The Foreign Service Journal, December 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2013 25 A favorite contemporary image of Guam is the Japanese pillbox under towering hotels on Tumon Beach. Japanese tourists are the dominant economic force on the island today. The irony of them lounging on the beach around this World War II relic belies the fierce fight their countrymen put up against return- ing American forces. Numerous former machine-gun emplacements chiseled from coral can still be found along the jungle beaches north of Tumon, perfectly positioned to rake the shore approaches of an invad- ing force. But the Americans didn’t strike here, but further south at Asan Beach in 1944, in what is now the War in the Pacific National Park, the westernmost Department of Interior monument. I spend a day off on Guam exploring Japanese gun emplacements buried deep in bamboo thickets and visiting the isolated Talafofo River Valley, where Sgt. Soichi Yokoi lived hidden for 28 years. When discovered in 1972, he had exclaimed: “We Japanese soldiers were told to prefer death to the disgrace of being captured alive.” The Real Thing The Island Hopper mission truly begins, however, on the spectacular flight from Guam into Chuuk (Truk), the first stop on the United Airlines 737 route that services five islands on the way to Hawaii. After Chuuk comes Pohnpei Island, Kosrae, Kwajalein and then Majuro, capital of the Marshall Islands. Chuuk is one of the largest atolls in the world, with a protec- tive reef 140 miles around. Since there is no U.S. mission there, I remain planeside for an hour to guard the classified pouches in the hold. This is ample time to soak in the scenery and con- template the history of this remote locale. Initially part of the Spanish Empire, the Caroline Islands became German after the Spanish-American War. They were then ceded to Japan by the League of Nations’ South Pacific Mandate after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Known as the Gibraltar of the Pacific, Chuuk was the Empire of Japan’s main base in the South Pacific. Its garrison consisted of 50,000 Japanese military personnel with the lagoon harboring most of its Pacific fleet. In 1944, the Americans’ Operation Hailstone, launched from the recently invaded Marshall Islands 1,500 miles to the east, became one of the most effective airstrikes of the war. It destroyed 249 aircraft and sank 12 warships and 32 merchant ships, turning Chuuk Lagoon into the largest graveyard of ships in the world. In the poetic justice category, it is interesting to note that one of the relics in the lagoon is the submarine Shino- hara , part of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor, which was hit when it attempted a dive to avoid attack. After takeoff from Chuuk, with spectacular views of the reef and islands, an hourlong hop to Pohnpei Island, for an exchange of classified diplomatic pouches with the small embassy in Kolonia, is next. Even though the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia is now in the town of Palikir, just down the road to the southwest, most embassies remain in Kolonia. Because the Japanese had built up their defenses on the island so thoroughly during their rule, the Americans chose to drop 118 tons of bombs on this stronghold rather The wreck of the Japanese submarine Shinohara in Chuuk Lagoon. This sub was part of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The Americans’ Operation Hailstone destroyed 249 aircraft and sank 12 warships and 32 merchant ships, turning Chuuk Lagoon into the largest graveyard of ships in the world. johncollins.ie