Battle of Saipan

excellent reporting as always, I am curious as to where the music is from it was really good. I wish you guys would have done chat tonight that is one of my favorite things about vanguard! thanks for the good work.

Well done again. Thanks for spreading the knowledge. What's so crazy is when you said it reminded you of Detroit. Something like this really does hit close to home even if it is happening far off in an extension of America.

I think it always makes me want to be a smarter shopper. To truly understand where my things come from, hit up the Goodwill more often, or go handmade. It seems globalization never really works.

After watching this, I went to look for more info on Saipan. This is what I found: http://www.saipansucks.com/

Excellent story! Well done. Another corner of our world and our world economy that needs to be seen and understood.

A good depiction of modern day Saipan. I watched the transformation of Saipan from 1980's to the present. Saipan was once a beautiful tourist destination and has been transformed into an ugly tangle of rotting, empty buildings. (greed is ugly) The adult businesses detract from the beauty and deter tourism. The politicians and garment factory owners cashed in using cheap (and often cheated) foreign workers and this is the result. I am waiting for it to transform again. Good luck Saipan.

Adam, you did an excellent story about Saipan, and its' ongoing downfall! I am from the States and have lived here over 10 years now. Many of the 17,000 garment workers who came here were tricked into paying large sums of money ($3000. to $6000.each) so they could work and get $3.05 an hour. As you reported, that was much more than they could earn in other Third World Countries. Many were under the impression that they were going to the US mainland only to find out later they were on a small island 14 miles long (47 sq. miles). I have been told that many cried and cried for days and felt very ashamed of their treatment by recruiters as well as the factory bosses! I really hope this will be shown in the USA, so the truth will be known about their exploitation and plight. Very SAD but TRUE

This is the result of WTO and the globalization policies of the Clinton, Gore and Bush administrations. Any time you reduce the wages of the working class for the profit of the ruling class, you do so at the demise of the entire economy. Every politician that has supported so-called 'free trade' had a part in the destruction of the American industry both on Saipan and the mainland. Ross Perot tried to warn the stupid voters but they would not listen. Now they have to reap what they have sown with a worldwide economic depression.

Adam, this is one of your better specials, though it's tough to watch in conjunction with last week's special on prostitution since they both run along the same thread (whoever ordered the topics didn't do a great job). You did a great job covering all angles and bringing light to a part of America I forgot existed. I'd like to hear in the future if their plans for tourism succeed.

I know a lot of people are going to blame WTO, and perhaps rightfully so, but the work is going somewhere, to people who are even poorer and need the money even more. The locations that were mentioned would be excellent to do a follow-up as I am curious if the theory behind globalization holds up (that they needed the money even more and that it is helping them).

All in all, this is a fantastic piece worthy of acclaim. This needs to be seen by all Americans.

As always Adam great work, thanks for bringing this to us. I find this is a very current pod with the economic crisis going on.
Very insightful.

Another excellent POD Adam...the garment industry in Saipan is just another example of the dark side of capitalism (especially global capitalism)...and one of many...how much longer capitalism is to remain a desired economic model is certainly in question...any sysyem based on greed instead of need is bound to create a lot of economic uncertaintity and abuse...capitalism is a cruel and heartless economic system...playing one set of people off against another, leaving is it's wake nothing but economic and enviormental devestation!

Playfair (William 1759-1823) had it quite right when he wrote these words so many years ago:

The general conclusion is that wealth and power have never been long permanent in any place...and that they travel over the face of the earth, something like a caravan of merchants. On their arrival everthing is found green and fresh; while they remain, all is bussle and abundance, and when gone, all is left trampled and bare!"

From: An inquirey in the permanent causes of the decline and fall of powerful and wealthy nations (1805).

Saipan doesn't look to different from my hometown of St. Louis. I think those from any American city that once relied heavily on manufacturing can relate.

Another great show. This is just another one of those forgotten corners of the globe that everyone feels sorry for, but can't or wont help. And we think we have it bad here....

Beautiful work, Adam. I lived in Saipan through the 90s and your documentary brought back many memories.
As you point out ALL of the the brothels er... um 'massage parlors and karaokes' are all concentrated in the main tourist area of Saipan. They are located, literally, in the 200 yard walk from the Hyatt Hotel to the Hard Rock Cafe. One must wonder how this is permitted to happen so flagrantly.
"Current" should strongly consider a follow-up story on what the local government has done to protect this mini Sin City. Kick the tree a little harder. You'd be surprised what kind of rats come scurrying out.
Keep up the great work!

its one thing to say that this sucks for the people concerned and its another to link this to anti-globalisation and against free trade. The theory behind free trade and the benefits that we have all received from it cannot be doubted. We would be in another depression as a result of the financial crisis if governments had chosen to engage in protectionism (we would all lose). Above all CHANGE HAPPENS, and a person losing a job in Saipan means someone in China or Vietnam gains a job (where i doubt that there is little or any social security). That the Saipan government is now tackling it head on to pursue another potential industry a good thing.

boomboomlongtime, Yes, Adam did an outstanding and very true documentary about present day Saipan. You are very correct in your your comments about Garapan, and they even have a Police Koban (station) on the main street, Paseo de Marianas, where many clubs, karaokes' and massage parlors are located. Many within 100 yards of eyesight. (If they would happen to be looking) Nightly, you will see large 15-passenger vans come to this area as well as cars picking up and discharging the girls and their suitors.
Put Adam on this follow-up, and he would get his eyes opened as how these elected officials are operating. Some of these strip clubs, bars and such may even be owned &/or frequented by these very same so-called public servants.

ok, i must say it was quite funny when he mentioned that working for current made his casino budget $10!

