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and Liberation –
1944. Carmen insisted that I now write the history of her island, Tinian.
I quickly
discovered that the history and the people of Tinian were far different that
that of their distant Chamorro cousins on Guam. It turned out to be a difficult
task, unraveling one of the most unique histories in the Pacific.
The Mariana
islands, including Tinian, were first inhabited some 3,500 years ago.
The people evolved, developing a unique language and culture, and reached a
population of more than 40,000 by the time Magellan arrived in 1521.
By 1700, Tinian and all the islands north of it had been completely depopulated
and the total Chamorro population was reduced to just 3,700.
Tinian was not
repopulated until the 1860s when a Guam businessman acquired a lease on the
island and imported Carolinian laborers.
In 1890, when they requested the Governor at Guam to afford them a school with a
teacher and a church with a priest, the Governor decided to remove them from the
island rather than spend the money.
Tinian was depopulated again.
The next recorded
permanent inhabitant of Tinian was a Guamanian named Pedro Salas Dela Cruz who
had migrated to Saipan along with some other Chamorros during the German
administration in response to an offer of free land.
The German District Administrator apparently took a liking to Pedro and sent him
to Tinian with a group of Chamorro cow boys to round up the wild cattle that
roamed the island.
He became famous for using foot lassos to catch the cows and was nicknamed
Pedro’n Lasso. The mountain on which he kept his camp is now named Mt. Lasso.
Japan
evicted the Germans from the Northern Marianas in 1914.
They then secured a League of Nations mandate over Micronesia in 1919, which was
confirmed by treaty with the United States in 1922.
They began developing sugar as an export commodity.
Bulldozers changed the natural history of the island forever, removing the
native vegetation to plant sugar cane.
When Japan began
preparing for its war for control of the Pacific, Tinian was turned into a major
military base with the Japanese 1st Naval Air Fleet commander
stationed at Ushi Airdrome on the flat northern end of the island.
When the Japanese began to install defensive canons and anti-aircraft guns, all
the Chamorros were removed from the island, again.
World War II
changed the face of Tinian again.
Two weeks after capturing Saipan in the bloodiest battle of the war to date, the
men of the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions captured Tinian in
what Marine General “Howlin’ Mad” Smith declared as the perfect amphibious
operation of the Pacific War.
Then the Navy
created the 6th Naval Construction Brigade on Tinian to build bases.
The runways weren’t even paved when the first squadron of Superforts arrived at
the newly named North Field on Tinian, formerly Ushi Airdrome.
Joined by other members of the XXth Air Force based on Saipan and Guam, the
B-29’s knocked the Japanese to their knees.
The atom bombs
launched from Tinian on August 6 and 9, 1945, delivered by the men of the 509th
Composite Bomb Group, were the knock out blow.
They forced Emperor Hirohito to surrender unconditionally.
The war was won from the air and millions of lives were saved from what would
have been a bloodbath on the shores of Japan.
After the war, U.S.
Naval Civil Affairs managed the islands until 1947 when the Marianas became part
of the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific, administered by the Department of
the Interior.
In 1946, Pedro’n
Lasso’s son Manet Dela Cruz returned to Tinian, as did a family of Hocog’s and
Manglona’s from Rota.
Then, in 1948, the most unique re-migration in Pacific history occurred when 600
Chamorros from Yap were transported to Tinian.
In January 1978,
the first government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, in political
union with the United States, was inaugurated.
Saipan grew quickly as a result of the opening of foreign investment under the
permanent protection of the American flag.
Tinian was left to languish without economic development while investors swamped
the infrastructure of Saipan with hotels and golf courses.
In 1989, the people
of Tinian voted overwhelmingly to accept casino gambling as an economic
development opportunity.
The Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino was opened in 1994.
In 2006, the new Tinian International Air Terminal will be opened, and direct
flights between mainland China and Tinian are expected to begin.
More casinos are expected.
Tinian anticipates
a bright future, unless international political events, such as a potential
conflict with South Korea, once again interrupt the destiny of the people of
Tinian.
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Moore's
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