Twilight at Sea

Having spent a good bit of time on the island of Guam, “Where America’s Day Begins,”riding out two typhoons — including one that flipped the airplane I was in upside down, I’ve taken a particular interest in all the rhetoric flying across the Pacific lately.

 

Guam is where Gen. Lewis Wilson, the only commandant of the Marine Corps from Mississippi, won his Medal of Honor in 1944. As late as the early '60s, you could still walk around the island, especially along the beaches, and see the rusted hulks of tanks and the ruins of gun emplacements. I remember it having a dynamite PX where you could buy a genuine Rolex watch for about half price. Mine still runs. By the '70s, it had turned into the No. 1 destination for Japanese honeymooners. It’s ironic how things turn out: from a death trap for thousands of Japanese soldiers, many of whom committed suicide rather than surrender, to an exotic travel destination for their later countrymen.