Flying Yangban

Obama, Clinton tie in Guam

Clinton and Obama got two delegates each in last weekend's Democratic caucus.  The caucus format tends to favor Obama, but the particulars of this one are different.  Voters could basically come in, vote and go.  Between that and the momentum Clinton had going into the vote, the final vote ended up being very close.

Here is a report from Guam PDN:

When all of the ballots were finally counted -- a process that lasted through Saturday night until well into the next day -- Sen. Barack Obama had the most votes from Guam Democrats in the party's caucus.

Obama finished with 2,264 votes to Sen. Hillary Clinton's 2,257 votes -- a 7-point difference. Obama won 14 of 21 districts. Obama leads Clinton in the overall race for delegates to the national convention, 1,741 to 1,607, according to unofficial tallies by the Associated Press. It takes 2,025 votes to secure the party nomination.

With the race to secure the Democratic presidential nomination so close, Guam's Democratic caucus was given much national attention. The caucus determined which delegates Guam's Democratic Party will send to the National Democratic Convention in August in Colorado, where they will select which will candidate will go against Rep. Sen. John McCain.

Link post: Koreans in Saipan during WW 2

I plan to do a piece on Koreans who lived in Saipan during the Second World War.  This post is to get some links filed away.

Some background info in this article on Emperor Akihito's visit to a Korean war dead memorial.

From CNMI Guide on WW 2 History:

Saipan provided the United States military with its first opportunity to learn about military occupation of enemy territory with a Japanese civilian population. Civilians encountered during the period of the battle and afterward, while emergency conditions still prevailed, were placed in secure camps to keep them out of the way of the fighting. Thus assembled, the U. S. military could better meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Schools were established as soon as conditions permitted. In September, 1945 the camps housed 13,954 Japanese, 1,411 Koreans, 2,966 Chamorros and 1,025 Carolinians

Very similar (too similar) information here.

Saipan provided the United States military with its first opportunity to learn about military occupation of enemy territory with a Japanese civilian population. Civilians encountered during the period of the battle and afterward, while emergency conditions still prevailed, were placed in secure camps to keep them out of the way of the fighting. Thus assembled, the U.S. military could better meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter and medical care. Schools were established as soon as conditions permitted.

In September, 1945 the camps housed 13,954 Japanese, 1,411 Koreans, 2,966 Chamorros and 1,025 Carolinians. Within a two square mile area near Lake Susupe life in the compound was primitive and only the bare necessities were provided. Weathered boards, tattered tents and battered tin sheets from the bombed out sugar refinery provided the only shelter from the weather. Each hut (han) accommodated from 20 to 55 people. After the fighting, families were released from Camp Susupe during the day to cultivate vegetables since food was scarce. Food production was increased from 79,469 pounds of produce in September, 1944 to 286,029 pounds in September,1945.

Lots of first hand accounts of life in internment camps after American conquest of Saipan, as told by naitives plus tons of pictures.

Very interesting booklet by the US 2nd Marine Division instructing its men on how to behalf and what to expect during the invasion of Saipan, although it barely mentions Koreans.

Marmot post on colonial-era Koreans in CNMI

I am working a little bit with a guy at a museum in Saipan on Koreans who were there during the Japanese colonial period.  I wrote a post about it at the Marmot's Hole and and just linking to it here so I can more easily access it for future research.

Election day in Saipan

There are several elections going on in the US today.  Of note are gubernatorial campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey along with a slew of ballot measures in California.  But I do not care about that stuff.  What is more interesting to me is today's election in the the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI).

What?

More folks may know the place by the name of its largest island:  Saipan.

The Islands

It has a bit of a strange relationship with the United States.  It is not an independent country.  It is not a part of the US.  It is not even a territory of the US.  It is a.... (from the CIA World Factbook)

commonwealth in political union with the US; federal funds to the Commonwealth administered by the US Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs

So they basically America's little buddy in the specific.  The closest comparison that I can think of is an Indian reservation.  But They get money  and protection from the federal government while their children join the US military or go off to live on the mainland.  It is a relationship that the people of the CNMI voted for in the 1970s.  As Dan Quayle once said about Samoans, the people of the CNMI "look like happy campers to me."

The Election

   Election signs in Garapan, Saipan's largest town

But all is not well in paradise and we recently had a strongly contested election to prove it:

As it turns out, the 2005 Gubernatorial Election for the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands may just be decided by those who did not visit the polls on Election Day, which took place this past Saturday. In a four-way race, because the numbers are so close between the top three gubernatorial vote-getters, it's the results of the absentee ballots that will more than likely bring closure to the CNMI election.

After Saturday's election came to a close for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, initial results reveal that covenant party standard bearer, Benigno Fitial is leading the race for governor with a 126-vote lead. However, his rival, independent candidate, Heinz Hofschneider trails close behind, with a lead of 143 votes over incumbent Republican governor, Juan Nekai Babauta, who as it stands is 269 votes behind Fitial.

Final results for that election will not be known until up to 1,602 absentee ballots are counted on November 19.  Since Republicans generally do well on absentee ballots, the final results could be even closer.  You can see the full results here.

