U.S. Out of Asia and the Pacific! Joint Statement from Pacific Islander and East Asian movements against US Secretary of defense Pete Hegseth’s War Tour

The Resist US-Led War Movement, Asia-Wide Campaign Against US-Japanese Domination of the Pacific, BAYAN Philippines, Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, Our Commonwealth 670, and the Hoʻopae Pono Peace Project came together to oppose the first official “Asian Tour’ of US minister of Defense Pete Hegseth. The tour proved to be another provocative US-led move to further build up to war against China, putting the livelihood of working people in these occupied lands and countries at dire risk, only to achieve the US’s long term military and political interests, over which the US is rapidly losing its grip.

This tour included travel to Hawai’i, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Guam, Philippines, and Japan. It consisted of a series of bilateral meetings with heads of state, top military leadership, and photos with rank and file military personnel to make Hegseth appear to care for the well being of the soldiers being prepared to be sent into the slaughterhouse of war. It led to significant military and economic deals signed to further entrench US-led militarization and de facto colonialism in some of the areas, as well as to fill the pockets of imperialist multinational corporations.

Yet, at every step of the way, people protested with militant rage and showed that Hegseth and the US military are not welcome in their lands.    


HAWAI'I-

A primary area of focus for Hegsethʻs Hawaiʻi visit was to urge the expedited construction of Dry Dock 5 at Puʻuloa (“Pearl Harbor”), for the primary purpose of accommodating greater nuclear submarine capacity, in the continued escalation of the undersea nuclear arms race. Specifically, Dry Dock 5 is designed to accommodate the largest “Ohio” and “Columbia” classes of nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered submarines; each holding up to 24 Trident missiles with the destructive capacity of 240 Hiroshima blasts that could trigger a global nuclear winter. This capacity also restores Oʻahuʻs status as the primary “US” target in the event of a Pacific war.

Hesgethʻs visit was marked by multiple highly spirited protests. An action at the Navy Pacific Fleet HQ near the proposed dry dock featured banners demanding an end to the prolonged illegal US occupation of Hawaiʻi and offerings of sacred kou flowers to Kaʻahupahau, the shark goddess upon whose home Dry Dock 5 is being built.  “The construction of a war dock for nuclear-armed submarines in the very home of Ka’ahupahau, who is the protector of O’ahu and the keeper of peace itself, should not be acceptable to anyone,” said Laulani Teale of Hoʻopae Pono Peace Project. “It is time to end colonialism everywhere, before we all die of it.”


PHILIPPINES-

From Hawai`i, Hegseth traveled to the Philippines, where he was met by more protesters, who condemned the US's plans to increase its militarization of the Philippines under the false pretense of mutual defense. Prompted by the visit, Philippine Army Chief of Staff Galido commanded troops to prepare for war should China take military action against separatist moves from Taiwan. Following the visit, the US State Department announced on Wednesday, April 2, that it had approved the “possible” sale of F-16 aircraft to the Philippines. In total, the 20 aircraft will cost an estimated $5.58 billion.

The visit was a stark reminder that the expansion of US bases, the deployment of troops and weapons of mass destruction, and the provocative joint military drills in north Luzon are not meant to beef up the security of the Philippines but to support the war posturing of the US. The real aim of the visit, as is the aim of the Trump administration in general, was to stoke conflict in the region and exploit it to weaken US rivals and remain the top imperialist power. The declarations of "peace" and "defending the sovereignty of the Philippines" or any other country rang hollow against the backdrop of the US's consistently aggressive behavior. The not-too-distant memory of the 1991 people's victory expelling US bases from the Philippines, while not acknowledged by Hegseth or any Philippine military official, adds urgency to the Filipino people's patriotic duty to call for the immediate expulsion of US bases and troops, in a rejection of the notion that the Philippines should ever be used again as a staging ground to attack another territory.


JAPAN-

In Japan, the US Defense Secretary's visit was greeted with mass protests, with calls not just for him to leave the country but boldly declaring, "Oppose the Japan-US Military Alliance!" As people took to the streets, Hegseth took part in the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, a World War 2 battle with mythological importance to the US projection of power in the Pacific region. During his speech, Hegesth stated, "the U.S.-Japan Alliance remains the cornerstone of peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond." An official White House memo stated that Hegseth and his Japanese counterpart Nakatani, "discussed concrete steps to deepen defense cooperation across a range of areas, including through enhancing bilateral training and exercises, strengthening Alliance force posture and presence, including in Japan's Southwest Islands, and promoting defense equipment and technology cooperation." Finally, Hegseth and Nakatani announced "Phase One" of the Joint Force Headquarters between the US and Japan, ultimately cementing further joint military exercises and operations between the US and Japan, before Hegseth visited US troops at Yokota Air Base.

