Published on Monday, August 17, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Guam Resists Military Colonization
Having No Say When Washington Tries to Increase your Population by 25%
by Ann Wright
The United States and the Chinese governments have some remarkable similarities when it comes to colonization. The Chinese government has sent a huge Han population to inhabit Tibet and overwhelm the Tibetan population, even building the world's highest railway to get people and materials there.
The United States government, with virtually no consultation with the local government and citizens, is increasing the population of its non-voting territory, Guam, by 25%. 8,000 U.S. Marines, their dependents and associated logistics units and personnel-a total of 42,000 new residents-will be moved to the small Pacific island (barely three times the size of Washington, DC) that has a current population of 175,000. The move will have a tremendous impact on the cultural and social identity of the island.
These military forces are being relocated to Guam, in great measure, because of the "Close US Military Bases" campaign organized by citizen activists in Okinawa, Japan. The United States has had a huge military presence there since the end of World War II.
I thought I was reasonably well-informed about America's interests in the Pacific. I had worked as a US diplomat in Micronesia for two years and travelled many times through Guam, a US territory, located an 8 hour flight west of Honolulu.
But earlier this month, in Guam on a study tour sponsored by a coalition of Japanese peace activists spearheaded by CODEPINK-Osaka, Japan, which included a former member of the Japanese Diet (Parliament), I learned new aspects of the decision to relocate this large number of U.S. military to Guam.
Guam was first colonized by the Spanish in the 1500s, became a US colony in 1898, a war-trophy from the Spanish-American war and served as a stopover for ships travelling to the Philippines. During World War II, Guam was attacked and occupied by Japan on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. American citizens living on the island had been evacuated by the United States government before the attack, but the indigenous Chamorro population was left behind. During the 31 months of Japanese occupation, the Chamorros endured forced labor, concentration camps, forced prostitution, rape and execution by the Japanese military. The United States military returned three and one-half years later on July 21, 1944 to retake Guam.
In 1950, Guam was made an "unincorporated territory" of the United States by a US Congressional act and residents were given US as one of 16 "non-self governing territories" left in the world.
Lands were taken after World War II from the native Chamorro population without compensation by the US military to construct major air and naval bases which the US military still uses. Currently, there are 3,000 US Air Force and 2,000 US Navy personnel and 1,000 employees of other federal security agencies assigned to Guam.
Three Guam legislators told us that the Guam government has not been properly consulted in the discussions between the US and Japanese governments on the relocation of the large US Marine force. Guam officials have been given little firm information about the military expansion plans. They are very concerned about the impact of further militarization of their island as its major income is provided by hundreds of thousands of Japanese tourists who visit the tropical island annually.
They are disturbed by rumors of proposed forced condemnation of another 950 acres of land owned by members of the native Chamorro population for a live fire range for the incoming Marines. Residues of Agent Orange left from the Vietnam War and other toxic wastes from the military bases, plus the possibility that artillery shells and other munitions made from depleted uranium will be used on their island, are all sources of concern for the people of Guam.
In order to get the 8,000 US Marines out of Okinawa, the Japanese government is paying $6 billion to the US government for their relocation. Guam officials are concerned that not enough of the relocation funds will be made available for the large infrastructure improvements that will be needed for the island's roads, water, sewage and electrical systems as it tries to support a 25% increase in population. They feel the military will take care of its bases but may leave the local population struggling with the new infrastructure problems created by the large number of military personnel.
The Japanese people, too, are in the dark about the details of the billions of dollars they will pay the US government to have US forces leave Japan. Japanese members of our delegation were shocked when they learned from local Guam activists that the relocation budget calls for the Japanese government to pay $650,000 for the construction of each new house on the base, while Guam activists told us the cost of a middle class home on Guam is around $250,000. The Japanese delegation was greatly concerned that their government is funding such inflated projects and is going to raise the budget with Japanese Diet members when they return to Japan.
Of concern to the Guam business community is consideration by US House of Representatives law makers to give Japanese contractors the same access as American firms to bidding on contracts worth more than $2.5 billion in upcoming US military construction projects on Guam. Apparently, the Japanese government, like the US government, likes to have its commercial firms benefit from government aid projects it is funding "overseas." With Japan's $6 billion contribution to the $10 billion cost of relocating the Marines, Japan wants some of that money returned to Japan through construction contracts on the Guam infrastructure projects.
Many Guam officials and a large number of Guam citizens are deeply concerned about the cultural, economic and security impact of the dramatic increase in population and militarization of their island the relocation would present. The current cultural divide of those living in relative luxury inside the bases with better housing, schools and services has been a source of friction between the US military and the local population over the years.
Guam officials said that they too have been perturbed about the extraordinarily high expenditures on US military base facilities, when the Government of Guam is strapped financially. The officials said they were amazed and horrified when they learned that the Air Force recently built an on-base animal kennel for $27 million, with each animal space costing $100,000, when locally, the government is unable to provide sufficient infrastructure for its citizens, much less animals.
Professors and students at the University of Guam expressed concern that there will be a sharp increase in sexual assault and rape on the island due to the relocation of US Marines. They believe one of the reasons the Japanese government finally was able to get the US government to move some military forces out of Okinawa was because of major citizen mobilizations that occurred in response to rapes by US military personnel.
In 2008, the US Ambassador to Japan had to fly to Okinawa to give his apologies for the rape of a 14 year old girl by a US Marine. The US military forces on Okinawa had a 3 day stand-down for "reflection" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to express her "regrets" to the Japanese Prime Minister "for the terrible incident that happened in Okinawa... we are concerned for the well-being of the young girl and her family."
In April, 2008, U.S. Marine Staff Sergeant Tyrone Hadnott, 38, who had been in the Marines 18 years, was charged with the February 10, 2008, rape of 14 year old girl, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping.
On May 17, 2008, Hadnott was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct and the four other charges were dropped. Hadnott was sentenced to four years in prison, but will only serve a maximum of three years in prison due to a pretrial agreement that suspended the fourth year of the sentence. He was reduced to private and given a dishonorable discharge from the US Marines.
The rape accusation against Hadnott stirred memories of a brutal rape more than a decade ago and triggered outrage across Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Hadnott's actions were "unforgivable."
There are US Congressional stirrings of concern about the relocation of the Marines to Guam. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee chair Ike Skelton has raised concerns about the size, scope and cost of the move to Guam. "At over $10 billion (two and one-half times the initial cost estimate of $4 billion), it is an enormous project, and I am concerned that the thinking behind it is not yet sufficiently mature," Skelton said at a recent Congressional hearing. "We need to do this, but it needs to be done right."
In a challenge to US military "forward deployment" strategy in Asia and the Pacific, Guam activists strongly feel the US military should relocate large forces to the mainland of the US where there presence can be better absorbed by the greater populations and existing large military bases, rather than to their small Pacific island.
However, the US federal government seldom takes into account local feelings about their projects, particularly military projects in a region far removed from the Washington power center.
Guam activists want their voices heard and respected and not to be treated as merely residents of a colony of the United States.
Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com)
Showing posts with label Rape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rape. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Thursday, July 09, 2009
War Stories from the Tip of the Spear
War Stories and the Chamorus: journalism and militarization on the tip of the spear.
By Beau Hodai
Special to News From Indian Country 7-09
The weight of occupation and corporate media self-censorship
It was a typical day in the jungle, though more overcast than the constant island diet of endless blue skies and fluffy white clouds; humid-- drizzling rain that would materialize from the sticky mist in the air, a breeze stirring through breadfruit and banana leaves.
I was at the family home of Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Anthony Carbullido, Jr., whom the Department of Defense had recently listed among the dead to be routed back from Afghanistan to Guam through Dover, Delaware-- the victim of an improvised explosive device.
Family and friends of the corpsman were seated in rows of folding chairs under a glowing green fiberglass awning reciting the rosary, “may eternal peace and rest be unto Tony…” a dull, sleepy drone mixed with the static rain.
I was seated in one of the chairs, as were my photographer and his girlfriend. To the side of the house, under a separate awning, large tables were being set with large trays of traditional Chamorro food. A pit-bull puppy pawed at the kitchen door, leaving streaks of red clay as more family members prepared food inside.
I had arrived on Guam less than a month before to work for the island’s largest newspaper, the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News. My assigned beat was “health and environment,” and while the Carbullido rosary service did not exactly fall under the banner of that beat, it was assigned to me as one of my co-workers, who was usually assigned to rosaries and military funerals, had said he needed a break from covering such functions, as the process of extracting a story from a grieving mother is-- at best-- draining.
In the darkened living room of the family home I was made to understand this sentiment all too well as I held my little recorder in the mother’s face and asked her how she felt about her son’s death.
Aurora Carbuliido, the sailor’s mother, said that her son’s death was the realization of her fears as a mother of a sailor involved in active duty.