CNMI politics are so convoluted they make Korean politics seem stable by comparison.  To put it gently, CNMI politics are an unholy mess of petty person conflicts, which should not be surprising considering how small the voting population is only about 15,000.  In any election, almost everyone will have a relative or friend running for office, which may explain the impressive 93% turnout in last Saturday's election. 

The division of the CNMI into various island constituencies also makes for interesting politics.  For example, one party thinks it will do well on Rota (the third largest island in the CNMI) after 1,000 of 1,5000 registered voters there showed up for a rally they put on.  And don't forget to read down to the candidates submitting to voluntary drug testing.

The dominant parties are the Republicans and the Covenants. 

As best I can tell, the Covenant party split from the Democrats in 2001 and has since eclipsed them as the leading 'liberal' party in the CNMI.  In this year's election, the Covenant Party is running 27 candidates for various offices compared to the Republican's 29 and the Democrat's 13.  Their candidates are for Governor and Lieutenant Governor are "Ben & Tim."

According to Elections Around the World, the Covenant Party has half of the 18 seats in the CNMI House of Representatives. 

The Republicans were running incumbents this time around but were hurt by a split in the party.  A Republican representative decided to run as an independent after the party leadership decided not to run a primary.  That independent candidate, Heinz S. Hofschneider is currently in second place pending the counting of absentee ballots.  The split has also cost the Republicans support in local races.

I find it interesting to compare the ads of the three main candidates that I picked up while there a few weeks ago (Click on ads to enlarge.).  The Covenant ad is, to be gentle, dumb.  But dumb works and it makes sense is s simple way if you realize that Green is the color of the Covenant Party and Yellow is the color of the Republicans, the ad starts to make sense (I don't know who is red.).  They are also dress in traditional clothes, which makes them look friendly and appeals to nativist voters.

The Republican ad looks like the work of the Serious Party.  Their candidates (Juan Babauta and Diego Benavente) are dressed in suits and are shown working at their jobs.  The ad is also pretty defensive, which makes sense under the circumstances.

Hofschneider is an angry man (with some cause, as noted above) and he ran an angry ad.  For me, this is a real money quote:

I am not afraid of hard work, but there are no jobs for me out there, not even in the government, though I have applied many times. (Emphasis added)

So I guess people in the CNMI think that the government is, or should be, the employer of last resort.  It makes one wonder how efficient the government is if people think like that.  I should also point out that Saipan has tens of thousands of guests workers, mostly from the Philippines and China.

For the latest in CNMI news, check out the Marianas Variety and the Saipan Tribune.

The American Memorial Park in Saipan (needs a new flag)

(NOTE:  See the update at the end of the post about the flag situation.)

I went to Saipan a couple of weeks ago on business.  Finding myself with a spare half hour between meetings, I decided to check out the American Memorial Park. 

Saipan was the site of a bloody and important battle during the Pacific Campaign of World War Two.  It was the first battle on Japanese territory and the Americans first encounter with large numbers of Japanese civilians, many of whom unfortunately jumped to their deaths rather than allow themselves to be captured.

The nearby island of Tinian was launching point for the planes which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I was happy to see that a new visitor's center had been built since my last visit two years ago .  The inside was tastefully done but I am not sure what to make of the 'battle sound' tape they had running which fill the hall with the sounds of rifles firing and men shouting (including the shouts of a banzai charge.  I have no idea what effect hearing that had on the Japanese couple that was in the hall at the time (most tourist to Saipan are Japanese and the signs were in Japanese as well as English and Chomoro).

American Memorial Park visitor's center

Another feature of the park is the Court of Honor and Flag Circle.  It features granite plates inscribed with the names of the over 5,000 American who died in the fighting for Saipan and Tinian and in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. 

One thing that disappointed me was the state of the flags in the Court of Honor.  The American flag was torn, not just in one place, but at almost every seem between stripes.  A couple of the service flags were also in bad shape.  Since they had the funds to build a new visitor's center, I'm sure they have a little money on hand to get some new flags. 

I should have gone back to talk with the lady at the visitor's center about it but I found myself in a hurry to get to my next meeting and forgot about it until I saw the pictures after my return to Korea.  I certainly hope someone in charge there can get some new flags.

The Court of Honor

Old Glory is in pretty bad shape.  Where is Betsy Ross when you need her?  (Click for a larger view.)

UPDATE (October 27):  I have just received the following email from Chuck Sayon at American Memorial Park:

Thanks for your visit to American Memorial Park and your concern regarding the condition of the flags at Flag Circle and the Court of Honor.

The flags are replaced 4 times a year.  Usually those dates are around Nov. 11 (Veterans Day) which obviously is done in time for the ceremonies that we have at the Court of Honor for Veterans Day, around Presidents Day (mid-February), Memorial Day (end of May) & Labor Day (beginning of September).  The American Flag is a specialty flag of 48 stars, which represents the time of the Battles.  Annually, along with other flags in the park, these flags cost American Memorial Park approximately $6,000 to replace.  This year we have been having unseasonably above average number of typhoons forming in this region and passing Saipan.  Thus the flags were taking more of a beating than is usually the case.  Rest assured though, we will change them as soon as our special 48-star American flag is received.

That means the flag that I saw was getting near the end of its rotation and that its replacement will be up in another week or so.  I am glad to know that the park is being well taken care of.

BTW, I had not noticed that it was a 48-star flag until Sayon mentioned it.  Nice.