The Tinian military airfield, which has been eaten away by the jungle for decades, is now being renovated by the American army. The plane took off from this small island in the Pacific on the morning of August 6, 1945 to drop the bomb on Hiroshima.
Published on: 12/30/2023 – 08:09
4 mins
Nearly 80 years later, the United States returned to Tinian in the Mariana Islands. The American army is now renovating the military airfield there, which has been eaten away by the jungle for decades. The plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima took off from this small island in the Pacific on the morning of August 6, 1945.
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.
This policy, pursued with “a sense of urgency,” according to Washington, responds to similar policies by Beijing, which has for years been converting 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.
In Tinian, a US territory near Guam, the historic airfield in the north of the island is “largely covered by overgrown jungle.” “We will clear this vegetation by next summer” to build a “large” base, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific, recently told the Nikkei newspaper.
Doubling the American military construction budget in the Asia-Pacific region
If the US Air Force has already started work near the current civilian airport, it will also renovate 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. From this island in the Mariana Islands archipelago took off on August 6 and 9, 1945, the planes that dropped “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 people and making Japan its target .
Almost 80 years later, the bulldozers are back in Tinian.
“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.
“Recapture of airfields from the Second World War”
“A big part of our strategy is to retake the airfields of World War II,” the head of the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific said during a conference in September. “We clear the jungle and 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 military financial documents. Budget: at least $162 million.
With AFP