A long time ago the DrsC spent a year on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific. More recently we revisited the island off a cruise ship which spent a day there. The island is looking very upscale compared with its "style" in the mid-1980s.
Along comes an article in The Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian, still U.K.) about U.S. plans to station 5000 marines there, lightening the load on Okinawa, which has grown more than tired of the U.S. military. The usual voices whining about colonialism are quoted, most prominently Robert Underwood who has been beating that dead horse for at least three decades.
On the other hand, those who say the island has a long and generally positive relationship with our military are certainly correct. The article mentions high military enlistment rates among the local Chamorro people. I'd add that the University of Guam has active ROTC units which get local kids commissions.
Guamanians or, as they call themselves, Chamorros join the military to get a ticket off the island that they don't have to pay for. There is now a substantial Chamorro community in the San Diego area, retired military families and some active duty too,
The source who said the military and tourism are about the only things going for Guam isn't far wrong. Since most of those tourists are Japanese, and therefore rude, working in tourism isn't a lot of fun.
The little discussed secret about Japanese is they are big-time racists, if you don't believe it look at how few people are permitted to emigrate to Japan. As a result of WW II, whites are generally given a pass by Japanese, but persons of color including Chamorros are not. And the bad blood goes both ways, Chamorros remember stories of Japanese beheading Chamorros with samurai swords during the WW II occupation.