“I’ve seen past pictures and past articles (of troops who have died in combat) and it scared me because my son is over there,” she said.
“This is a hard situation to be in,” his father said. “It’s hard to believe that this is happening to us.” (From: “Family, friends mourn sailor: Acting governor orders flags to half-staff,” Pacific Daily News, August 9, 2008).
It should be noted that the idea that what a person is quoted as saying in a newspaper is accurate is not necessarily accurate; as the photographer haggled with the father about his desire not to be photographed, Mrs. Carbuillido spoke of her son and her fears in the present-tense… “and it scares me because my son is over there.” The idea that they would be shoveling clay into their son’s face sometime in the weeks to come had not yet hit home.
There had been a steady succession of these stories, as Cabullido was the 17th casualty from Guam and the 29th from the northern Marianas region since the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.
This succession has given Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, with a population of under 300,000, the dubious honor of being the region of the United States with the highest number per capita of such casualties.
This is comparable to a city the size of Spokane taking the same blow in the “War on Terror,” but with one large difference: in the insular world of Micronesia, everybody is related in one way or another to everyone else. Few get out. It is because of this that one family’s pain ripples out through the entire community.
A brief history of Guam to bring you to this point:
Guam, the northern-most island of the Marianas Archipelago, known to the Chamorus who occupied it as Guahan, was dubbed the “Island of Thieves” by Ferdinand Magellan when a group of natives attempted to steal one of his ships during his 1521 landing.
In 1668, the Jesuit Padre San Vitores, began colonization of the island for the Spanish crown.
San Vitores was promptly killed in 1672 by a Chamoru chief named Matapang for baptizing his daughter without permission. Matapang was eventually killed in turn.
At the time of Spanish colonization, there were 175,000 Chamorus on Guahan; 100 years into colonization, the population had dwindled to 1,500.
Following the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the island to U.S. forces in 1898, at which time it served as a small military outpost.
In 1941, Japanese forces invaded the island. Fortunately, U.S. citizens on the island were evacuated prior to the occupation. Unfortunately, all Chamorus were left behind to face three years of forced labor and life in concentration camps around the island. A further 300 Chamorus died during this period. Scars from this period can be found throughout the island in the form of old munitions and tunnels bored though hillsides by Chamoru slave labor for the Japanese.
On July 21, 1944, the U.S. Marines retook the island in the bloody Battle of Guam. Today, Liberation Day warrants a week-long barbeque party along the island’s main drag, Marine Corps Drive, in the capital of Hagatna.
In 1950 the Guam Legislature passed the Organic Act, which laid the foundation for local government as it is now and established Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Today, Catholicism extends to every facet of life on-island and the Archdiocese of Hagatna holds heavy political sway. The word “Matapang,” which, at the time of San Vitores’ death meant “to be made pure by cleansing,” means “silly” or “foolish” in modern Chamorro, which is a polyglot of English, Spanish and Chamoru.
The word Guahan, which meant “we have”, has long since been replaced by the bastardized “Guam,” which means nothing; and every day the most mournful cacophony I have ever heard rings out of the synth bells atop the Basilica of the Archdiocese of Hagatna, echoing off the cliffs and out into the Philippine Sea like a funereal music box opened for a dead child.
At present, a full third of the island’s land mass of 209 square miles is occupied by either Andersen Air Force base or U.S. Naval Base Guam. Guam is often proudly referred to as the “tip of the spear” for U.S. military operations, as it is the furthest military outpost from the U.S. mainland. Many bumper stickers also proclaim: “Guam: where America’s day begins,” or “SPAM!”
Guam has no exports, virtually no agricultural production (due in large part to military contamination of the land and water—much of this contamination has been attributed to nuclear weapons testing that took place in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1962, the effects of which were documented in a 2005 report filed by the National Research Council under the National Academies of Science. Because of this, legislation has been introduced repeatedly—and with little success—by Guam Congressional Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo to include the territory in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) and no other line of production. Outside of federal subsidies, the main source of revenue on-island is in the trade of Japanese tourist dollars—a revenue stream that has been dwindling in recent years.
This dead-end environment leaves the military as the only viable option for many young people looking to get out.
Following the recitation of the rosary, while waiting to interview Carbullido’s parents, I spoke with several of his friends, his siblings and some of his cousins.
As I was speaking to his teenage brother, one of his cousins joined us.
“What do you think? Still planning on joining up?” the brother asked the cousin, a man in his early twenties clutching a pale blue Bud Lite can.
“Yeah,” he said, raising the can and tilting his head.
“This doesn’t change your mind at all?” asked the brother.
No, the cousin replied; there really wasn’t much other choice for him—no other way out, or up-- even if it meant coming back in a box.
Unfortunately for those whose families could not afford private school tuition or cannot afford higher education and who are products of the Guam Public School System, even the military option appears to be closing on them.
A recruiter for the Guam Army National Guard told me in an interview at the time that, while he has seen an increase in interest in military service in the region, increasing numbers of young people educated on the island have been unable to pass the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Test.
GPSS is, by far, the GovGuam line agency beset by the most demons—which is considerable, given that GovGuam could be likened to a boondoggle of contemptuous, incompetent snakes, each trying to bight the other’s head off in the perennial battle over the territory’s small annual budget.
Last year the office of the Guam Attorney General closed down several of the system’s schools, citing exposure of students to raw sewage, asbestos and fire hazards.
All but one of the schools have been reopened to date, but the department has still been unable to fill its staffing needs, students still continue to perform well below national standards and at a 2008 budget hearing a GPSS employee told the Guam Legislature that teachers in the system actually had a higher absenteeism rate than students.
But, even if enlistment is not an option, many still see the Department of Defense as Guam’s Savior.
In 2006, the DoD announced plans to relocate some 5,000 Marines and their dependents from the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa to a new to-be-built base on Guam.
The estimated impact of the shift, or “military buildup,” as it is commonly referred to, when considering the number of workers to fill jobs created by the need to expand both civilian and military infrastructure, translates to at least a twenty percent population boom over the course of a few years, set to begin (tentatively) in 2010. Some believe that a twenty percent population increase is a conservative estimate and set the number much higher.
Many members of the Guam business community and government are bedazzled by what they anticipate to be a cornucopia of new possibilities in profit and employment offered through the expansion.
Many of these dazzled individuals are the same ones who advertize in, and thereby underwrite, the island’s news media, chief of which is the same Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News that I covered the Carbullido rosary for.
When my editor changed Aurora Carbullido’s quote, he also buried it at the back of the article. He had placed canned statements from the island’s acting governor and congressional representative before not just statements from the grieving mother, but of all the corpsman’s family members.
“We extend our sympathies and prayers to all his family, friends and loved ones,” said Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo…
“Anthony will rest in the hearts and minds of a grateful people humbled by his ultimate sacrifice,” said Acting Governor Mike Cruz in a statement yesterday. “I have ordered all government… agencies to fly flags at half-staff in honor of…”
This same editor had lectured me on previous occasions about putting the statements of “real people” above whatever hollow canned crap you may get from the desk of a politician. This rule apparently did not apply to cases involving a military death.
Cases when the rule did apply, by PDN/Gannett standards, were when you’d be handed a press release on some banal item, such as “Healthy Snack Food Month,” or “Infant Automobile Safety Awareness Month,” from some ad hoc task force. You’d then be given your orders to go over to the shopping center down the block, get three “reactions” from “real people,” then march back to the newsroom and churn out six to eight inches of copy by combining all or parts of the press release with the quotes.
That is Gannett journalism: the best in fast food, bulleted coverage—as pioneered by U.S.A Today.
My theory then, as this editor in the most gently condescending tones, explained the role of “real people” to me, is the same as it is now in hindsight; Aurora Carbullido’s reaction was too real. It was the visceral reaction of a shocked mind to an inconceivable pain. And this pain was brought about by involvement with the Department of Defense, the same DoD that so many underwriters looked on as a messiah that would finally put them on the map. This is why the quote of a grieving mother was altered and buried.
The statement that journalism at such a paper is only an incidental byproduct that suffers from this ad-driven editorial policy could be considered libelous if—for one, it was not true—or if it was not the Gannett modus operandi by definition:
The company was started by Frank Ernest Gannett, who in 1906 began buying small newspapers in New York state...
... These newspapers were usually the only ones published in their city and so could be run very profitably. The company’s growth was further spurred by the attention it paid to advertising and circulation and by its tight control of costs...
…This pattern of buying up all the newspapers in an area, slashing subscription rates to levels which (according to critics) only a national conglomerate could sustain, and then raising advertising rates once control over the local market had been secured brought Gannett severe criticism as well as lawsuits. Smaller community and privately owned newspapers have charged the media giant with predatory practices and violations of antitrust laws. Not helping Gannett’s image was the frank admission of brash business tactics by former Gannett chairman Allen Neuharth in his autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B. (1989). (From, “Gannett Co., Inc.” as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009).
