I’m a Guam hipster: I knew about it before it was cool. In fact, back in the halcyon days of June 2017 I was invited to the U.S. territory by a local business group. In those innocent times, the biggest safety risk seemed to be brown tree snakes: The Pacific island is utterly dominated by the invasive species, which has wiped out the local bird population. (Indeed, Guam is thought to have the world’s highest per capita snake population. And just about no birds.) I dealt with this horrifying scourge by clinging to the beach, and desperately avoiding anything that remotely resembled foliage.
North Korea, which has lately been threatening to send missiles near the territory, was just not a big topic of discussion. At an hourlong meeting in the office of the territory’s Republican governor, Eddie Calvo, the main topic of discussion was various economic concerns that the island is facing. (Many of those concerns, the governor and his allies contend, could be solved by Guam gaining statehood, a topic I focused on in a magazine piece for THE WEEKLY STANDARD.)
Guam’s lieutenant governor, Ray Tenorio, is thought to be a leading contender to succeed Calvo, who is term-limited. On my visit, I joined a small group for dinner with him. At that discussion, North Korea did come up.
A few weeks before my meeting with Tenorio, the brusque, former police officer had given an interview in which he said that the people of his island were “fearful” of a North Korean missile strike. He had argued that Guam, in his words, was at the “tip of the spear.”
Tenorio was more circumspect a few weeks later. “We have every confidence in the United States military,” he said, “We have the best defense you can have, anywhere in the world.”
And yet, he explained the particular psychological terror that the North Korean regime, which has repeatedly threatened to attack Guam, was exacting on his people. “Even if you have a security system in your house … even though you know you all precautions have been taken, you don’t like it when your neighbor turns up his volume on his music at 10 at night,” said Tenorio. “And you don’t like it when they’re screaming vulgarities at 2 in the morning. And you especially don’t like it when they bang on your doors and want to set up a fight.” Guam, by the way, underwent a brutal Japanese occupation during World War II: Unlike most Americans, Guamanians or their parents and grandparents have first-hand knowledge that seemingly abstract threats can quickly become real. “The people of Guam, who have been threatened many times … are naturally concerned,” he said.
And yet, Tenorio spoke with a certain bravado about his people’s military readiness. Guam does host both an Air Force and Navy Base. But, Tenorio added, “I pity North Korea if they decide to invade Guam. We probably have more firearms per capita than [anywhere else in the U.S.]. The people of Guam are ready.” Guam, like South Korea, also hosts the THAAD missile defense system.
In the meantime, reports suggest that, despite real anxiety, Guam is taking the latest bellicosity in stride—and even trying to make some hay from it. The island sees the “apocalyptic threat” as a tourist opportunity, the New York Post reported. (Well, anything beats brown tree snakes as a selling opportunity.)
But even that rather morbid tourist attraction may fade some day soon. In fact, if you think about, Guam might soon by out of the headlines, should North Korea successfully test a miniaturized nuclear weapon attached to ICBM. If Pyongyang can hit Seattle or Chicago, after all, why bother going after a small island whose population doesn’t even reach 200,000?
