Word: micronesia
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...them to the U.S. as a trust territory. Ever since then, the U.S. has been a benign, if a bit abstracted, presence in the vital geopolitical center of the Western Pacific. It is not a duty that the U.S. has performed with any notable enthusiasm, particularly in contrast with Micronesia's previous rulers, the Japanese...
Japan took over Micronesia from Germany after World War I and immediately set about seriously developing and colonizing the islands. Japanese methods were often harsh, but they were vigorous and effective. Koror (see map) became a miniature Miami Beach for winter-weary Japanese, a sophisticated city of 30,000 replete with fine restaurants, geisha houses and Shinto shrines. Trading vessels from Japan were soon exporting great quantities of fish, pineapple, sugar and pearls from the islands. The Japanese paved roads, built hospitals and ports and laid down a rudimentary infrastructure for economic growth...
Less Than the Navajos. Today, with few exceptions, Micronesia looks-and is-a poorer place than in the heyday of the Japanese, reports TIME Correspondent Frank McCulloch after a five week tour of the islands. Occupying U.S. forces leveled much of what the Japanese built that was still intact after the war. Even what survived was seldom maintained, such as the once excellent water system on the island of Dublon, in Truk lagoon, now rusting in disuse, or the jungle-swallowed road on Babelthuap that once enabled outlying copra farmers and fishermen to bring their goods to market...
...Micronesia's plight is not the result of malice or considered U.S. policy but of the islands' place far down on any list of Washington priorities. Supplies ordered through the Department of the Interior can take as long as 16 months to reach the islands, and money for Micronesia is hard to come by. This year Washington has budgeted $14 million for the vast territory, a sum that disgruntled local U.S. officials like to point out is only a fifth of that targeted for a single Navajo reservation in the U.S. The Micronesians' copra and fishing trade...
...performance is not altogether bad, and in some areas is looking up sharply. Four short years ago, for example, there was only a single public high school in all Micronesia; today there are eight. In addition, 325 new elementary classrooms have been built, so that some 20,000 Micronesian children are receiving U.S.-sponsored education; another 5,500 are in missionary schools operated by U.S. Catholics and Protestants. Many of the schools are manned by the 600 Peace Corpsmen who work throughout the islands-a massive invasion in per capita terms that was ordered by President Johnson...