So it should have been no surprise when the PDN refused to cover any story outlining the long shadow of rape and assault allegations that accompanied the history of Marines stationed in Okinawa and whose arrival was being staged on Guam.
The same co-worker who had declined to cover the rosary and myself had been pressing our editors to do a story on this history, as there had been virtually no coverage of it in Guam media to that point.
Nothing ever came of it; each day we logged on to the program that contained the daily budget and found that the item had either been pushed back or removed entirely.
Eventually, unable to stomach their editorial policy any longer, I jumped ship and went to work for the PDN’s only competition, the Marianas Variety.
One day my old co-worker said he had given up trying to get the story into the PDN following an especially heated exchange between himself and the managing editor on the subject of the Okinawa Marines story in which he said the editor had indignantly exclaimed, “I have friends and family in the military!”
Military censorship
I had been holding the story up to that point out of respect for my friend, but on hearing that he had given up trying to run it in the PDN, I decided to run with it.
I set out to get some information on the allegations from the Navy and the Joint Guam Program Office, which had been set up by the DoD to act as a civilian-military liaison to pave the way for the Marines. It seemed that once the Navy had figured out I was going to write a critical article, my phone calls and emails went unanswered.
The Variety finally ran an article—despite lack of cooperation on the part of the Navy—in November highlighting the grave concerns of many Guam senators over the violent history of the Marines in Okinawa.
At about that time the Navy’s public information officer met with the Variety’s general operations manager, saying that I was harassing him and that he thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. He said the Navy did not keep any records of allegations against its service members and suspected that I had not done my research.
Given the Navy’s reticence on the issue, I cited numbers directly from the Okinawa prefecture government website, as well as data compiled by Japanese activist groups:
“A report filed this year by an activist group, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, documented over 400 alleged cases of rape, abduction, assault, murder and other forms of abuse committed by U.S. forces in Japan from the period of their post-war occupation to the present.”(“Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 1” Marianas Variety, October 30, 2008)
“(T)here have been more than 5,076 cases of crime caused by the SOFA (Service of Forces Agreement) status people since the reversion of Okinawa to mainland Japan (1972). This number includes 531 cases of brutal crimes and 955 cases of assaults. Thus, there is fear amongst the people of Okinawa as to whether or not security for their daily lives can be maintained and whether their property can be preserved."(From “Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 2,” Marianas Variety, November 7, 2008—as quoted directly from the website of the government of the Okinawa Prefecture.)
In December, following the story on the Okinawa Marines, I wrote an article for the Variety entitled “DoD’s ‘mystery’ project puzzles Guam officials,” which examined a tip I had received that JGPO was looking to convert about 650 acres currently belonging to the Chamorro Land Trust Commission and 250 acres belonging to the Ancestral Lands Commission—which was currently occupied by Guam International Raceway-- into a firing range.
On January 15, Variety reporter and editor, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, wrote a follow-up article, based on a written statement from JGPO Operations Director, Lt. Col. Rudy Kube, confirming the suspicions.
On April 28, the Variety received payment from JGPO for their role as a ‘watchdog’ paper when Variety reporters were barred from attending the “Guam Industry Forum III,” while all other media outlets on-island were granted access.
Variety reporter, Jennifer Naylor Gesick, wrote:
Onsite industry forum personnel notified the reporting staff that the ban was on a “federal level” and was issued as a “government order” from U.S. Marine Corp Capt. Neil Ruggiero with the Joint Guam Project Office...”
The ban was in effect in all venues, as confirmed by Variety reporters in the field. Press passes were printed for every media company on island, except for the Variety...
... Ruggiero argued that Variety could have attended the event as a business if the publishers had registered with the forum.
“Marianas Variety was given the same opportunity as anyone else, they just chose not to be paying registrants, [Pacific Daily News] chose to pay and they were allowed access,” he said...
...However, any media covering the event was allowed in free.
In response to claims of a violation of the freedom of the press in restricting access to the forum, Ruggiero responded that “the press who only stays one session is allowed in free.” That accommodation was not extended to the Variety.
Ruggiero also said that a Variety columnist was given access to represent the paper.
Variety columnist Jayne Flores confirmed that she was given a pass, but Ruggiero later said, “I told her she could not come as Marianas Variety or write any news for them.”
(From “Variety banned by JGPO,” Marianas Variety, April 29, 2009)
Gesick went on to quote Ruggiero, who is the public information officer for JGPO, as saying that the ban on Variety reporters was in effect because he felt part of Kube’s statement had been published out of context, although he did not challenge the veracity of the story.
Despite this lack of cooperation with media outlets willing to report any story critical of the DoD’s plans for the island, events in which the public have been able to ask questions of those involved with the proposed buildup or voice their concerns have drawn large crowds.
The large turnout at such forums suggests that those who are concerned for their island’s future in light of such weighty developments are not marginal or fringe groups as the dismissive attitudes of the DoD and the PDN would suggest.
At a forum held in November at the University of Guam, panellists from both the Civilian-Military Task Force, which works under the auspices of the Office of the Governor with JGPO, as well as members of the community working toward Guam’s self-determination stated both their progress and concerns with the buildup.
Panelist Mike Bevacqua of Famoksaiyan said every resident of Guam—regardless of their position on the buildup—needs to realize that the buildup will affect them personally. He encouraged residents to take a more proactive role in the course of their and Guam’s future.
“It is taking place because we are America, and it’s taking place because we’re not. It is not only something that takes place because of our geographic position, but our colonial status as well...”
“...It is also taking place because we are one of the few American communities where a unilateral announcement by the DOD that it intends to drastically affect life in your community and cause a population increase of 34 percent is met with excitement, celebration and a frightening lack of questioning...”
“...and this military buildup is predicated on the fact that you live in a colony and you can be treated as an object for the subject of the United States, as a weapon of the warrior of the United States military. This is the United States military sharpening the tip of its spear.”
(“Military buildup forum draws huge crowd,” Marianas Variety, November 20, 2008)
By Beau Hodai
Special to News From Indian Country 7-09
The weight of occupation and corporate media self-censorship
It was a typical day in the jungle, though more overcast than the constant island diet of endless blue skies and fluffy white clouds; humid-- drizzling rain that would materialize from the sticky mist in the air, a breeze stirring through breadfruit and banana leaves.
I was at the family home of Navy Hospital Corpsman Second Class Anthony Carbullido, Jr., whom the Department of Defense had recently listed among the dead to be routed back from Afghanistan to Guam through Dover, Delaware-- the victim of an improvised explosive device.
Family and friends of the corpsman were seated in rows of folding chairs under a glowing green fiberglass awning reciting the rosary, “may eternal peace and rest be unto Tony…” a dull, sleepy drone mixed with the static rain.
I was seated in one of the chairs, as were my photographer and his girlfriend. To the side of the house, under a separate awning, large tables were being set with large trays of traditional Chamorro food. A pit-bull puppy pawed at the kitchen door, leaving streaks of red clay as more family members prepared food inside.
I had arrived on Guam less than a month before to work for the island’s largest newspaper, the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News. My assigned beat was “health and environment,” and while the Carbullido rosary service did not exactly fall under the banner of that beat, it was assigned to me as one of my co-workers, who was usually assigned to rosaries and military funerals, had said he needed a break from covering such functions, as the process of extracting a story from a grieving mother is-- at best-- draining.
In the darkened living room of the family home I was made to understand this sentiment all too well as I held my little recorder in the mother’s face and asked her how she felt about her son’s death.
Aurora Carbuliido, the sailor’s mother, said that her son’s death was the realization of her fears as a mother of a sailor involved in active duty.
“I’ve seen past pictures and past articles (of troops who have died in combat) and it scared me because my son is over there,” she said.
“This is a hard situation to be in,” his father said. “It’s hard to believe that this is happening to us.” (From: “Family, friends mourn sailor: Acting governor orders flags to half-staff,” Pacific Daily News, August 9, 2008).
It should be noted that the idea that what a person is quoted as saying in a newspaper is accurate is not necessarily accurate; as the photographer haggled with the father about his desire not to be photographed, Mrs. Carbuillido spoke of her son and her fears in the present-tense… “and it scares me because my son is over there.” The idea that they would be shoveling clay into their son’s face sometime in the weeks to come had not yet hit home.
There had been a steady succession of these stories, as Cabullido was the 17th casualty from Guam and the 29th from the northern Marianas region since the outset of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001.
This succession has given Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, with a population of under 300,000, the dubious honor of being the region of the United States with the highest number per capita of such casualties.
This is comparable to a city the size of Spokane taking the same blow in the “War on Terror,” but with one large difference: in the insular world of Micronesia, everybody is related in one way or another to everyone else. Few get out. It is because of this that one family’s pain ripples out through the entire community.
