A 50-dollar land purchase established the US footprint in the Pacific

Evidence

In 1853, for fifty dollars, Perry purchased a plot of land on the island now known as Chi Chi Jima, near Iwo Jima in the western Pacific. He wanted the island to become a U.S. coaling station—necessary for new steam-powered military and commercial steamship travel operations. Perry also created the first U.S. military base in Okinawa. Although it lasted only a year, Perry used the base to help create additional U.S. enclaves and impose favorable treaties on Okinawa and Japan. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 65

Categorization

• CANDY: The fifty-dollar purchase of an island that became part of the US Pacific presence is a memorable light fact.
• XREF: US base in Okinawa a century before the postwar occupation gives useful continuity for how thin the ‘beginning’ of that base story actually is.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 65