These photographs were made on and around US military bases in Japan, Korean and on Guam, a part of the world designated by the Pentagon as PACOM, the US Pacific Command. The Pentagon divides the world into six separate regional commands and PACOM is the largest, covering half the surface of the world. The military component of US influence in this region is mainly anchored in these bases established more than sixty years ago, at the end of WW II and the Korean War. I first encountered this network of overseas US bases when I lived and travelled in Japan in the 1970s. Now, more than 30 years later, they remain in place. In recent visits to more than a dozen bases in Japan, Korea and on Guam I was able to see something of the workings of these American outposts. These are photographs from the watery edge of the receding American Century as this yet to be named century engulfs us, oblivious to lines drawn on a map of the world.