A brief history of Guam to bring you to this point:
Guam, the northern-most island of the Marianas Archipelago, known to the Chamorus who occupied it as Guahan, was dubbed the “Island of Thieves” by Ferdinand Magellan when a group of natives attempted to steal one of his ships during his 1521 landing.
In 1668, the Jesuit Padre San Vitores, began colonization of the island for the Spanish crown.
San Vitores was promptly killed in 1672 by a Chamoru chief named Matapang for baptizing his daughter without permission. Matapang was eventually killed in turn.
At the time of Spanish colonization, there were 175,000 Chamorus on Guahan; 100 years into colonization, the population had dwindled to 1,500.
Following the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the island to U.S. forces in 1898, at which time it served as a small military outpost.
In 1941, Japanese forces invaded the island. Fortunately, U.S. citizens on the island were evacuated prior to the occupation. Unfortunately, all Chamorus were left behind to face three years of forced labor and life in concentration camps around the island. A further 300 Chamorus died during this period. Scars from this period can be found throughout the island in the form of old munitions and tunnels bored though hillsides by Chamoru slave labor for the Japanese.
On July 21, 1944, the U.S. Marines retook the island in the bloody Battle of Guam. Today, Liberation Day warrants a week-long barbeque party along the island’s main drag, Marine Corps Drive, in the capital of Hagatna.
In 1950 the Guam Legislature passed the Organic Act, which laid the foundation for local government as it is now and established Guam as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Today, Catholicism extends to every facet of life on-island and the Archdiocese of Hagatna holds heavy political sway. The word “Matapang,” which, at the time of San Vitores’ death meant “to be made pure by cleansing,” means “silly” or “foolish” in modern Chamorro, which is a polyglot of English, Spanish and Chamoru.
The word Guahan, which meant “we have”, has long since been replaced by the bastardized “Guam,” which means nothing; and every day the most mournful cacophony I have ever heard rings out of the synth bells atop the Basilica of the Archdiocese of Hagatna, echoing off the cliffs and out into the Philippine Sea like a funereal music box opened for a dead child.
At present, a full third of the island’s land mass of 209 square miles is occupied by either Andersen Air Force base or U.S. Naval Base Guam. Guam is often proudly referred to as the “tip of the spear” for U.S. military operations, as it is the furthest military outpost from the U.S. mainland. Many bumper stickers also proclaim: “Guam: where America’s day begins,” or “SPAM!”
Guam has no exports, virtually no agricultural production (due in large part to military contamination of the land and water—much of this contamination has been attributed to nuclear weapons testing that took place in the Marshall Islands from 1946 to 1962, the effects of which were documented in a 2005 report filed by the National Research Council under the National Academies of Science. Because of this, legislation has been introduced repeatedly—and with little success—by Guam Congressional Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo to include the territory in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act) and no other line of production. Outside of federal subsidies, the main source of revenue on-island is in the trade of Japanese tourist dollars—a revenue stream that has been dwindling in recent years.
This dead-end environment leaves the military as the only viable option for many young people looking to get out.
Following the recitation of the rosary, while waiting to interview Carbullido’s parents, I spoke with several of his friends, his siblings and some of his cousins.
As I was speaking to his teenage brother, one of his cousins joined us.
“What do you think? Still planning on joining up?” the brother asked the cousin, a man in his early twenties clutching a pale blue Bud Lite can.
“Yeah,” he said, raising the can and tilting his head.
“This doesn’t change your mind at all?” asked the brother.
No, the cousin replied; there really wasn’t much other choice for him—no other way out, or up-- even if it meant coming back in a box.
Unfortunately for those whose families could not afford private school tuition or cannot afford higher education and who are products of the Guam Public School System, even the military option appears to be closing on them.
A recruiter for the Guam Army National Guard told me in an interview at the time that, while he has seen an increase in interest in military service in the region, increasing numbers of young people educated on the island have been unable to pass the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Test.
GPSS is, by far, the GovGuam line agency beset by the most demons—which is considerable, given that GovGuam could be likened to a boondoggle of contemptuous, incompetent snakes, each trying to bight the other’s head off in the perennial battle over the territory’s small annual budget.
Last year the office of the Guam Attorney General closed down several of the system’s schools, citing exposure of students to raw sewage, asbestos and fire hazards.
All but one of the schools have been reopened to date, but the department has still been unable to fill its staffing needs, students still continue to perform well below national standards and at a 2008 budget hearing a GPSS employee told the Guam Legislature that teachers in the system actually had a higher absenteeism rate than students.
But, even if enlistment is not an option, many still see the Department of Defense as Guam’s Savior.
In 2006, the DoD announced plans to relocate some 5,000 Marines and their dependents from the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa to a new to-be-built base on Guam.
The estimated impact of the shift, or “military buildup,” as it is commonly referred to, when considering the number of workers to fill jobs created by the need to expand both civilian and military infrastructure, translates to at least a twenty percent population boom over the course of a few years, set to begin (tentatively) in 2010. Some believe that a twenty percent population increase is a conservative estimate and set the number much higher.
Many members of the Guam business community and government are bedazzled by what they anticipate to be a cornucopia of new possibilities in profit and employment offered through the expansion.
Many of these dazzled individuals are the same ones who advertize in, and thereby underwrite, the island’s news media, chief of which is the same Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News that I covered the Carbullido rosary for.
When my editor changed Aurora Carbullido’s quote, he also buried it at the back of the article. He had placed canned statements from the island’s acting governor and congressional representative before not just statements from the grieving mother, but of all the corpsman’s family members.
“We extend our sympathies and prayers to all his family, friends and loved ones,” said Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo…
“Anthony will rest in the hearts and minds of a grateful people humbled by his ultimate sacrifice,” said Acting Governor Mike Cruz in a statement yesterday. “I have ordered all government… agencies to fly flags at half-staff in honor of…”
This same editor had lectured me on previous occasions about putting the statements of “real people” above whatever hollow canned crap you may get from the desk of a politician. This rule apparently did not apply to cases involving a military death.
Cases when the rule did apply, by PDN/Gannett standards, were when you’d be handed a press release on some banal item, such as “Healthy Snack Food Month,” or “Infant Automobile Safety Awareness Month,” from some ad hoc task force. You’d then be given your orders to go over to the shopping center down the block, get three “reactions” from “real people,” then march back to the newsroom and churn out six to eight inches of copy by combining all or parts of the press release with the quotes.
That is Gannett journalism: the best in fast food, bulleted coverage—as pioneered by U.S.A Today.
My theory then, as this editor in the most gently condescending tones, explained the role of “real people” to me, is the same as it is now in hindsight; Aurora Carbullido’s reaction was too real. It was the visceral reaction of a shocked mind to an inconceivable pain. And this pain was brought about by involvement with the Department of Defense, the same DoD that so many underwriters looked on as a messiah that would finally put them on the map. This is why the quote of a grieving mother was altered and buried.
The statement that journalism at such a paper is only an incidental byproduct that suffers from this ad-driven editorial policy could be considered libelous if—for one, it was not true—or if it was not the Gannett modus operandi by definition:
The company was started by Frank Ernest Gannett, who in 1906 began buying small newspapers in New York state...
... These newspapers were usually the only ones published in their city and so could be run very profitably. The company’s growth was further spurred by the attention it paid to advertising and circulation and by its tight control of costs...
…This pattern of buying up all the newspapers in an area, slashing subscription rates to levels which (according to critics) only a national conglomerate could sustain, and then raising advertising rates once control over the local market had been secured brought Gannett severe criticism as well as lawsuits. Smaller community and privately owned newspapers have charged the media giant with predatory practices and violations of antitrust laws. Not helping Gannett’s image was the frank admission of brash business tactics by former Gannett chairman Allen Neuharth in his autobiography, Confessions of an S.O.B. (1989). (From, “Gannett Co., Inc.” as defined by Encyclopedia Britannica, 2009).
So it should have been no surprise when the PDN refused to cover any story outlining the long shadow of rape and assault allegations that accompanied the history of Marines stationed in Okinawa and whose arrival was being staged on Guam.
The same co-worker who had declined to cover the rosary and myself had been pressing our editors to do a story on this history, as there had been virtually no coverage of it in Guam media to that point.
Nothing ever came of it; each day we logged on to the program that contained the daily budget and found that the item had either been pushed back or removed entirely.
Eventually, unable to stomach their editorial policy any longer, I jumped ship and went to work for the PDN’s only competition, the Marianas Variety.
One day my old co-worker said he had given up trying to get the story into the PDN following an especially heated exchange between himself and the managing editor on the subject of the Okinawa Marines story in which he said the editor had indignantly exclaimed, “I have friends and family in the military!”
Military censorship
I had been holding the story up to that point out of respect for my friend, but on hearing that he had given up trying to run it in the PDN, I decided to run with it.
