Islands and Oceans by Sasha Davis

Author:Sasha Davis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Pacific-Centered Future: Where America’s Day Begins; or, Just Left of the Setting Sun?

Despite the history of opposition to foreign domination in this region, it is hard to deny that continued militarization and colonization have become part of the lived reality that shapes the communities and subjectivities of island inhabitants. In places such as Guåhan, the military bases, the circulation of personnel, and the operation of military units are woven into the fabric of everyday life. It is quite clear that militarized transnational relations deeply affect the production of the current everyday landscape, and even the fences around the bases have become part of the community in various ways (Alexander. In addition, as CHamoru scholars and others have pointed out,7 personal identities in places such as Guåhan are themselves constituted in relationship with the U.S. military as an institution—as participants, supporters, resisters, or a mix of these positions (Bevacqua 2010; Frain 2016, 2017; Mitchell and Kallio 2017; Na‘puti 2019; Na‘puti and Bevacqua 2015; Na‘puti and Frain 2017; Perez 2014).

Furthermore, the fact that the U.S. state has viewed Guåhan, as well as the islands that make up the Northern Marianas, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, as vital to their military strategies in the Pacific has led to a series of intimate entanglements that go well beyond simply the imposition of military bases. Yes, U.S. colonialism is experienced as bombers taking off and ships and sailors coming into port. However, it is also experienced through the visceral reactions to events such as the North Korean threats to Guåhan in 2017 (Aguon 2017; Bevacqua 2017; Leon Guerrero 2017). It is also experienced through the functioning of the soft infrastructures constructed to keep Guåhan and the surrounding islands in the U.S. orbit. For instance, the ability to migrate to the United States, and the ability to join the U.S. military (which young people in the region do at rates much higher per capita than in the United States itself) deeply shape life in Guåhan and across the Micronesia region (Aguon 2008). Everyday life in the area is also affected by the consumption of American media and cultural products, as well as laws such as the Jones Act that restrict shipping and reinforce the importation of U.S. goods and brands. It is also affected by the prevalence of English as the language of school instruction, the implementation of U.S. educational standards (such as the reading of British and American literature in the high schools), and the opportunities local students have for higher education in Hawai‘i or the mainland United States. The geosocial connections between these parts of Micronesia and the United States are plentiful and strong. They shape opportunities; they also shape perceptions of what is possible and desirable. Because of this, feelings and expressions of patriotism toward the United States are quite common in these islands (figure 2).

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