Guam History

Guam was first discovered and inhabited by sea-faring people who came from Asia (possibly Indonesia or the Philippines), around about 2000 BC. These people, the Chamorros, developed a complex society, and traded with other islands in Micronesia.

On March 6th, 1521, the first Europeans arrived: Ferdinand Magellan's ships, on their expedition to circumnavigate the globe. The Chamarros natives of the islands welcomed the Spanish with food and drink. The Chamarros expected to be paid, whereas the Europeans believed these supplies to be gifts, so the Chamarros stole iron from the decks of the Spanish ships. The Spanish retaliated by killing several islanders and burning homes. Magellan consequently named Guam and the other Mariana Islands, "Las Islas de los Ladrones" (The Islands of Thieves).

In 1667, Spain claimed the islands and established a colony there. In 1668, Padre San Vitores, the first Spanish missionary, arrived. He renamed the islands "Las Marianas" after Mariana of Austria, widow of King Philip IV of Spain, and remained on the islands until his murder in 1672.

On June 21st, 1898, Guam was captured by US forces during the Spanish-American war, and was ceded to the United States by the subsequent Treaty of Paris which ended the war. (Spain later sold the Northern Mariana Islands to Germany).

During World War II, Japanese forces invaded the islands and subjected them to a brutal 31-month occupation. The islands were eventually recaptured in the Battle of Guam which took place between July 21st and August 10th of 1944

Following World War II, a series of acts relaxed the U.S. administration of Guam, established the island as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, granted US citizenship to all persons born on Guam since 1899, allowed a non-voting Guam delegate in the US House of Representatives, and allowed the islanders to elect their own governor and lieutenant governor. In 1982, Guam residents overwhelmingly voted for a closer relationship with the United States as a Commonwealth. However, progress towards implementing the decision has been slow.

In recent years, Guam has suffered a number of setbacks, including the 1990s Asian economic crisis, and September 11th attacks, damaging the tourism industry, the 1990s military cutbacks affecting the military-dependant part of the island's economy, and the supertyphoons Paka in 1997, and Pongsona in 2002.

Always Faithful: A Memoir of the Marine Dogs of WWII

By William Putney

Potomac Books Inc.
Paperback (256 pages)

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Product Description:
As a twenty-three-year-old veterinarian, William W. Putney joined the Marine Corps at the height of World War II. He commanded the Third Dog Platoon during the battle for Guam and later served as chief veterinarian and commanding officer of the War Dog Training School, where he helped train former pets for war in the Pacific. After the war, he fought successfully to have USMC war dogs returned to their civilian owners.

Always Faithful is Putney’s celebration of the four-legged soldiers that he both commanded and followed. It is a tale of immense courage as well as of incredible sacrifice. For anyone who has ever read Old Yeller or the books of Jack London, here is a real-life story that rivals any fiction. At once a wistful tribute and a stirring adventure, Always Faithful will enthrall readers with one of the great animal stories of all time.

Guam 1941 & 1944: Loss and Reconquest (Campaign)

By Gordon Rottman

Osprey Publishing
Released: 2004-07-25
Paperback (96 pages)

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The island of Guam was the first Allied territory lost to the Japanese onslaught in 1941. On 10 December 5,000 Japanese troops landed on Guam, defended by less than 500 US and Guamanian troops, the outcome was beyond doubt. On 21 July 1944 America returned. In a risky operation, the two US landing forces came ashore seven miles apart and it was a week before the beachheads linked up. Only the battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa would cost the Americans more men than the landings on Guam and Saipan, which immediately preceded the Guam operation. In this book Gordon Rottman details the bitter 26-day struggle for this key Pacific island.

Hell Is Upon Us: D-Day in the Pacific--Saipan to Guam, June-August 1944

By Victor Brooks

Da Capo Press
Paperback (384 pages)

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On June 14, 1944, little more than a week after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, another mighty fleet steamed towards its own D-Day landing. The target of this mighty U.S. armada was the Marianas Island group, which included Saipan, home to an important Japanese base, and Guam, the first American territory captured in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. When the brutal fighting ended eight weeks later, 60,000 Japanese ground troops and most of the carrier air power of the Japanese Imperial Navy were annihilated. Hell Is Upon Us skillfully describes the entire Marianas campaign-World War II’s most ambitious combined service operation and the largest carrier battle in history-and provides riveting first-hand accounts of the soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen who fought through the hell of Japan’s Pacific defense.

We Fought the Navy and Won: Guam's Quest for Democracy (Latitude 20 Books)

By Dolores Coulter Cogan

University of Hawaii Press
Paperback (244 pages)

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We Fought the Navy and Won is a carefully documented yet impassioned recollection of Guam's struggle to liberate itself from the absolutist rule of the U.S. Navy. Doloris Cogan concentrates on five crucial years, 1945-1950, when, fresh out of journalism school, she had the good fortune to join the distinguished team of idealists at the newly formed Institute of Ethnic Affairs in Washington, D.C. Working as a writer/editor on the monthly Guam Echo under the leadership of the Institute's director, John Collier, Cogan witnessed and recorded the battle fought at the very top between Collier (assisted by former Secretary of the Interior Harry L. Ickes) and Navy Secretary James V. Forrestal as the people of Guam petitioned the U.S. Congress for civilian government under a constitution. Taken up by newspapers throughout the country, this war of words illustrated how much freedom of the press plays in achieving and sustaining true democracy.

Part of the story centers around a young Chamorro named Carlos Taitano, who returned home to Guam in 1948 after serving in the U.S. Army in the Pacific. Taitano joined his colleagues in the lower house and walked out of the Guam Congress in 1949 to protest the naval governor, who had refused their right to subpoena an American businessman suspected of illegal activity. The walkout was the catalyst that introduced the Organic Act of Guam, which was signed into law by President Truman in 1950. Many other Guamanians, including the men and women who testified before the U.S. Congress, were involved in this historic struggle. We Fought the Navy and Won is the first book to tell their story and the first detailed look at the events surrounding Guam's elevation from possession to territory.

Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam

By Robert F. Rogers University of Hawaii Press Paperback (392 pages)	List Price: $29.00 Lowest New Price: $28.45 Lowest Used Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours (As of 20:51 Pacific 2 Jul 2008 More Info) Click Here
Book Description: This abundantly illustrated and richly documented history provides a comprehensive look at one of the world's last colonies. Rogers evokes the dramatic but little-known saga of Guam's people from the precontact era to Spanish domination, from colonial rule under a US naval government to the massive military invasions of World War II, and on through to the present.

Cuba In War Time

By Richard Harding Davis

LeClue
Kindle Edition

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The Spanish-American War was a military conflict between Spain and the United States that began in April 1898. Hostilities halted in August of that year, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in December. The war began after the American demand of Spain peacefully resolving the Cuban fight for independence was rejected, though strong expansionist sentiment in the United States may have motivated the government to target Spain's remaining overseas territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and the Caroline Islands.

Private Yokoi's War and Life on Guam, 1944-72: The Story of the Japanese Imperial Army's Longest Wwii Survivor in the Field and Later Life

By Omi Hatashin

University of Hawaii Press
Hardcover (144 pages)

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