Wben one reads the popular anthologies about World War II in the Pacific one is invariably impressed by the drama of the stealthy Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the rape of Nanking, the humiliation of the French in Indochina, and the blustery cry of "I shall return!" from General Douglas MacArthur just before the fall of Bataan in the Philippines. As one leafs through the ultimate chapter of these chronologies one senses the heroics at Midway and the Coral Sea, the deathly battles at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, and finally, the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship Missouri on Tokyo Bay. These are, of course, all factual and quite appropriate in any recounting of the Pacific War. Invariably missing in all these anthologies are the roles played by the unwitting victims of the war and the effects the three-year
conflict had on these people.
Let me speak about Guam because I was there from beginning to end, although I was a bit too young to fight and a bit too old to forget. Guam is the southernmost island in the Mariana archipelago, a little over 200 square miles at about 14 degrees north of the equator. During 1941 there were some 20,000 people living in Guam; no less than 90 percent were of Chamorro ancestry. The other 10 percent were Americans, mostly military personnel and their dependents, Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, some Micronesians, and a few persons of Spanish, German, and English ancestry. About half of the population was then living in the city of Agana. A good number were living in the seaport town of Sumay, and the villages of Agat, Umatac, Merizo, and Inarajan. Most people, including those in Agana, derived their livelihood from the farms, which were strewn throughout the 30-mile long island.
