Guam



Guam is a very small, tropical island in the Mariana Islands around two thousand miles east of the Philippines. The name 'Guam' comes from an old Chamorro word meaning 'We have everything we need here' or 'We are content with what we have'.

Ironically, Guam is a US territory, acquired because the USA wanted more islands (the rest of the Mariana Islands, collectively referred to as the Northern Mariana Islands, are an American commonwealth). Today Guam is used to give the USA more power in the pacific, a third of the island is taken up by US military bases.

The island is part of a string of islands collectively known as the Mariana Islands, this archipelago was colonised by the Chamorro people, who are believed to have migrated from what is now Indonesia. The Chamorro developed their own language and on Guam they even developed their own class system. One class lived near the coast and lived off of fish, and the other lived more inland and lived of off fruit. They also build strange 'Latte stones' throughout the island. These are pillars with a bulbous, smooth rock balanced on top of them. The Latte rocks can still be seen today and there is much speculation about why they were built.

In 1521, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan landed on the island during his famous circumnavigation of the world. After docking his ships in a natural harbour, his crew left the ship and begun exploring the island. The natives of the island discovered the ships and begun stealing stuff. When Magellan and his crew discovered this they had difficulty stopping them since the crew was trying to recover from an illness and the Chamorro where generally stronger than them. Magellan had to use cannons to stop the Chamorro taking any more stuff and named the island the 'Island of Thieves' because of this.

In 1668 the Spanish began colonising Guam. A Jesuit mission led by Padre San Vitores was sent to the island to convert the islanders to Christianity. San Vitores made a deal with one of the Chamorro leaders named Quipuha, who converted himself to Christianity, changed his name to 'Juan Quipuha', and sold his land to the missionaries so that they could build a cathedral. The natives were made to attend the cathedral regularly and learn Spanish. Quipuha also allowed the Spanish to build a port on the island and Guam served as a base for ships travelling between Mexico and the Philippines.

In 1672 Quipuha died and was replaced by Chief Matapang, Matapang was much more suspicious of the Spanish and later killed Padre San Vitores for baptising his daughter (The Chamorro thought that baptising children would kill the child). This led to the Spanish declaring war on the Chamorro and nearly wiping them out, the Spanish army organised any survivors into five separate camps where they were heavily monitored by the Spanish army. The Chamorro now had absolutely no control over Guam. After this change many Spanish and Filipino people moved to the island and Spain used Guam to relocate exiles from the Marianas islands. The Chamorro intermarried with the Spanish and Filipino's and this produced an entirely new culture and society on the island.

In 1815, Mexico became independent and Guam became very much unneeded by the Spanish since it could no longer trade in between the Philippines and Mexico. Guam was neglected by Spain and communications between the two dwindled. Guam was lightly defended from a fort. In 1898 the USA declared war on Spain and a ship led by Henry Glass was sent to capture Guam. The US Ship sailed into the harbour at Piti, near the fort. The Guamanians had not been told that the USA had declared war on Spain and so when the ship fired at the fort and missed they thought that it was 'saluting' it. The fort returned the 'salute' and expected the ship to dock. When it did not, a navel officer and a translator sailed to the ship to welcome them to the island. Once aboard the ship they were informed by Henry Glass that the USA had declared war on Spain. They had no choice but to surrender the poorly defended island.

The USA also captured the Philippines and used Guam as a 'Pacific Gibraltar' between the USA and the Philippines. During this time, Guam was entirely governed by the US navy. In 1941, after Japan went to war with the USA as part of World War II. Guam was occupied by the Japanese, who renamed Guam 'Great Shrine Island'. Any Americans on the island were taken prisoner and sent away to POW camps elsewhere. Many Americans tried to hide from this but where found and killed, along with any Guamanians who helped hide them. The Japanese navy governed the island during this time and they outlawed English as a language, they also banned things such as radio and cars and forced the Guamanians to speak Japanese.

By 1943, the Japanese began worrying that the US army would attack the island soon and so ordered all Guamanians over the age of 12 to act as slaves and build fortifications and airstrips as to militarise the island. Many Guamanians died during this, those who would not work for whatever reason were shot, and some were shot for no apparent reason at all. After completion of the buildings, the Japanese army moved the entire population of Guam into concentration camps in the south of the island. In 1944 the US army surrounded the north of the island and began wresting the island from the Japanese. The Japanese refused to surrender and the battle was very horrific; it is reckoned that as many as two thousand Americans and eighteen thousand Japanese soldiers died. A Japanese soldier named Shoichi Yokoi hid in a cave during the battle, and would not come out until 1972.

After 1944, during the remaining years of World War II, the USA built numerous military bases on Guam. The island became key to the USA's efforts in the Pacific. After the second World War, the bases remained in use, which caused the Guamanians to demand at least some autonomy. In the 1950s, Guam was given its own government, subordinate to that of the USA's. Guamanians were also given US citizenship and are allowed to immigrate to the USA freely. The bases are still in use today and serve as potent for US interests in the Pacific area. The bases have also been expanded to accommodate soldiers being relocated to Guam. The continued presence of US bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa remains controversial, and if it were to be shut down, all of the soldiers there would likely be relocated to Guam.

Guam today is still classed as an 'Unincorporated Territory' or dependency of the USA (like Puerto Rico). The Chamorro language is still in use but is under threat of being replaced by the English language. Steps have been taken by the Guamanians to try and preserve the language, but the fact that Guam is a US territory, and the high presence of English speaking military personnel, make this difficult.