This comes as Japan-US military cooperation is threatening the lives of the Okinawan people and others living near US bases and missile systems that paint a target on these communities' backs, especially after over a century of Japanese colonialism and war crimes against the people of Okinawa and the Ryukyu Archipelago. Hegseths' visit will further entrench the recently signed trilateral agreements between the US and Japan with South Korea and the Philippines, skyrocketing the militarization of the South China Sea and Korean Peninsula for nothing but the benefit of US and Japanese imperialists. The silent transfer of THAAD missile systems from Japan to the Persian Gulf where the US has begun a rapid military build-up posture towards Iran is a sign that Hegseth's visit to the country could have dire implications not just for the Pacific but for US aggression in West Asia as well.


CNMI / Commonwealth for the Northern Mariana Islands - 

During Hegseth’s recent March 2025 visit, he did not disclose to local media that he was coming to Guam and refused to answer questions when confronted. The community has historically been largely left in the dark until military plans are already finalized. No community consent outside of government and agency level involvement is part of this process. While the islands undergo a number of major plans including the use of Tinian Island as a “divert airfield” in the event that Guahan (Guam) is inaccessible, the community is now being informed that yet another island, Rota, will also now be used as a storage facility, including to store fuel for the Pentagon. During Hegseth’s tour, he stated: “We are not here to debate or talk about climate change, we are here to prepare for war,” skirting and exempting the Pentagon from local and federal environmental regulations necessary to protect the people of the Marianas and throughout the Pacific in favor of “national security.”

The CNMI is undergoing accelerating militarization as the United States prepares for a future war on our islands in the name of national defense. Fear is being used strategically to garner public support for more military planning as the islands face a dire economic outlook. This perspective ignores diplomacy and disarmament, diplomatic approaches to geopolitical posturing and conflict that are absolutely necessary to maintain peace in the region. This militarization is happening against the backdrop of a long history of U.S. colonialism motivated by imperial ideologies in the region, while the Indigenous Peoples of the Marianas remain underserved, economically dependent on U.S. aid and whose lives and environments are continuously transformed by U.S. “defense” goals and priorities over human health and genuine security. The lives of Chamorro and Refaluwasch peoples remains an afterthought in the overall military buildup.


GUAHAN -

During U.S. Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth to Guam, he reaffirmed Guam’s strategic importance for national security and regional stability, but failed to address the real, detrimental impacts of the hyper militarization of our homelands. As our lands are destroyed and water threatened by ongoing military projects, our community continues to push for conversations around genuine security, and what that really means to those of us who have to bear the burden of military activities, including the clearing of 900 football fields of our land for buildings and parking lots, a marine base and 700-acre firing range complex above our island’s main water source and over the ancestral lands of Chamoru families at Tailalo’ and Litekyan. At this critical time, the conversation must shift from U.S. strategic defense to Indigenous self-determination and environmental justice. These are issues that remain overshadowed by military interest without free, prior, and informed consent of the Chamoru people.
How much more must we sacrifice of our security on the ground for “national interests” as we continue to be caught in the crosshairs of wars not of our own making? As one of 17 colonies left in the world, we demand political self-determination and the return of ancestral lands.

The expansion of military infrastructure, including the live-fire training range at familial ancestral lands of Tailalo’ and Litekyan (Ritidian), threatens sacred sites, endangered species, and groundwater resources. Original landowner families for more than a decade have been actively resisting the firing range complex, and thousands upon thousands in our community opposed further destruction to our lands and contamination of our water source, yet the U.S. continues to prioritize military objectives over the voices of our people. 

Rather than accepting the visit as a routine military engagement, Guam’s decolonial movement sees it as a reminder of the urgent need for political and land rights, environmental protection, and the dismantling of militarized colonial rule.


Fight against the US-led militarization of Asia and the Pacific

As the US works to put in motion ever more military agreements in Asia and the Pacific with the help of its partner imperialist and puppet governments like Japan and the Philippines, the peace loving people of the world must unite and show our mass opposition to US-led war. The fact that Hegseth's visit was met at every step of the way by protests and militant cries against US military aggression proves that the people of the Pacific see through the lies of "peace and security" that the US peddles in its build-up to war against China. A war of such proportion would instead be a nightmarish assault against all the peoples of the world as the US would rather set the whole world on fire than lose its position as the number one imperialist superpower.

War is not inevitable on our islands or any of the homelands of our sibling nations and peoples, and we refuse to comply with self-serving decision-makers who use fear  to promote political ideologies and ignore humanity to promote violence. Our self-determination and sovereignty are non-negotiable, and our peoples' aspirations for peace drive us to resist any move by the US or their lackeys in our government offices to propel us to kill and die in wars that they declare but none of us want.