I set out to get some information on the allegations from the Navy and the Joint Guam Program Office, which had been set up by the DoD to act as a civilian-military liaison to pave the way for the Marines. It seemed that once the Navy had figured out I was going to write a critical article, my phone calls and emails went unanswered.
The Variety finally ran an article—despite lack of cooperation on the part of the Navy—in November highlighting the grave concerns of many Guam senators over the violent history of the Marines in Okinawa.
At about that time the Navy’s public information officer met with the Variety’s general operations manager, saying that I was harassing him and that he thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. He said the Navy did not keep any records of allegations against its service members and suspected that I had not done my research.
Given the Navy’s reticence on the issue, I cited numbers directly from the Okinawa prefecture government website, as well as data compiled by Japanese activist groups:
“A report filed this year by an activist group, Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, documented over 400 alleged cases of rape, abduction, assault, murder and other forms of abuse committed by U.S. forces in Japan from the period of their post-war occupation to the present.”(“Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 1” Marianas Variety, October 30, 2008)
“(T)here have been more than 5,076 cases of crime caused by the SOFA (Service of Forces Agreement) status people since the reversion of Okinawa to mainland Japan (1972). This number includes 531 cases of brutal crimes and 955 cases of assaults. Thus, there is fear amongst the people of Okinawa as to whether or not security for their daily lives can be maintained and whether their property can be preserved."(From “Concerns raised over Okinawa incidents: part 2,” Marianas Variety, November 7, 2008—as quoted directly from the website of the government of the Okinawa Prefecture.)
In December, following the story on the Okinawa Marines, I wrote an article for the Variety entitled “DoD’s ‘mystery’ project puzzles Guam officials,” which examined a tip I had received that JGPO was looking to convert about 650 acres currently belonging to the Chamorro Land Trust Commission and 250 acres belonging to the Ancestral Lands Commission—which was currently occupied by Guam International Raceway-- into a firing range.
On January 15, Variety reporter and editor, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, wrote a follow-up article, based on a written statement from JGPO Operations Director, Lt. Col. Rudy Kube, confirming the suspicions.
On April 28, the Variety received payment from JGPO for their role as a ‘watchdog’ paper when Variety reporters were barred from attending the “Guam Industry Forum III,” while all other media outlets on-island were granted access.
Variety reporter, Jennifer Naylor Gesick, wrote:
Onsite industry forum personnel notified the reporting staff that the ban was on a “federal level” and was issued as a “government order” from U.S. Marine Corp Capt. Neil Ruggiero with the Joint Guam Project Office...”
The ban was in effect in all venues, as confirmed by Variety reporters in the field. Press passes were printed for every media company on island, except for the Variety...
... Ruggiero argued that Variety could have attended the event as a business if the publishers had registered with the forum.
“Marianas Variety was given the same opportunity as anyone else, they just chose not to be paying registrants, [Pacific Daily News] chose to pay and they were allowed access,” he said...
...However, any media covering the event was allowed in free.
In response to claims of a violation of the freedom of the press in restricting access to the forum, Ruggiero responded that “the press who only stays one session is allowed in free.” That accommodation was not extended to the Variety.
Ruggiero also said that a Variety columnist was given access to represent the paper.
Variety columnist Jayne Flores confirmed that she was given a pass, but Ruggiero later said, “I told her she could not come as Marianas Variety or write any news for them.”
(From “Variety banned by JGPO,” Marianas Variety, April 29, 2009)
Gesick went on to quote Ruggiero, who is the public information officer for JGPO, as saying that the ban on Variety reporters was in effect because he felt part of Kube’s statement had been published out of context, although he did not challenge the veracity of the story.
Despite this lack of cooperation with media outlets willing to report any story critical of the DoD’s plans for the island, events in which the public have been able to ask questions of those involved with the proposed buildup or voice their concerns have drawn large crowds.
The large turnout at such forums suggests that those who are concerned for their island’s future in light of such weighty developments are not marginal or fringe groups as the dismissive attitudes of the DoD and the PDN would suggest.
At a forum held in November at the University of Guam, panellists from both the Civilian-Military Task Force, which works under the auspices of the Office of the Governor with JGPO, as well as members of the community working toward Guam’s self-determination stated both their progress and concerns with the buildup.
Panelist Mike Bevacqua of Famoksaiyan said every resident of Guam—regardless of their position on the buildup—needs to realize that the buildup will affect them personally. He encouraged residents to take a more proactive role in the course of their and Guam’s future.
“It is taking place because we are America, and it’s taking place because we’re not. It is not only something that takes place because of our geographic position, but our colonial status as well...”
“...It is also taking place because we are one of the few American communities where a unilateral announcement by the DOD that it intends to drastically affect life in your community and cause a population increase of 34 percent is met with excitement, celebration and a frightening lack of questioning...”
“...and this military buildup is predicated on the fact that you live in a colony and you can be treated as an object for the subject of the United States, as a weapon of the warrior of the United States military. This is the United States military sharpening the tip of its spear.”
(“Military buildup forum draws huge crowd,” Marianas Variety, November 20, 2008)
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Guam to Save the Day Again with Military Buildup
Military Build-Up: Guam to Save the Day Again
By Mia Concepcion Triton’s Call, Volume 31, Issue 02
Driving around the island, one can see some big changes happening. New restaurants, businesses, and housing complexes are carving their way through Guam’s natural landscapes.
Multiple roads are currently going through extensive reconstruction to prepare for the military buildup, the transfer of 8000 U.S. Marines and their 9000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam.
According to Governor Felix Camacho in his address to the U.S. Senate Committee and Energy Resources, the Marines will start departing their old base in Okinawa in 2012 and the relocation will be complete by 2014. With such a close deadline for the Marines’ arrival, Guam is working overtime to be prepared.
Both the Japanese and the United States government are spending billions of dollars, 15 billion to be exact, to help Guam prepare for this nearly 25 percent increase in population.
Japan is agreeing to foot some of the bill to ensure a speedy relocation due to social problems between Okinawans and the Marines.
Great amount of publicity given to rapes done by U.S. Marines. According to the Japan Press Weekly, the number of sex offenses in the military forces is 22 times the amount occurring in Japan. Okinawan political activists were strong in voice and were adamant about the ridding of the Marines, one even travelling to Guam to speak of the military presence and the ills that come along with it.
Some newspapers, on the other hand, have criticized some of Okinawa’s media, saying that things were blown out of proportion in order to serve a special need. According to Stars and Stripes, the number of offences committed by the Marines is merely a fraction of the number of offences committed by locals.
Either way, there has been an obvious apprehension on both sides and the relocation seemed the best choice to get rid of it. This is where Guam comes in, to save the day in the same way the buildup will save Guam’s day, financially.
With the recession of multiple economies, these are not the brightest days of our island. The Japanese economy hasn’t been in its best shape either, which has a direct and serious effect on the island.
Guam, an island heavily relying on the money pulled in from Japanese tourists, is also feeling the tightening of the belt. The number of flights from Japan is steadily going downhill, thus the number of tourists and there is nothing else for our economy to rely on.
With such desperation regarding money on island, many people are really looking to this Marine buildup as an economic savior who couldn’t have come at a better time. The government of Guam seems to be stuck in a financial whirlpool, never quite getting out and the more people involved only results in a bigger debt, a bigger hunger.
Students of the University of Guam are in a unique position and have an invaluable perspective on this change on island. We can benefit enormously from this buildup and increase in population and military presence. We are embarking on our careers and it could not be a better time for us to do so.
With so many businesses and agencies coming to support the buildup, we have endless professional choices.
Older generations seem to be in consensus that this buildup will be a good thing. They have been on Guam long enough to see her during the good times: when politicians were trustworthy, when the government wasn’t in debt and when schools were actually safe havens for children.
Needless to say, things aren’t the same. Being able to gauge how good things were with money, it is easier for them to welcome this military expansion with open arms.
Maybe it’s a feasible way for them to return Guam to her good old days. Maybe they don’t want to see the social problems that might arise with the increased Marine presence on the island. Maybe it’s not going to be that big of a deal.
But denying that there will be social changes is a huge mistake. Any area that experiences a large population increase will, without a doubt, face a little tension, especially when there are differences in culture if transition is not done properly.
As young adults living on a small island with an already prominent military community, we see first-hand what these tensions can lead to. We see animosity rooted in cultural misunderstandings and what comes out of it: harsh words being exchanged, violence and worst, the passing of this animosity onto future generations.
We see numerous fights involving two different ethnicities, always on opposite sides and rarely mixing. We also hear the hatred and anger from certain elders about those “guys”.
I remember specifically waiting outside the Globe for a friend to come out. As I sat outside, I noticed that there was a military guy laid out on the ground. He was unconscious and wasn’t receiving help from anyone except for his lone friend, holding up his head. I thought he had blacked out from drinking but upon speculation, I learned that two local guys had attacked him. I insisted that some guys help him out, but they only replied with a cold “That’s what they deserve”.
