Northern Mariana Islands: Residents weigh the costs of a US military build-up on Tinian

From the air, Tinian looks like a green patch in the blue Pacific.

Just six miles wide and seven miles long, you can drive across it in under an hour.

Yet, it is big enough to hold a World War 2-era airbase, atomic bombs that ended the war, and the site of a current US military build-up that includes airfield expansion and training ranges.

Tinian resident and local hotel owner Deborah Fleming drove me up to North Field during my 72 hour-visit to the island.

It is the site of several runways north of the island built during World War 2 from which two American planes took off to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Now, it is being refurbished under the US military's Agile Combat Employment (ACE) doctrine, a way to quickly move forces across the Pacific to confuse and enemy and avoid concentrating forces in one place.

"It alerts me, something is imminent," Fleming said when she saw more jungle being cleared as we arrived at North Field.

"But it's better to be prepared."

Fleming was a child when her father and other Tinian residents were debating whether to lease land to the US military for the purpose of building a base.

"The promise was that they would build schools, hospitals. My elders' main interest was school," said Fleming.

This was part of the agreement made between the US and the founding fathers of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands' (CNMI) back in 1975.

Don Farrell, a Tinian-based military historian, explained that when CNMI's Covenant - the archipelago's governing document - was written, it outlined CNMI's right to control its internal matters while granting the federal government sovereignty over its foreign affairs and defense.

As a result, the US government negotiated to lease two-thirds of land on Tinian for 50 years.

"The people of Tinian are seeing approximately $1 billion dollars in [Department of Defence] contracts for construction projects here," Farrell said.

"We have seen virtually nothing in the way of federal funding to support, help develop the island of Tinian for the people of Tinian. That is causing some friction. But not causing civil disobedience or anything like that."

Joint Region Marianas (JRM), which oversees installation management for all Department of Defence (DoD) projects in the region, told KPRG/RNZ Pacific that there are no plans for the DoD to "construct medical facilities or a hospital on Tinian at this time."

JRM added that the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Marianas real estate team is "preparing a lease amendment to accommodate the return of about 30 acres of land for a future landfill within the Atgidon military lease area on Tinian."

Instead, the Defense Department proposed to create what they called the CNMI Joint Military Training Facility (CJMT) in 2015. It would serve as a training ground for the thousands of troops relocating from Okinawa to Guam's Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz to train.

A blueprint of the plan included ripping out a reef to practice amphibious landings, high hazard impact training like shootings and bombings, ship-to-shore launches using howitzers, and live bombing a smaller island just north of Tinian called Pagan Island.

Their plans were so outrageous that there was a huge backlash.

"The Tinian's Women's Association, Guardians of Gani, Pagan Watch, The Center for Biodiversity, we pulled together and sued regarding the military build up here," Fleming said, who was a spokesperson for one of the four community groups.

The case went all the way up to the ninth circuit court. They lost.

"I don't believe we lost," Fleming said, adding that a result of this lawsuit led to the scaling down of CJMT.

"There's not going to be a multi-spectrum bombing range here. Now, it's going to be a firing range. More small scale."

But those airfield runways? Hundreds of acres of jungle are still being cleared. While vegetation removal efforts are underway across North Field, austere landings are already happening.

A Divert Airfield near Tinian's airport is expected to finish construction by 2027. It'll provide an alternative landing site for the US Air Force in case Guam's Andersen Air Force base in unavailable or down.

According to Tinian's mayor Edwin Aldan the military build-up has brought a "big change" for the island.

"The impact on this military build-up has brought the economic base for Tinian Island hundred folds in taxes and job opportunities," said Aldan, who was a former police officer for the island home to just about 2,000 people and has a minimum wage of $7.25. U.S. military contractors are offering more than twice that amount for starting wage ($17.25 to be exact).

Aldan said that's a lot of money for locals with little to no work experience.

"But I just want to make sure that when [the military] leave, we got something behind to sustain ourselves, which is tourism," Aldan said.

Most hotel accommodation on Tinian have been booked for two to three years on end due to military developments.

"We're having trouble and problems in trying to make the tourists stay for longer - three, four days - because all of these rooms are taken," he said.

The build-up and influx of contractors have also sent housing costs soaring. Prior to 2018, Aldan said a two-bedroom home would cost around $80,000. Now, a one-bedroom can go up to $180,000.

"The demand was huge. The supply was limited," Alan Perez said, financial advisor to the mayor. "Prices have gone up considerably."

Deborah Fleming is a witness to this. "It's hard on the locals, and even the contractors. There's just no housing," she said. "It's extremely expensive."

While some people might see it as a problem, Aldan said the build-up is necessary as it's creating job opportunities for people and helping the economy.

Historian Don Farrell agrees, noting that most residents have no say about what happens.

"The people of Tinian don't have direct access to decision makers, right? That's all in Saipan through the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs. They talk, but they don't communicate with us either," he said.

"So we usually don't know what's happening, as far as the military is concerned, until something happens, and we get some kind of a public information release. So everybody here is essentially in the dark."

Farrell emphasised that the build-up is a federal issue. "We are outside of the loop and communications."

This does not deter Fleming.

"Honest to God, I'd rather be an American than under Chinese or even Russia," she said.

"Because there's due process. You have the freedom to speak. You're guaranteed the right to speak. That's important for self-preservation, for the preservation of our community, our culture, our thinking."