Japanese, Ousted From Pacific Islands in War, Make Comeback With Investments

Japanese tourists, armed with golf clubs and bundles of cash, are reconquering the Micronesian islands in the Western Pacific that Japan lost to the United States nearly 50 years ago.

“The yen has taken over,” complained Saipan tour guide Guy Gabaldon, a former U.S. Marine who fought in the bloody island-hopping campaign waged when U.S. troops took the region from Japan in World War II, island by island.

Seventy years ago the islands, scattered in the Pacific between Hawaii and the Philippines, were in a Japanese sea.

From Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Marianas to Palau far to the south, Japan ruled most of the 2,100 western Pacific islands under a League of Nations mandate given after World War I.

It built sugar plantations, roads, ports, railways, airports and farms as it attempted to integrate the islands into the Japanese economy.

After Japan’s defeat in 1945, Washington administered the Micronesian islands as trust territories under the United Nations.

Now thousands of Japanese tourists flock to the islands, offending people who fear that their coming will lead to lopsided development.

“They may have lost the battle, but the Japanese don’t think they’ve lost the war. The Japanese now own Saipan lock, stock and barrel,” said Gabaldon, who moved to Saipan in 1981.

“There is a feeling we are losing control of our own land,” said Felicidad Ogumoro, a member of the small nationalist group on Saipan known as Inetnon Taotao Tano. It has called for a three-year moratorium on major development projects.

“We want to set the rules for our own house. If developers don’t like it, let them go home. We come first,” Ogumoro said.

Japanese-owned hotels, casinos and golf courses catering to Japanese tourists dot the islands.

Golfing and scuba-diving vacations are especially popular. A round of golf on one of the island courses costs only a few dollars compared to several hundred in Tokyo.

The region also has some of the best diving in the world. Many divers are attracted to Truk Island, where a fleet of Japanese ships was sunk in World War II.

Guam officials said resentment of the Japanese is misplaced and the benefits far outweigh disadvantages.

“We need to have growth in our island to bring about a very healthy economy,” Gov. Joseph Ada said in an interview.

“Guam is not a Japanese economic colony. The Japanese are not getting away scot-free,” said Ada, who won a second term as governor in November on a platform of attracting more Japanese investors and tourists.

Benjamin Manglona, lieutenant governor of the Northern Marianas, which is a U.S. commonwealth, defends the influx of Japanese tourists and investment.

“Saipan needs foreign investment. Japanese investment in the tourist industry has made important contributions to our economy,” he said.

While the United States lies thousands of miles away, the Japanese are “right next door, flexing their economic muscles,” said John Hagelgam, president of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Guam and other Micronesian governments tried to attract U.S. developers but they did not want to take a risk, Hagelgam said. “The Japanese developers did, and are seeing the fruits of their labor now,” he added.

“Not a single American businessman took advantage of the $20 million available for joint ventures with local businessmen provided in the compact of association,” he said, referring to an agreement the Micronesian islands signed with Washington in 1986.

The Guam Visitors Bureau says more than 80% of the 668,000 tourists who visited in 1989 came from Japan. The Guam revenue office said taxes from tourism rose to more than $100 million in 1989 from $60 million in 1987.