It wasn’t a “That’s what he deserves” but a general statement about a large amount of people. I’m not saying that this misunderstanding is only on one side but it’s a multi-faceted thing. Tons of military guys, probably missing home and still getting used to Guam, tend to speak badly of the island. We have heard multiple times that they can’t wait to get off this rock.
With Chamorros being a proud people, it’s easy to understand how upset one can get when hearing such talk. Young men tend to be protective of their homeland, no matter where it may be, and will get violent in order to get their point across. We’ve heard countless stories, from both sides, about how things aren’t as pleasant as one would hope in regards to the relations between the locals and the military. We have heard about how the Chamorro people can be extremely hospitable or can be mean-spirited. We have also heard that members of the military are the most interesting people or the most obnoxious.
Either way, we need to open our eyes and our minds. As of right now, the buildup seems like a mere blueprint. Sure, we see new roads being constructed and new buildings going up left and right but are we ready for this? We can have numerous shopping malls and restaurants but what we need to prepare ourselves for are the cultural and social changes we are going to see in our community.
We, as a whole, could look forward to sharing our majestic island with others. We can teach others the joys of our culture instead of chastising those who don’t understand it.
That being said, we can also learn from other cultures to become better citizens of the world. We live in a wonderful place and we’re blessed to call Guam our home. It’s only right that we represent her the proper way; with respect and understanding, no matter who you are.
We could look at this buildup with fear, excitement or utter confusion but the number one thing to do is to keep open our minds and our hearts. We, as students of the University of Guam, are the island’s future leaders and we need to be the ones to show the way.
By Mia Concepcion Triton’s Call, Volume 31, Issue 02
Driving around the island, one can see some big changes happening. New restaurants, businesses, and housing complexes are carving their way through Guam’s natural landscapes.
Multiple roads are currently going through extensive reconstruction to prepare for the military buildup, the transfer of 8000 U.S. Marines and their 9000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam.
According to Governor Felix Camacho in his address to the U.S. Senate Committee and Energy Resources, the Marines will start departing their old base in Okinawa in 2012 and the relocation will be complete by 2014. With such a close deadline for the Marines’ arrival, Guam is working overtime to be prepared.
Both the Japanese and the United States government are spending billions of dollars, 15 billion to be exact, to help Guam prepare for this nearly 25 percent increase in population.
Japan is agreeing to foot some of the bill to ensure a speedy relocation due to social problems between Okinawans and the Marines.
Great amount of publicity given to rapes done by U.S. Marines. According to the Japan Press Weekly, the number of sex offenses in the military forces is 22 times the amount occurring in Japan. Okinawan political activists were strong in voice and were adamant about the ridding of the Marines, one even travelling to Guam to speak of the military presence and the ills that come along with it.
Some newspapers, on the other hand, have criticized some of Okinawa’s media, saying that things were blown out of proportion in order to serve a special need. According to Stars and Stripes, the number of offences committed by the Marines is merely a fraction of the number of offences committed by locals.
Either way, there has been an obvious apprehension on both sides and the relocation seemed the best choice to get rid of it. This is where Guam comes in, to save the day in the same way the buildup will save Guam’s day, financially.
With the recession of multiple economies, these are not the brightest days of our island. The Japanese economy hasn’t been in its best shape either, which has a direct and serious effect on the island.
Guam, an island heavily relying on the money pulled in from Japanese tourists, is also feeling the tightening of the belt. The number of flights from Japan is steadily going downhill, thus the number of tourists and there is nothing else for our economy to rely on.
With such desperation regarding money on island, many people are really looking to this Marine buildup as an economic savior who couldn’t have come at a better time. The government of Guam seems to be stuck in a financial whirlpool, never quite getting out and the more people involved only results in a bigger debt, a bigger hunger.
Students of the University of Guam are in a unique position and have an invaluable perspective on this change on island. We can benefit enormously from this buildup and increase in population and military presence. We are embarking on our careers and it could not be a better time for us to do so.
With so many businesses and agencies coming to support the buildup, we have endless professional choices.
Older generations seem to be in consensus that this buildup will be a good thing. They have been on Guam long enough to see her during the good times: when politicians were trustworthy, when the government wasn’t in debt and when schools were actually safe havens for children.
Needless to say, things aren’t the same. Being able to gauge how good things were with money, it is easier for them to welcome this military expansion with open arms.
Maybe it’s a feasible way for them to return Guam to her good old days. Maybe they don’t want to see the social problems that might arise with the increased Marine presence on the island. Maybe it’s not going to be that big of a deal.
But denying that there will be social changes is a huge mistake. Any area that experiences a large population increase will, without a doubt, face a little tension, especially when there are differences in culture if transition is not done properly.
As young adults living on a small island with an already prominent military community, we see first-hand what these tensions can lead to. We see animosity rooted in cultural misunderstandings and what comes out of it: harsh words being exchanged, violence and worst, the passing of this animosity onto future generations.
We see numerous fights involving two different ethnicities, always on opposite sides and rarely mixing. We also hear the hatred and anger from certain elders about those “guys”.
I remember specifically waiting outside the Globe for a friend to come out. As I sat outside, I noticed that there was a military guy laid out on the ground. He was unconscious and wasn’t receiving help from anyone except for his lone friend, holding up his head. I thought he had blacked out from drinking but upon speculation, I learned that two local guys had attacked him. I insisted that some guys help him out, but they only replied with a cold “That’s what they deserve”.
It wasn’t a “That’s what he deserves” but a general statement about a large amount of people. I’m not saying that this misunderstanding is only on one side but it’s a multi-faceted thing. Tons of military guys, probably missing home and still getting used to Guam, tend to speak badly of the island. We have heard multiple times that they can’t wait to get off this rock.
With Chamorros being a proud people, it’s easy to understand how upset one can get when hearing such talk. Young men tend to be protective of their homeland, no matter where it may be, and will get violent in order to get their point across. We’ve heard countless stories, from both sides, about how things aren’t as pleasant as one would hope in regards to the relations between the locals and the military. We have heard about how the Chamorro people can be extremely hospitable or can be mean-spirited. We have also heard that members of the military are the most interesting people or the most obnoxious.
Either way, we need to open our eyes and our minds. As of right now, the buildup seems like a mere blueprint. Sure, we see new roads being constructed and new buildings going up left and right but are we ready for this? We can have numerous shopping malls and restaurants but what we need to prepare ourselves for are the cultural and social changes we are going to see in our community.
We, as a whole, could look forward to sharing our majestic island with others. We can teach others the joys of our culture instead of chastising those who don’t understand it.
That being said, we can also learn from other cultures to become better citizens of the world. We live in a wonderful place and we’re blessed to call Guam our home. It’s only right that we represent her the proper way; with respect and understanding, no matter who you are.
We could look at this buildup with fear, excitement or utter confusion but the number one thing to do is to keep open our minds and our hearts. We, as students of the University of Guam, are the island’s future leaders and we need to be the ones to show the way.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
Okinawa Rape Case Worried Guam Activists
New Okinawa rape case worries Guam activists
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
THE activist group Chamoro Nation has renewed its call for the removal of the U.S. bases on Guam following a new rape incident involving a U.S. serviceman in Okinawa.
"We the Chamoru people of Guam are appalled by the continuing indecent behavior of violence such as the rape of yet another child in Okinawa by members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Our sincerest and heartfelt sympathy goes out to this poor child, her family and the entire Okinawan community," the Chamoru nation said in a statement of solidarity with the Japanese community.
The latest rape case against, filed by a Filipino woman who accused an American soldier of sexually attacking her in an Okinawa hotel, came following the arrest of 38-year-old Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, who was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa.
The series of rape cases involving members of the U.S. Armed Forces has sparked outrage in Japan, which is host to some 50,000 U.S. troops under a security treaty.
"This horrendous attack along with the past acts of violence by U.S. service members further instills our belief that the transfer of these so-called 'family orientated' soldiers to Guam will severely and adversely impact the well-being and safety of our island community causing us to live constantly in a state of fear and oppression, as it has done to all outside the bases in Okinawa and throughout our region," the Chamorro Nation said.
The tensions in Japan have been exacerbated by allegations of additional less serious crimes by American troops. Japanese leaders have deplored the behavior and accused the U.S. military of lax discipline.
"The courageous stance taken by the people of Okinawa to protect their families from the ruthlessness of these monstrous, uncaring and vicious people is clearly the only solution to insuring their safety," according to statement from Chamorro Nation, the most vocal anti-military bases group in Guam.
Though Guam is generally receptive to the military expansion plan for the island, a handful of activists and women senators have repeatedly expressed concerns about the social impact of the relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa.
