagoon.”
(2) Recently an Office Of Freely Associated States was established within
the U. S. Department of State.

Back