The plane took off from this small island in the Pacific on the morning of August 6, 1945 to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. The Tinian military airfield, which has been eaten away by the jungle for decades, is now being renovated by the American army.
To counter China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States is investing billions of dollars in new strategic locations as alternative military bases that can be used in the event of an attack on its main infrastructure.
The policy, pursued with “a sense of urgency” according to Washington, responds to similar policies by Beijing that have for years turned islands into military bases in the highly contested waters of the South China Sea.
But if China has to rebuild its runways from scratch with its feet in the water, “the rehabilitation of World War II airfields gave the Air Force in the Pacific the opportunity to quickly implement infrastructure in the region,” a spokesman said Pentagon branch told AFP.
The historic airfield in the north of the island in Tinian, an American territory near Guam, has “a large cover under the overgrown jungle.” “We will clear this vegetation by next summer” to make it a “large” base, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific, recently told the Nikkei newspaper.
The American Air Force not only began work near the current civilian airport, but also renovated what was the most important airport in the world in 1945.
There, 2,300 kilometers south of Japan, dozens of B-29s took turns on six runways to tirelessly bomb the enemy empire.
After the island was captured by the Japanese, this forward base was hastily constructed and later selected for the first atomic bombings. It was from this island in the Marianas archipelago that the planes that dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” over Hiroshima and then Nagasaki took off on August 6 and 9, 1945, killing more than 200,000 people and bringing Japan to its knees.
Checkbook
Almost 80 years later, the bulldozers are back in Tinian – this time with Beijing in their sights.
“China's violent and increasingly aggressive effort to reshape the Indo-Pacific region” represents “the greatest and most serious challenge to the national security of the United States,” said the 2022 document that sets out the American military's strategy for the coming years come.
A power confrontation that forces the country to pull out the checkbook to strengthen its position in the region. According to a report from the Congressional Research Center, the annual budget for American military construction in the Asia-Pacific region has doubled in the past three years, increasing from 1.8 billion in 2020 to 3.6 billion in 2023.
The Pentagon's approach is clear: multiply bases to be more flexible and able to operate outside of the large existing American bases in Japan, South Korea and the island of Guam. That congressional report goes on to say: “Since 2011, the United States has negotiated access to twelve new defense sites in the Philippines and Australia” – including several dating back to World War II.
“Take a nap and take off again”
“A big part of our strategy is to retake the airfields of World War II,” the head of America's air forces in the Pacific said during a conference in September. “We clear the jungle and we have an airfield.”
“We are not building huge bases,” emphasized Kenneth Wilsbach. “We're just looking for a place where there's fuel and weapons, maybe something to snack on, take a nap so we can take off again.”
This is exactly the model that was applied in Tinian, where renovation work began in February 2022, initially near the current airport, before then extending from the north of the island towards the former World War II airfield.
In particular, it is “a sense of urgency” that has allowed the American army, with these new installations, to “improve the deterrence posture” in the region, the spokesman told AFP. Air Force in the Pacific.
Within two years, the rehabilitation of vast tarmac areas, the parking of aircraft and the construction of fuel tanks must be completed to “ensure the capacity to meet mission objectives in the event that Andersen Air Force Base (in Guam) or another location in the Western Pacific is destroyed.” would become inaccessible,” according to US Army financial documents. Budget: at least $162 million.