TIP OF THE SPEAR: Land, Labor, and US Settler Militarism in Guåhan, 1944–1962 | By Alfred Peredo Flores

Tip of the Spear: Land, Labor and US Settler Militarism in Guåhan, 1944–1962 by Alfred Peredo Flores is an essential contribution to the literature on mid-twentieth-century Guåhan. In this book, Flores makes two arguments: first, that settler militarism is the justification of settler colonialism through militarization in a discursive process of land dispossession, validations for remaking Guåhan, racializing civilian labour, and policing interpersonal interracial relationships. The second argument is about CHamoru survival, drawing from literature on Native survivance wherein indigenous resistance is enacted through challenging US policy, violating inequitable rules imposed upon them, and maintaining cultural heritage through years of attempted erasure.

Flores begins the book with an anecdote about visiting his grandparents’ rancho as a young person in California, firmly locating his own lived experience as part of the CHamoru diaspora. This opening demonstrates that this text will not simply use written historical sources, but also oral histories, as he situates the identities, lived experience, and resilience of the CHamoru people.

Tip of the Spear is organized into five chapters. In chapter 1, Flores explores the ways in which land dispossession manifested and impacted communities. First, he illustrates the value of land to indigenous CHamoru people, and considers the origin and importance of ranchos from the Spanish occupation. Then, Flores demonstrates how the US bought this land through deceit, such as pretending to provide leases while encouraging non-English speakers to sign English sales contracts. When people refused, they used imminent domain.

Chapter 1 includes a major analytical contribution. While the Organic Act of 1950 that declared Guåhan an unincorporated territory and provided congressional (instead of constitutional) citizenship for residents is largely critiqued now, historians describe it as a win for the time. Flores argues that providing citizenship was not a win, but a strategy of settler militarism, as it forced CHamoru people to be “beholden to US law” so that eminent domain was possible and feasible (17). Using the Organic Act, the US military expanded land takeovers through eminent domain in the interest of national security. Some of this land was then sold to private companies for financial investment, demonstrating the intimate connections between global capitalism and militarism.

Chapter 2 engages in the US military’s pursuit of “modernity,” as they built new roads, harbours, and housing in Guåhan under the guise of benevolent paternalism (41). In reality, Flores writes, the build-up supported military infrastructure and families. Flores also reveals how it provided opportunities for private capitalism and militarism to flourish, the import of cheap migrant labour, and more land removals. Chapter 3 digs deeper into this build-up, following the early privatization of the military through the company LUSTEVECO, contracted to hire workers. Flores describes the hierarchy of labour that was created: the American, mostly white enlistees as the skilled labourers, the CHamoru as unskilled, and the Filipino as cheap imported labourers who were deportable (and thus, presumed docile). Much like the Jim Crow south, labour camps were segregated. While much has been written about racialized labour hierarchies during the Japanese occupation, Flores may be the first to expand on the same methods used by the US during this time period.

Chapter 3 also demonstrates the ways in which the military industrial complex negotiated and resisted US law when it did not suit their desire for power and control. For example, when US citizenship for Filipinos became easier federally, the military response was to deport Filipinos seeking a green card. Similarly, they lobbied congress to pass the Wage Bill of 1956, attempting to exempt Guåhan from the Federal Fair Labor Act and keep underpaying labourers.

Chapter 4 explores the ways in which the US military both promoted CHamoru women as sexually available while also breaking up interracial romance between CHamoru women and US servicemen or Filipino labourers. Exoticizing CHamoru women as fit for sex but not family perpetuated long-established narratives of Pacific women and reinforced racial segregation in marriage. For Filipino men, Flores posits, breaking up couples was to prevent them from gaining US citizenship. In both cases, families hid the men to protect couples. This chapter also relates other types of intimate encounters and incursions, such as home invasions and assaults by military members, which led to a village pass system. What this pass system ultimately did was further control the movements of CHamoru people, taking away more of their freedom. Flores also demonstrates how the military monitored CHamoru loyalty.

Chapter 5 brings the themes together while also providing more later-period historical context. Flores describes the role of Guåhan in the Vietnam War as a refugee processing centre and site of immigration control more broadly, and then outlines the impacts of the massive typhoon of 1962. This moment led to a mass exodus of CHamorus to the US mainland.

Throughout the book, highlighting each of these military strategies, Flores demonstrates resistance by the CHamoru people. In each moment of oppressive policy, he illustrates the survivance of the communities impacted. I also appreciated that he includes other inhabitants of Guåhan brought through this settler militarism process, such as those from the Philippines.

There are a few moments in the book that could have used more in-depth analysis. In chapter 5, Flores describes a domestic violence incident in a military family, and argues that this shows evidence of discontent among servicemen in Guåhan. This is an oversimplified argument that would have benefitted from grounding in intimate partner violence (IPV) literature, and particularly connections between militarization and IPV. Second, I believe the book would have benefitted from more in-depth attention to the military industrial complex and privatization, and more comparisons between what happened in Guåhan and other US sites of empire. These small critiques aside, Tip of the Spear is a powerful contribution to the literature. It sets out to do exactly as intended: demonstrating how US settler militarism transformed the island, and how CHamoru communities survived. It is a must-read for all scholars of Guåhan, US-Pacific relations, militarization, US imperialism, and the post-WWII era.

Sarah A. Smith

SUNY Old Westbury, Old Westbury