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The indigenous population of the Marianas were the Chamorros, Very little is know about their early history. Some sources estimate that the pre-colonial population exceeded 100,000 people, but this is difficult to confirm. As a result of European diseases and Spanish mistreatment, the population was only about 10,000. To more effectively control the population, most of the Chamorros were relocated to Guam where most lived at the time of World War II. The Northern Mariana Islands had become a Japanese protectorate as a result of World War I. The Japanese brought some of the Chamorros from the Northern Marianas to Guam to serve as interpreters and in various other capacities to support for the occupation authorities. The Guamanian Chamorros spoke English and were generally sympathetic toward the Americans. The Japanese military thus viewed the Guamanian Chamorros as an occupied enemy population. And because the Northern Marianas Chamorros were treated differently, ill will grew between the two groups of Chamorros. Guamanian Chamorros believed that their northern brethren should have been compassionate towards them. The Northern Mariana Chamorros after living under Japanese rule for 30 years were loyal to the Japanese. The Japanese as with other occupied people, subjected the Guamanian Chamorros to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps, and legalized rape (forced prostitution) for the occupying soldiers. At least 1,000 Chamorros were killed or other wise died of abuse and mistreatment. The U.S. Congress held hearings in 2004 to investigate the abuses. Other sources report moralities of up to 2,000 Chamorros. That would be 10 percent of the population. 【Gruhl】 Needless to say, the Chomorros were jubilant to see the Americans returning to drive out the Japanese. The Chamorros served as guides and helped the Americans located Japanese emplacements throughout the island. Guam is today the only U.S. territory with a substantial population occupied by a foreign power. We do not know at this time to what extent Japanese soldiers were prosecuted for war crimes. The U.S. Congress after the war passed the Guam Organic Act of 1950 which established Guam as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. The law provided for the structure of the island's civilian government, and granted the the Chamorro people U.S. citizenship. Guam is not a U.S. state, thus U.S. citizens residing on Guam are not allowed to vote for president and their congressional representative is a non-voting member.
The indigenous population of the Marianas were the Chamorros. A Chamorro author writes, "We are the descendents of the first group of Austronesians to move eastward into Oceania, populating our archipelago long before others would reach island groups east of Micronesia. We were master navigators, matrilineal, and, in 1521, Magellan's first Pacific contact." 【Aguon, p. 36.】 Very little is know about early Chamorro history. Some sources estimate that the per-colonial population exceeded 100,000 people, but this is difficult to confirm. The Spanish ruled the Marianas, including Guam, for 300 years. They Christianized the Chamorros, but other than that did nothing with the islands.
To more effectively control the population, the Spanish forcibly relocated most of the Chomorros to Guam where most lived at the time of World War II. Is at this point the Chamoros become separated from north to south. As a result of European diseases and Spanish mistreatment, the population was only about 20,000 at the time of World War II. The United States seized Guam from Spain during the Spanish-American War (1898-99). It was a useful coaling station before the United States Navy switched to oil. The U.S. Navy with an appointed governor administered the island for 40 years. About 90 percent of the islanders were Chamorros. Half of population lived in the capital city of Agana. 【Polomo, Island, p. 134.】 The northern islands (Saipan, Rota, and Tinian were acquired by Germany and then transferred to Japan as a result of World War I. Guam was administered by the U.S. Navy which resisted giving the Chamorros U.S. citizenship or the development of representative government. This is a fair criticism. Modern American scholars are critical of this. 【Herman】 All two often scholars like Herman with woke orientations, present only one side of issues involving the United States. What Herman says in his article is correct, but he notably avoids the whole story leaving out many important factors. First it was not common at the time for colonial powers to foster representative government. Actually the United States was doing that in the more important Philippine Islands. Second, the Americans made no effort to suppress Chamorro culture. The population enjoyed religious and cultural freedom. Third, the American administration protected Chamorro property rights, Four, the Chamoros enjoyed freedom of expression and the press which was unusual for the colonial possessions of other countries. Fifth, the Americans made important improvement in infrastructure. Sixth, the economy improved under American rule, much to the benefit of the Chmorro people. Seventh , the Americans founded a free public school system which included Chamorro teachers. The Chamoros were some of the very few people in Asia and the Pacific that had access to a free public school system. Now what Herman does in his article is all to standard for what we see from modern woke scholars--condemning the United states by comparing it to utopia and 21st century standards--an impossible standard for any country to meet. And ignoring the many positive features of American administration. It was certainly not perfect, but was far superior to what we see elsewhere in Asia and Oceania at the time.
