Atomic Bomb Pits, Tinian
Atomic Bomb Pits, Tinian (photo: Simon Sellars).

Tinian is a somnambulant one-village island, about as lovely as Rota; I did it as a day-trip from Saipan – ferry there, plane back. As expected, Tinian’s beaches were superb and the history eye-wincingly poignant – it was captured by the US in 1944 and turned into the world’s largest military airbase.

First up, I went for a skinny deep at a northern beach, feeling safe as I’d not sighted another human being for hours. But the universe conspired; as soon as I emerged naked from the water, a busload of Japanese tourists unloaded right next to my car. Where my clothes were. Women giggled; men pretended I didn’t exist. I waved and acted naturally. Then the bus driver, a local, looked me up and down.

‘Hey Little Boy,’ he scoffed. ‘You looking for Fat Man?’

Actually, I was; after he gave me directions, I got dressed and hightailed it to the Atomic Bomb Pits at North Field, the site of the former US airbase where the ‘Little Boy’ and ‘Fat Man’ bombs were loaded onto B-52s to be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The pits and runways today are overgrown with jungle, silent and tranquil, but during WWII they represented the busiest airport in the world. Some say this is this where America’s reign as World Policeman began, with weapons of exaggerated power dropped on an enemy that was of little further threat to the Western way of life, a perfect illustration of ‘shock and awe’ directed towards a toothless enemy; some say it’s a reflection of what’s happening today. As for me, normally I’d be hard pressed to find deep meaning in empty concrete pits covered with plexiglass to deter vandals and souvenir hunters, but I grew up in the 80s when post-nuclear holocausts were all the rage in film and TV. These pits are where my childhood nightmares (and fantasies) stemmed from (from atomic to nuclear – it’s not that big a leap).

Old Church, Tinian
Old Church remains, Tinian (photo: Simon Sellars).

There’s some lovely crumbling architecture on Tinian, including the tower in this photo, all that remains of the old church. In front are two stone tablets etched with the Ten Commandments. Further down the road is the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino, a huge and garish, neon-lit temple of vice that would do Vegas proud; in front is a sign etched with the command, ‘No thongs or singlets’. By all the reports the complex isn’t doing too well and it’s no surprise. I could understand if they’d built it on Guam or Saipan, but why Tinian? God only knows. The island barely gets any tourists as it is. To put things in perspective for Australian readers, this would be like building a casino on King Island.

Tinian Casino
Tinian Hotel & Casino (photo: Simon Sellars).

There must be a reason why the casino came to Tinian. Is the island a tax haven? Was it down to government corruption? Shady underworld deals? It’s strange; like modern America, like UFO sightings and September 11 conspiracy theories, like the Iraq invasion, the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino is an example of shadowy forces that I don’t fully understand and will never be privy to.

Old Church, Tinian
From left to right: old church; palm tree; new church – Tinian (photo: Simon Sellars).

After that it was back to Saipan and then onto Yap, where I was greeted by a posse of locals with blood-red saliva and sharp, whittled-down teeth…pretty soon, I too would be disgorging great wads of crimson spit, feeling high, numb and just a little bit more chilled than when I left Saipan.

And I’m saving that for the next entry.