‘Races undesirable from a military point of view’: United states cultural security in the Pacific Islands, 1945–1947

Abstract

Between 1945 and 1947, the United States pursued an imperial course to guarantee its security in the western Pacific and eastern Asia by consolidating its control over Micronesia, the Philippines, the Bonins, the Volcanoes, and the Ryukyus. Part of this process entailed ensuring that these islands were ‘Americanised’ and assimilated to US rule, particularly when it came to the strategically‐located Micronesian Islands. Perceiving the Soviet Union as a post‐war successor to pre‐war Japan, American officials sought to prevent Micronesia being used for future bases by unfriendly foreign powers. Accordingly, US officials attempted to attach the Micronesian population to the continental United States by evacuating all East Asians, restricting the number of all but Caucasian‐Americans in the islands, and assimilating the population through aspects of American culture and political economy. Some Americans unofficially even suggested ‘whitening’ the islands by colonising them with large numbers of Caucasian‐Americans. This article not only recounts these ideas and events, but places this desire for ‘cultural security’ into a pre‐1945 historical context, and explores the issue as an element of a broadened conception of strategic security.