The Northern Mariana Islands had become a Japanese protectorate as a result of World War I. The Japanese brought some of the Chamorros from the Northern Marianas to Guam to serve as interpreters and in various other capacities to support for the occupation authorities. The Guamanian Chamorros spoke English and were generally sympathetic toward the Americans. The Japanese military thus viewed the Guamanian Chamorros as an occupied enemy population. And because the Northern Marianas Chamorros were treated differently, ill will grew between the two groups of Chamorros. Guamanian Chamorros believed that their northern brethren should have been compassionate towards them. The Northern Mariana Chamorros after living under Japanese rule for 30 years tended to be loyal to the Japanese. The Japanese as with other occupied people, subjected the Guamanian Chamorros to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps, and legalized rape (forced prostitution) for the occupying soldiers. One author writes, "The Chamorros of Guam suffered immeasurable cruelty during Japanese rule, which lasted
from December 1941 to August 1944. Chamorros suffered loss of property, liberty, incarceration, and in many cases, mass executions. However, they were more than victims. Chamorros displayed tremendous courage and heroism, continually resisting an enemy occupier for almost three years, oftentimes with deadly results." 【Iwamoto】 Massive forced labor of the Chamorus began. 【Lotz】 Especially serious was food shortages. An unknown number of Chomorros died of malnutrition. Here the children were the primary victims. The Japanese reopened the schools (April 1942). Japanese teachers, known as sensei, arrived. Attendance was mandatory, but many children did not return. In some cases their parents did not like the Japanese propaganda being taught or saw much value in leaning Japanese. In other cases the children did not like the corporal punishment and stern discipline demanded by the sensei. Children would be slapped for minor matters like not bowing or adopting other Japanese customs. They were also required to speak Japanese. This was a problem because no one spoke Japanese and it is a difficult language to learn. While attendance was mandatory, the Japanese do not seem to have enforced this requirement rigorously. The Japanese put one-third of the island under military control. One author point out that for an agricultural people that identify themselves with their land, the Japanese seizure of so much Chamorro land was devastating. 【Tanji, p. 170.】 At least 1,000 Chamorros were killed or other wise died of abuse and mistreatment. The U.S. Congress held hearings in 2004 to investigate the abuses. Other sources report moralities of up to 2,000 Chamorros. That would be 10 percent of the population. 【Gruhl】
Saipan finally fell to the Americans (July 9, 1944). The Japanese correctly assessed that Guam was next. The protracted Japanese resistance on Saipan had delayed the Guam invasion, but only by a few days. As soon as Saipan fell, the Japanese commanders ordered the internment of the Chamorros on Guam--seeing them as Fifth Column. Here they were not altogether wrong. The Japanese fearing the Chamorros would aid the Americans, ordered 9,000 Chamorros under pain of death to move on foot. Southern villagers were concentrated mostly at inland campsites near Malojloj and Malesso. Villagers from the central part of the island stayed at Asinan a site on the Pago River. Most were later forced on another march south to Manenggon. There were six concentration camps. The Manenggon Camp was 20 km from Agana. Many of the Chamorros believed they were going to be killed. 【Tanji, p.167.】 This was not unlike the Bataan Death March. It was shorter, but many elderly people and small children were involved. The sick, injured, and elderly who collapsed were left to die. One young survivor, Cynthia Torres, recalls the terrible events. "The long march of women and children, the sick and the aged was extreme hardship and some fell along the way. We, at gunpoint, were prohibited from helping. My sister-in-law left the line to get water from a tank near a shack. She was badly beaten. We held her up and after the guards moved away, men carried her to Manenggon where she died and was buried. 【Palomo, "A time ...."】 Chamorros living in the countryside had a chance to hide in the hills, but those in the towns were more easily controlled. Those who survived the march were forced to live in a primitive enclosure camp--Manenggon. These 'camps' were camos in name only. There were no real buildings or sanitation supplies. Medical care was virtually non-existent. Food supplies were scarce. Starvation and disease were soon rampant. After the Ameican bombardment began Japanese soldiers began killing groups of Chamorros for no apparent reason. They massacred 30 young men and women in a cave near Fena. Only 6 days before the American landings, some 46 Chamorros were killed with grenades and bayonets in the Tinta and Faha Caves near Merizo.
