Micronesia and the Nuclear Pacific Since Hiroshima

Abstract

MICRONESIA AND THE NUCLEAR PACIFIC SINCE HIROSHIMA Jonathan M. Weisgall O? 6 August 1945 a B-29 Superfortress—the Enoh Gay—took off from the island ofTinian in Micronesia and dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing 130,000 people. Three days later, another B-29 from Tinian dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing between 60,000 and 70,000 people.Japan announced its surrender five days later. More than a decade earlier, Japan had closed off and fortified the Micronesian islands to prepare for the attack on the United States and the defense of the Japanese home islands. For the United States, World War II began and ended in Micronesia: The massive Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor that brought America into the war had been staged from the strategic network of islands in Micronesia, and two American planes from Micronesia brought the war to a close. Forty years later, as the world commemorates the first military use of nuclear weapons, Micronesia continues to play a critical role in the nuclear Pacific as it prepares to enter into a new political relationship of free assocatioh with the United States.1 1 . Micronesia is used in this article hi a political sense as a synonym for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which includes the four governments of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. See page Jonathan Weisgall, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who represents the people of Bikini Atoll, is writing a book on the U.S. nuclear testing program in the Pacific. Mr. Weisgall would like to thank Alison M. Macdonald for her invaluable research assistance. Copyright 1985, Jonathan M. Weisgall. 41 42 SAIS REVIEW A major theme in the four decades of American control over Micronesia is the domination of U.S. policy by military and strategic considerations. As a result, Micronesia has in effect been a U.S. colony since World War II. The newly emerging political relationship between the United States and the Micronesian governments has brought this issues into the open and forced both the United States and Micronesians to come to grips with its implications for the future. Micronesia—literally "little islands"—is comprised of 2,100 islands and atolls in three major archipelagos: the Marianas, the Carolines, and the Marshalls. Micronesia's land and sea area covers roughly three million square miles in the North Pacific Ocean—more than the entire continental United States—but its land area is only 700 square miles, about half the size of Rhode Island. Formerly under Spanish and German rule, Micronesia came underJapanese control at the outbreak of World War I, and in 1920 it became a Japanese mandate under the League of Nations. American forces suffered more than 38,000 casualities in the islands in some of the most bitter fighting of World War II, including the battles of Saipan, Peleliu, and Kwajalein. Toward the end of the war, there was little doubt that Micronesia would remain under U.S. control. The only debate was whether to annex the islands or place them under the trusteeship system ofthe new United Nations. Military leaders urged outright annexation for strategic reasons. Secretary of War Henry Stimson, arguing that "they are not colonies; they are outposts," asserted that U.S. annexation of Micronesia would be "merely the acquisition by the United States of the necessary bases for the defense of the Pacific for the future world." To serve this purpose, he continued, the islands "must belong to the United States with absolute power to rule and fortify them. . . . "2 The emotional appeal was equally strong. "These atolls, these island harbors," said Admiral Ernest King, "will have been paid for by the sacrifice ofAmerican blood."3 Secretary of State Cordell Hull, however, pointed to the principle of no territorial aggrandizement in the Atlantic Charter and in the Cairo Declaration and urged that Micronesia be made a trusteeship under the United Nations. He countered the annexation argument with the contention that "Russia would thereupon use this acquisition as an example and precedent for similar acquisitions by herself."4 45 below. Geographically, Micronesia includes these areas as well...