The women going into prostitution is so disturbing! Even though those women get paid for that or just garment work, they have to send all the money home for their families to survive. It's as if they are all so enslaved :(

I loved this. You made a very good point. How can even low paying jobs, lower than the US minimum wage be kept? I don't know how, but somehow we need to get more manufacturing jobs back in the US.

Excellent work documenting Saipan. Im originally from there and moved a year ago to continue my education and work. It hurts to see what we claim to be our beautiful home slowly go down and become a ghost town.

awesome reporting. some 60 years ago it was a battle for freedom and now it's a battle for survival, both for local and foreign people that live on the beautiful island of Saipan. just sad, sad, sad -- but that's reality.

wow am lost for words right now, i am from saipan, i am a chamorro and i really have a lot of mixed emotions about this story. I grew up local so there were a lot of nasty said bout foreign workers, hell i know a ton of jokes and been through a lot of experience that just tap dance along the line of racists. As for the condition of Saipan i am not going to put the blame of its economic crisis square on the shoulders of the shut-down of the garment factories, but it was our elected officials who failed us miserably. Some of whom i know were involved with scandals and under the table dealings that benefited them and their families. Sounds like corruption to everyone else but to them it called a small favor.
I love Saipan, and i wanna raise my kids there and be buried there, but to make money there.. hell no, and 100 percent of the locals there agree with me on that... the next episode of saipan if there is one should be the mass exodus occuring right now...
great job in the story and i signed up with vanguard just to put my two cents in.

Thanks for this. I lived and worked there in the mid-80s right out of grad school. The population of Saipan was only 15k (17k for CNMI - Tinian and Rota). Until Nov. 86 when the Covenant was finalized, only Chamorros could own businesses, and that's when entrepreneurs from other countries started to capitalize of the combination of no quotas/cheap 3rd world labor. Even in the 80s however there was collusion between Chamorro business owners and U.S. importers. I remember huge lots of toyotas (hundreds of cars) sitting lots on the north of the island. As long as an island dealership held them on Saipan for 3 months, they could be "transferred" to a mainland dealership to get around the quota system. So California toyota dealers were kicking back to an island dealer to increase the number of cars available to them. I remember thinking I should write 60 minutes about it, but it seemed so small potatoes and who was to know what would happen to that sleepy little island in the years ahead.

While it all sounds like gloom and doom.. there is another side to Saipan.. I have chosen to live and raise my children here.. yes, times are tough but people are great here. I feel safe and the sunsets are amazing. The beaches are incredible and the natural beauty is breathtaking. There are no freeways, no targets, no wal-marts and that suits me just fine. Very little stress here..life is simple.. so you take the good with the bad.. till you can't anymore..and if I have to eat rice and beans to survive here.. it will be worth it.. because I will be watching a killer sunset.

watching this video brought me to tears.. I am a chamorro born and raised on Saipan and seeing the part of "La Fiesta" breaks my heart, as a child our parents used to always bring us there to play and shop :( .

Right now majority of the locals are moving to the US. we survive every week from paycheck to paycheck. and every month we all try to figure out how to pay off our electric bill or wonder if we have enough money to last us until the next payday. last year we went through a lot of power outages atleast 3-4 times a day for hours and gas prices went up to $5.05. we are all working really hard on our jobs because we are so afraid that we won't be able to find another...

An excellent report. It was nice to see something of the Island again after so many years. It's been a long time since 1959 and the CIA base where i went to kindergarten.
It is a shame to see the economy die as it has. A prelude of what's to come through out the world perhaps. I hope not.

It's about time that someone did a story about this, and I'm glad it was done so well. People need to see where their bargains come from.

A very commendable report and closeup look at the problems that ensue from globalization. I have 2 serious concerns, however, about the report. First, the problem that are highlighted here are not victimless or simple. To point the finger repeatedly at "the US", "America" and "multinational corporations" seems to miss part of the cycle--the demand for the cheap products that Yaguchi blames on "consumers"--well, that includes him and me and you. I don't mean to be flip but I'm sure the clothes he and the crew are wearing were not made in a vacuum so until we refuse to partake in the temptations of chep and plentiful goods I'm afraid this deplorable problem will persist. My second concern is that the historical references to WWII as reported by Yamaguchi are shamefully ignorant an/or selective. How does one reference Saipan and Tinian and not refer to the extent of Japanese atrocities committed there, or the enslavement of Korean laborers there or the general misery wrought by Imperial Japan throughout its so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? Yamaguchi only reports mournfully about the suicide cliffs but does not link this to Japanese propagnda that asserted that American troops would rape and brutalize them if they were so shameful as to surrender. A student watching this would only think that Japan innocently occupied these islands until forced off by brutal US troops which than allowed for the A-bomb flight. It's appalling to not provide a context for this, and Yamaguchi should seriously consider a report on Japanese atrocities on his next visit to the region or a revision to this one that does not just blame, but tries to understand and more fully inform.