Forgotten World (192): Guam
The tropical island of Guam, a US territory in the western Pacific, is a keystone of American military strategy in the region. It is an important staging post, allowing rapid access to potential flash points in the Koreas and in the Taiwan Strait. The US plans to move 8,000 Marines and 10,000 dependents from the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam by 2014 as part of its global realignment of US forces.
Guam’s diverse population of 180,000 includes Japanese, Chinese, and incomers from other Pacific islands. The indigenous Chamorro are a people of mixed Micronesian, Spanish and Filipino descent. Tourism (especially Japanese) and the growing military presence on the island are the bedrock of its economy.