Suburban Empire: Cold War Militarization in the US PacificSuburban Empire takes readers to the US missile base at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, at the matrix of postwar US imperial expansion, the Cold War nuclear arms race, and the tide of anti-colonial struggles rippling across the world. Hirshberg shows that the displacement of indigenous Marshallese within Kwajalein Atoll mirrors the segregation and spatial politics of the mainland US as local and global iterations of US empire took hold. Tracing how Marshall Islanders navigated US military control over their lands, Suburban Empire reveals that Cold War–era suburbanization was perfectly congruent with US colonization, military testing, and nuclear fallout. The structures of suburban segregation cloaked the destructive history of control and militarism under a veil of small-town innocence. |
Contents
Americans Find Home | 158 |
Operation Homecoming | 191 |
US Empire and the Shape of Marshallese | 232 |
Kwajalein and Ebeye in a New | 269 |
Acknowledgments | 285 |
Works Cited | 345 |
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Common terms and phrases
administration alongside Amata Kabua American army army’s bachelors base Battles of Kwajalein Bikinians broader Brum challenges chapter civilian Cold Cold War context continued Coral and Concrete cultural Darlene decades decolonization Defense disavowal displaced domestic Dvorak Ebeye's eminent domain empire expansion Free Association Giff Johnson global Hawaiʻi Press historic and ongoing homelands Honolulu impact imperial interview with author jalein Keju Kwaja Kwajalein and Ebeye Kwajalein Atoll Kwajalein Island Kwajalein landowners Kwajalein residents labor landscape lease lese living on Kwajalein Majuro Marshall Islands Marshall Islands Journal Marshallese lands Marshallese workers ment military military’s Missile Range mission narrative navy negotiations neocolonial Nitijela nuclear family nuclear testing Operation Homecoming oral history interview Pacific Islands policies political population postwar protest racial region residents on Kwajalein Roi-Namur segregation shallese story suburban tion Trust Territory Trust Territory government Trusteeship Agreement United Nations University of Hawaiʻi weapons testing workforce