Debbie Quinata, maga'haga of Chamorro Nation, said her group stands in firm solidarity with the people of Okinawa in calling for the removal of all U.S. bases and their soldiers from Okinawa.
"We further call for their removal from Guam, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines returning to their country, the United States of America," the statement said.
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff
THE activist group Chamoro Nation has renewed its call for the removal of the U.S. bases on Guam following a new rape incident involving a U.S. serviceman in Okinawa.
"We the Chamoru people of Guam are appalled by the continuing indecent behavior of violence such as the rape of yet another child in Okinawa by members of the U.S. Armed Forces. Our sincerest and heartfelt sympathy goes out to this poor child, her family and the entire Okinawan community," the Chamoru nation said in a statement of solidarity with the Japanese community.
The latest rape case against, filed by a Filipino woman who accused an American soldier of sexually attacking her in an Okinawa hotel, came following the arrest of 38-year-old Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, who was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa.
The series of rape cases involving members of the U.S. Armed Forces has sparked outrage in Japan, which is host to some 50,000 U.S. troops under a security treaty.
"This horrendous attack along with the past acts of violence by U.S. service members further instills our belief that the transfer of these so-called 'family orientated' soldiers to Guam will severely and adversely impact the well-being and safety of our island community causing us to live constantly in a state of fear and oppression, as it has done to all outside the bases in Okinawa and throughout our region," the Chamorro Nation said.
The tensions in Japan have been exacerbated by allegations of additional less serious crimes by American troops. Japanese leaders have deplored the behavior and accused the U.S. military of lax discipline.
"The courageous stance taken by the people of Okinawa to protect their families from the ruthlessness of these monstrous, uncaring and vicious people is clearly the only solution to insuring their safety," according to statement from Chamorro Nation, the most vocal anti-military bases group in Guam.
Though Guam is generally receptive to the military expansion plan for the island, a handful of activists and women senators have repeatedly expressed concerns about the social impact of the relocation of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa.
Debbie Quinata, maga'haga of Chamorro Nation, said her group stands in firm solidarity with the people of Okinawa in calling for the removal of all U.S. bases and their soldiers from Okinawa.
"We further call for their removal from Guam, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines returning to their country, the United States of America," the statement said.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Protests Spreading in Okinawa
Protests spreading in Okinawa over alleged rape by U.S. Marine+
Feb 12 09:10 PM US/Eastern
NAHA, Japan, Feb. 13 (AP) - (Kyodo)
Protests continued to spread Wednesday in Okinawa Prefecture in the wake of the alleged rape by a U.S. Marine of a 14-year-old girl over the weekend.
Two local assemblies adopted a joint protest resolution, while Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, an influential civic group that played a key role in a massive rally in 1995, sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera, meanwhile, is slated to meet later in the day with Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, who heads the U.S. military in Okinawa, at the Foreign Ministry's office in the prefecture to call for disciplinary and preventive measures.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer will visit the Okinawa prefectural government for talks with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima in the afternoon to convey regret over the incident, according to prefectural government officials.
In the joint resolution, the assemblies of the town of Chatan, where the alleged rape occurred Sunday night, and the city of Okinawa, where the Marine allegedly met the girl, called for preventive measures, an apology and compensation for the victim.
The women's civic group also called for an apology and compensation in the letter to the U.S. president, while stressing the need to provide mental care to children who have been victims of violence by U.S. military personnel or who have been traumatized by such incidents.
The group also called in the letter for strict punishment of the suspect and for overseeing U.S. military personnel living outside bases.
In 1995, when a 12-year-old girl was raped by three U.S. servicemen in Okinawa, the group called for protest activities at a press conference held three days after the incident came to light.
The group and two other organizations of women successively held protest rallies which eventually coalesced into a single massive demonstration. The protest moves led Japan and the United States to agree the following year to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station and to vacate some other U.S. military facilities in Okinawa.
Uncertainties remain over whether the latest incident will head in the same direction as in 1995.
Suzuyo Takazato, a former Naha assembly member who belongs to the women's group, said, "Things were not planned from the beginning to move that way in 1995."
In the latest case, a 38-year-old staff sergeant at Camp Courtney is suspected of raping the girl inside a car parked on a street by a park in Chatan on Sunday night.
The suspect, identified as Tyrone Hadnott, was arrested Monday by local police and sent to prosecutors on Tuesday. He denies raping the girl, but has admitted to touching her in the vehicle, the police said.
Feb 12 09:10 PM US/Eastern
NAHA, Japan, Feb. 13 (AP) - (Kyodo)
Protests continued to spread Wednesday in Okinawa Prefecture in the wake of the alleged rape by a U.S. Marine of a 14-year-old girl over the weekend.
Two local assemblies adopted a joint protest resolution, while Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, an influential civic group that played a key role in a massive rally in 1995, sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush.
Senior Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera, meanwhile, is slated to meet later in the day with Marine Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, who heads the U.S. military in Okinawa, at the Foreign Ministry's office in the prefecture to call for disciplinary and preventive measures.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer will visit the Okinawa prefectural government for talks with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima in the afternoon to convey regret over the incident, according to prefectural government officials.
In the joint resolution, the assemblies of the town of Chatan, where the alleged rape occurred Sunday night, and the city of Okinawa, where the Marine allegedly met the girl, called for preventive measures, an apology and compensation for the victim.
The women's civic group also called for an apology and compensation in the letter to the U.S. president, while stressing the need to provide mental care to children who have been victims of violence by U.S. military personnel or who have been traumatized by such incidents.
The group also called in the letter for strict punishment of the suspect and for overseeing U.S. military personnel living outside bases.
In 1995, when a 12-year-old girl was raped by three U.S. servicemen in Okinawa, the group called for protest activities at a press conference held three days after the incident came to light.
The group and two other organizations of women successively held protest rallies which eventually coalesced into a single massive demonstration. The protest moves led Japan and the United States to agree the following year to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station and to vacate some other U.S. military facilities in Okinawa.
Uncertainties remain over whether the latest incident will head in the same direction as in 1995.
Suzuyo Takazato, a former Naha assembly member who belongs to the women's group, said, "Things were not planned from the beginning to move that way in 1995."
In the latest case, a 38-year-old staff sergeant at Camp Courtney is suspected of raping the girl inside a car parked on a street by a park in Chatan on Sunday night.
The suspect, identified as Tyrone Hadnott, was arrested Monday by local police and sent to prosecutors on Tuesday. He denies raping the girl, but has admitted to touching her in the vehicle, the police said.
Letter to Bush from the Women of Okinawa
February 13, 2008
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
Consul General Kevin Maher
United States Consulate General in Naha, Okinawa
Lt. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer
US Military’s Okinawa Area Coordinator
We protest the sexual violence against an Okinawan girl by a U.S. Marine
We demand withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa
We, people of Okinawa, particularly women, are outraged at another heinous crime committed by a U.S. serviceman on February 10th, 2008.
We have been imposed the burden of hosting U.S. military and bases. For long 62 years, the lives of women and children in Okinawa have been made insecure by the presence of the U.S. military and bases.
The fact that the perpetrator took the victim from city center where local residents spend their leisure time on holidays and weekends, demonstrates the close proximity between our daily life and the violence and danger caused by the U.S. military. The perpetrator, a Marine who belongs to Camp Courtney lives outside of the base in a local residential area. Why should U.S. soldiers be allowed to freely enter a residential area at any time? Why is a safe environment for children and women not assured in Okinawa? The fear of the victim, the anger of her family, the shock and anxiety of the local residents are all immeasurable.
The U.S. military has promised over and over “the requirement for the highest standards of conduct,” every time a crime was committed. It is evident that these promises resulted in nothing. It needs to be reminded that in the past, during long weekends such as Independence Day weekend, many girls were revealed to the violence of U.S. soldiers. Behind the crimes that have been made public are many more women and children who could not speak out about the violence they were exposed to.
We call for withdrawal of the U.S. military in order to abolish such violence. We argue that the military is a violence-intrinsic institution. And true security cannot be realized by the military in our community nor between nations.
We demand:
careful and adequate psychological care of the victim,
apology and compensation to the victim,
strict punishment of the perpetrator,
tighter discipline and control over soldiers living in off-base housings.
The realignment and transformation of the US-Japan military alliance will only intensify the functions of the U.S. bases in Okinawa. We demand withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa and closure of the U.S. bases in Okinawa.
Co-chairs, (Ms.) TAKAZATO Suzuyo, (Ms.) ITOKAZU Keiko,
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence
3-29-41-102 Kumoji, Naha, Okinawa, 900-0015
Ph. Fax. 098-864-1539
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
Consul General Kevin Maher
United States Consulate General in Naha, Okinawa
Lt. Gen. Richard C. Zilmer
US Military’s Okinawa Area Coordinator
We protest the sexual violence against an Okinawan girl by a U.S. Marine
We demand withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa
We, people of Okinawa, particularly women, are outraged at another heinous crime committed by a U.S. serviceman on February 10th, 2008.
