The Gallant Defense of Guam

As the ruins of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet were still burning at Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes appeared over the island of Guam some 4,000 miles to the west where, across the International Date Line, it was already December 8, 1941. The United States and Japan were now at war and the weakly-defended U.S. territory was nearly surrounded by Japanese holdings, including the island of Saipan, with no friendly military bases for thousands of miles.