Liberation was not the best way to describe the defeat of the Japanese in Asia and the Pacific. Much of what the Japanese conquered were European colonies. But liberation certainly describes what happened when the Americans landed on Guam. Guam is was the only U.S. territory with a substantial population that was occupied by a foreign power during the War. The Philippines was a little different. At the time of World War II, the Americans had granted the Philippines independence and self government. Formal transfer of power in the Philippines was to occur in 1943. This was delayed by the Japanese invasion. Filipino attitudes toward the Americans were generally positive, but varied, although the brutality of the Japanese changed many minds. The Chamorros, although not yet American citizens were almost uniformly pro-American. The American benevolent, if paternalistic treatment of the Chamorros had changed life for the better through a more active economy, public health programs, and public schools. The U.S. Navy administrators had respected Chamorro traditions and safe guarded their property. A clear affection existed between the Americans and the Chammoro people even before the Japanese invasion. Nearly 3 years of brutal Japanese rule only confirmed Chamorro attitudes toward the Americans. There was no doubt among the Chamorros that the Americans would return and they resisted the Japanese as best they could. Needless to say, the Chomorros were jubilant to see the Americans returning to drive out the Japanese. No no captive people in the Pacific were more glad to see the Americans than the Chamorro people. For the Marines and Army soldiers, the reception by the Chomorro people was uplifting. It made it clear what they were fighting for. The invasion, however, was a harrowing experience. Despite the month of fighting, needless to say, the Chomorros were jubilant to see the Americans returning to drive out the Japanese. The Chomorros served as guides and helped the Americans located Japanese emplacements throughout the island. We do not know at this time to what extent Japanese soldiers were prosecuted for war crimes. Of course most of the Japanese on the island fought to the death so there were few left to to actually prosecute. And most of the small number that surrendered were not the ones committing war crimes. Some of the Saipan Chamorros working for the Japanese were prosecuted.
The U.S. Congress after the war passed the Guam Organic Act of 1950 which established Guam as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States. The law provided for the structure of the island's civilian government, and granted the the Chamorro people U.S. citizenship. Guam is not a U.S. state, thus U.S. citizens residing on Guam are not allowed to vote for president and their congressional representative is a non-voting member.
Aguon, Julian. The Fire This Time: Essays of Life Under US Occupation (Tokyo: Blue Ocean Press, 2006).
Gruhl, Werner. Imperial Japan's World War Two, 1931-1945 (Transaction Publishers, 2007).
Herman, Doug. "A brief, 500-year history of Guam," Smithsonian (August 15, 2017).
Iwamoto, Nicholas. "Caught between the sun and stars: The Chamorro experience during the Second World War," Vol. 18 (University of Hawai'i at Hilo: Hononu, 2020), 18p.
Lotz, Dave. World War II Remnants, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Polomo, Tony. "A time of sorrow and pain," War in the Pacific National Historic Park.
Palomo, Tony. An Island in Agony (Guam: self-published, 1984). Polomo was a child during the Japanese occupation and provides a graphic account of how the Chamorros suffered at the hands of the Japanese.
Tanji, Miyume. Under Occupation: Resistance and Struggle in a Militarized Asia-Pacific (Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholar, 2013). .
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