ニューヨーク・タイムズのインスタグラム(nytimes) - 7月10日 00時36分

As tensions with China mount, the U.S. military continues to build up Guam, placing a burden on some of the nation’s most ignored and underrepresented citizens.

Guam, with its strategic location, became home to Andersen Air Force Base, where B-52 bombers deploy on a rotational basis, and Naval Base Guam was expanded. (In 1950, Congress passed the Organic Act, which established Guam as a territory.) It is one of many islands in various political alignments across the giant expanse of the Pacific that make up America’s empire outside the 50 states — ranging from “unincorporated territory” to “commonwealth” to “freely associated state.”

These islands are the setting of a soft-power tug of war between the U.S. and China and an American military buildup in the region on a scale that hasn’t been seen since World War II. Guam’s importance to American military planners only increases, and so does the risk to those who live there. The island plays a central role in “homeland defense,” though it rarely shows up on maps or in textbooks about the U.S. Families on Guam usually have a member who is a veteran, yet it is a place that Americans often forget.

“The people of Guam are only important when there’s threats from China, when there’s threats from Korea, but we’re such a small number, we’re the pawn in the global scheme of things,” said Roy Gamboa, a member of Guam’s native CHamoru people and a Marine veteran.

Tap the link in our bio to read more from @sarahtopol in @nytmag about Guam and the people who live there. Photos by @glennagordon

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