Weno

Chuuk Lagoon was settled by Austronesian voyagers more than two thousand years ago, and Weno — long known as Moen — was one of many islands inside the reef held by clans whose land and rank passed through the mother's line. Chuukese society was organised around lineages and district chiefs rather than a single ruler, and the lagoon's islands traded, intermarried and fought with each other across short stretches of water.

Spain claimed the Carolines but barely administered them, and sold them to Germany in 1899. Japan took the islands in 1914 and, under a League of Nations mandate, developed the lagoon into the main forward base of its navy in the central Pacific, with the administrative centre on Tonoas and airfields built on Weno. Chuukese were put to work on construction, and thousands of Japanese settlers, sailors and soldiers arrived. On 17 and 18 February 1944 an American carrier attack, Operation Hailstone, sank dozens of ships at anchor and destroyed aircraft on the ground; further raids followed, and the garrison, cut off and bypassed by the American advance, held out until Japan's surrender.

After the war the islands were administered by the United States as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and Weno replaced Tonoas as the centre of government, drawing people from across the lagoon and the outer islands to its schools, port and offices. Chuuk became a state of the Federated States of Micronesia, which took effect in 1986. From the 1970s the sunken fleet turned the lagoon into a destination for divers, and the wrecks — classified as a Japanese war grave — remain the island's main connection to the outside world.

Clan and lineage govern much of life. Land and reef rights descend through women, titles and authority through district chiefs and lineage heads, and obligations to relatives across the lagoon and the outer islands are constant. Big events — funerals, weddings, first-birthday feasts, church anniversaries — bring large gatherings, contributions of food and money, and speeches in which respect and hierarchy are carefully observed.

Christianity is deeply established. Catholic and Protestant congregations, the latter descended from 19th-century mission work, fill churches on Sundays, and choirs, youth groups and church schools structure much of the week. Xavier High School, in a former Japanese communications building on Mabuchi hill, has educated students from across Micronesia since 1952 and is one of Chuuk's best-known institutions.

Chuuk is also known within Micronesia for the strength of its traditional practices: skilled canoe building and navigation on the outer atolls, and a body of chants, dance and oral history tied to particular places such as Mount Tonnachau. Reserve in public, modest dress and avoidance of open confrontation are expected, and attitudes to alcohol are strict, and alcohol has been banned in parts of the state. Baseball and basketball are followed keenly, and many families have close ties to relatives living in Guam, Hawaii and the United States.

Weno is the most populous island in the Federated States of Micronesia, with somewhere in the region of 13,000 to 14,000 residents on about seven square miles, and it functions as the centre of a state of about 34,000 people scattered over the lagoon islands and distant atolls. Government is the largest employer, followed by schools, the hospital, the port, shops and the dive lodges. Money also comes from fishing-licence fees, fish transhipment in the lagoon and remittances from relatives working abroad.

Housing spreads along the coast road and up the hillsides, mixing concrete buildings with tin-roofed timber houses, and families keep breadfruit, banana and taro plots behind them. Electricity, water and road maintenance are recurring problems, and outages are common. People from the outer islands come to Weno for schooling, medical care and shopping, and many stay, which has crowded the island and strained its services.

The day begins early, slows in the heat of the afternoon and ends early too; evenings are for family, church groups and basketball courts. Recurrent concerns are those of Micronesia as a whole — heavy dependence on imported food and fuel, high rates of diabetes and other diet-related illness, emigration of the young to the United States under the Compact of Free Association, and the vulnerability of low-lying land to storms and rising seas.

Chuukese cooking rests on breadfruit, taro and coconut. Breadfruit is boiled, roasted or fermented in pits for storage, taro of several kinds is grown in wet patches, and coconut cream is poured over both; banana, yam and cassava fill out the starch. Fish is the main protein — tuna and reef fish eaten raw, grilled, fried or cooked in coconut milk — along with octopus, clams and, for feasts, pigs and chickens cooked in an earth oven.

Japanese influence is strong and lasting. Sashimi cut from fresh tuna with soy sauce is everyday food rather than a delicacy, and rice, tinned fish, ramen and fried chicken have become staples of the town diet, bought at small stores stacked with imported goods. The island's restaurants, mostly attached to hotels and dive lodges, serve grilled fish and sashimi alongside Filipino, Japanese and American dishes, and bakeries sell sweet rolls and doughnuts in the morning.

Drinks are mostly imported soft drinks and coffee, and alcohol has been restricted or banned in the state at times. Fresh produce depends on the lagoon islands, whose growers bring bananas, taro and vegetables across the water to Weno's stalls.