Guam History
Traditional Chamorro Hut
Guam has a rich and lengthy history. Archaeological evidence indicates that the island was inhabited as early as 2,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, settled by people of Indo-Malayan descent. The first people on Guam braved the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean in relatively small canoes, eventually settling throughout the Mariana Islands.
Ancient times
Little is known about ancient Chamorros except what can be ascertained through interpretation of archaeological remains. Guam’s pre-European contact is split into two distinctive periods: pre-Latte and Latte. About all that is known about pre-Latte culture is that the people crafted delicate pottery. The Latte period begins around 800 A.D. with the sudden appearance of latte stones. There was no written history of the island until the appearance of Europeans.
Ferdinand Magellan is given credit for “discovering” Guam. The Portuguese explorer landed on the island on March 6, 1521. Guam and the rest of the Marianas were officially claimed by Spain in 1565. The island became a port of call on the important Acapulco-Philippines trade route, resupplying Spain’s trade armada, as well as an occasional port of call for whaling vessels and even pirates.
The Spanish Era had a tremendous political, social, religious and economic impact. Guam’s native Chamorro population was decimated by disease and genocidal practices. Those that remained were converted to Catholicism. The very core culture of a simple, ocean-faring people was forever changed.
War history
Spain ceded Guam to the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris following the Spanish-American War in 1898. Guam was placed under the administration of the Department of Navy and was used primarily as a coaling and communication station. That ended in 1941, when the island was invaded and conquered by Japan shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
The island was officially surrendered to the Japanese on Dec. 10, 1941. The occupation of Guam lasted for 31 months, during which time the local population was brutalized, tortured and killed.
Liberation
On July 21, 1944 — celebrated on Guam as Liberation Day — American forces landed on the beaches of Guam, beginning three weeks of bloodshed. Thousands upon thousands lost their lives in the battle to retake the island, and Japanese stragglers continued to hide out in the jungles for decades to come, 114 of them captured or killed in the next three decades. It wasn’t until January 1972 that the last one came out from hiding, the legendary Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi, who spent nearly 27 years in Guam’s jungles.
The Naval Government of Guam was re-established in May 1946, but residents were ready for their own government. In fact, many local politicians had been trying for self-government since the turn of the century. On Aug. 1, 1950, the island finally realized some semblance of self-government for the first time since the Spanish flag was planted when the Organic Act of Guam was signed.
However, travel to and from Guam was restricted until 1962, when the Navy finally ended its security clearance requirements. Guam has grown by leaps and bounds since then, fueled at first by military dollars and then by business and industry, notably tourism.
As the people of Guam face the new millennium and the inevitable changes of an ever-shrinking world, the issue of self-government is again paramount.
— Pacific Daily News files