We have been imposed the burden of hosting U.S. military and bases. For long 62 years, the lives of women and children in Okinawa have been made insecure by the presence of the U.S. military and bases.
The fact that the perpetrator took the victim from city center where local residents spend their leisure time on holidays and weekends, demonstrates the close proximity between our daily life and the violence and danger caused by the U.S. military. The perpetrator, a Marine who belongs to Camp Courtney lives outside of the base in a local residential area. Why should U.S. soldiers be allowed to freely enter a residential area at any time? Why is a safe environment for children and women not assured in Okinawa? The fear of the victim, the anger of her family, the shock and anxiety of the local residents are all immeasurable.
The U.S. military has promised over and over “the requirement for the highest standards of conduct,” every time a crime was committed. It is evident that these promises resulted in nothing. It needs to be reminded that in the past, during long weekends such as Independence Day weekend, many girls were revealed to the violence of U.S. soldiers. Behind the crimes that have been made public are many more women and children who could not speak out about the violence they were exposed to.
We call for withdrawal of the U.S. military in order to abolish such violence. We argue that the military is a violence-intrinsic institution. And true security cannot be realized by the military in our community nor between nations.
We demand:
careful and adequate psychological care of the victim,
apology and compensation to the victim,
strict punishment of the perpetrator,
tighter discipline and control over soldiers living in off-base housings.
The realignment and transformation of the US-Japan military alliance will only intensify the functions of the U.S. bases in Okinawa. We demand withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa and closure of the U.S. bases in Okinawa.
Co-chairs, (Ms.) TAKAZATO Suzuyo, (Ms.) ITOKAZU Keiko,
Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence
3-29-41-102 Kumoji, Naha, Okinawa, 900-0015
Ph. Fax. 098-864-1539
Monday, February 11, 2008
US Marine Charged Over Japan Rape
US marine charged over Japan rape
Al Jazeera English
2/11/08
A US marine has been arrested and charged with raping a schoolgirl on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, in an incident that could strain ties between the two allies.
The 38-year-old marine staff sergeant who was stationed at Camp Courtney in Okinawa, denies that he raped the 14-year-old on Sunday, although he has admitted he forced the girl down and kissed her.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said he decided to drive the girl home when she started crying, and that the girl had telephoned her friends for help.
Hirokazu Nakaima, the governor of Okinawa, said he felt "great anger" over the alleged assault.
"I can never forgive such a crime, especially when the victim is a junior high school student."
A similar incident involving the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three US servicemen in Okinawa sparked huge protests in 1995.
The three marines convicted of rape were each jailed between six-and-a-half to seven years.
News of the latest alleged rape comes as the Japanese government tries to persuade residents to accept a plan to relocate a US air base from a densely-populated city in central Okinawa to the coastal city of Nago.
The US Marine Corps in Japan, in an e-mailed statement, said it took the allegation "very seriously" and was fully cooperating with the Okinawa police.
Japan is home to some 50,000 US troops, the bulk of them based in Okinawa, under a mutual security pact.
But residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair burden for maintaining the US-Japan security alliance and complain about US military bases causing crime, noise and accidents.
In 2006, Japan and the US agreed to realign US troops in the country including relocating air stations and moving some 8,000 marines from Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam.
Al Jazeera English
2/11/08
A US marine has been arrested and charged with raping a schoolgirl on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, in an incident that could strain ties between the two allies.
The 38-year-old marine staff sergeant who was stationed at Camp Courtney in Okinawa, denies that he raped the 14-year-old on Sunday, although he has admitted he forced the girl down and kissed her.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said he decided to drive the girl home when she started crying, and that the girl had telephoned her friends for help.
Hirokazu Nakaima, the governor of Okinawa, said he felt "great anger" over the alleged assault.
"I can never forgive such a crime, especially when the victim is a junior high school student."
A similar incident involving the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl by three US servicemen in Okinawa sparked huge protests in 1995.
The three marines convicted of rape were each jailed between six-and-a-half to seven years.
News of the latest alleged rape comes as the Japanese government tries to persuade residents to accept a plan to relocate a US air base from a densely-populated city in central Okinawa to the coastal city of Nago.
The US Marine Corps in Japan, in an e-mailed statement, said it took the allegation "very seriously" and was fully cooperating with the Okinawa police.
Japan is home to some 50,000 US troops, the bulk of them based in Okinawa, under a mutual security pact.
But residents have long resented bearing what they see as an unfair burden for maintaining the US-Japan security alliance and complain about US military bases causing crime, noise and accidents.
In 2006, Japan and the US agreed to realign US troops in the country including relocating air stations and moving some 8,000 marines from Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Social Impact of the Military Buildup
Editorial: The social impact of the build-up
The Marianas Variety
Guam Editorials
Wednesday January 30, 2008
First off, we believe that the U.S. military is a good organization as a whole and that it has, in general, acted properly in carrying out its duties overseas.
That being said, we should take note of the incidents related by the visiting activists during this week's UOG forum on women and human rights.
The activists came from Okinawa, the place where thousands of U.S. Marines and their dependents will be relocated to Guam.
Comparisons between Guam and Okinawa can be made because both are relatively small island communities that host a large number of U.S. military personnel.
Okinawa, which has been called an island of deep-seated resentment, accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's land area. Yet 75 percent of U.S. military installations in Japan are concentrated in the prefecture.
On Guam, the population will increase by almost 50,000 by the time the military's expansion is completed.
Suzuyo Takazato, co-founder and director for the Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, warned during the forum that there would likely be an increase in violence against local women when the Marines from Okinawa move to the island.
While activist rhetoric can sometimes lead to generalizations and oversimplification, the incidents related by Takazato were true. There were indeed crimes committed by the military during its stay in Okinawa and other places.
Thus, our leaders should take the revelations made during the forum as a cue that more needs to be done on the social aspects of the military's expansion on Guam.
The economic and infrastructure issues that will be affected by the coming of the Marines' have already gained the attention of GovGuam. And rightly so, because these are important and will have a big impact on the lives of the residents here.
However, the social impact is important too and should not be overlooked in the general excitement over the economic impact that the military build-up would have.
This early, Gov Guam and the private sector, especially the non-government organizations, should already be gearing up for the societal problems that the coming of the Marines will cause and take a pro-active approach.
For there will be problems, make no mistake. The military, just like any organization in the world, is comprised of human beings. And where there are humans, there will always be human foibles and shortcomings.
The military, too, should do its part. Over the years, military training has been improving to the point that atrocities common during the Vietnam era have more or less been already curtailed.
It is now up to the current military leadership to ensure that the military doesn't repeat the mistakes it made in Okinawa when it relocates the Marines to Guam.
The Marianas Variety
Guam Editorials
Wednesday January 30, 2008
First off, we believe that the U.S. military is a good organization as a whole and that it has, in general, acted properly in carrying out its duties overseas.
That being said, we should take note of the incidents related by the visiting activists during this week's UOG forum on women and human rights.
The activists came from Okinawa, the place where thousands of U.S. Marines and their dependents will be relocated to Guam.
Comparisons between Guam and Okinawa can be made because both are relatively small island communities that host a large number of U.S. military personnel.
Okinawa, which has been called an island of deep-seated resentment, accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's land area. Yet 75 percent of U.S. military installations in Japan are concentrated in the prefecture.
On Guam, the population will increase by almost 50,000 by the time the military's expansion is completed.
Suzuyo Takazato, co-founder and director for the Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, warned during the forum that there would likely be an increase in violence against local women when the Marines from Okinawa move to the island.
While activist rhetoric can sometimes lead to generalizations and oversimplification, the incidents related by Takazato were true. There were indeed crimes committed by the military during its stay in Okinawa and other places.
Thus, our leaders should take the revelations made during the forum as a cue that more needs to be done on the social aspects of the military's expansion on Guam.
The economic and infrastructure issues that will be affected by the coming of the Marines' have already gained the attention of GovGuam. And rightly so, because these are important and will have a big impact on the lives of the residents here.
However, the social impact is important too and should not be overlooked in the general excitement over the economic impact that the military build-up would have.
This early, Gov Guam and the private sector, especially the non-government organizations, should already be gearing up for the societal problems that the coming of the Marines will cause and take a pro-active approach.
For there will be problems, make no mistake. The military, just like any organization in the world, is comprised of human beings. And where there are humans, there will always be human foibles and shortcomings.
The military, too, should do its part. Over the years, military training has been improving to the point that atrocities common during the Vietnam era have more or less been already curtailed.
It is now up to the current military leadership to ensure that the military doesn't repeat the mistakes it made in Okinawa when it relocates the Marines to Guam.
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