Guam Liberation Day, July 21, is the Guam’s most important holiday aside from Discovery Day (the first Monday in March). The holiday commemorates the U.S. military liberating the island from Japanese occupation on July 21, 1944.
The Liberation of Guam was a matter of military necessity. Its people and their suffering aside, Guam was seen as a naval and air base from which to bomb Japan and supply the force needed to subdue the enemy.
In February 1942, two months after Guam was invaded and captured, Japanese officials introduced classes to educate island children and adults about the Japanese culture and language as well as mathematics and reading.
I used to listen to my auntie’s stories about the invasion, occupation, liberation and other things concerning the Japanese on Guam back then.
He must have been a unique man and quite a character, the late Adolfo Camacho Sgambelluri.
In war, taking another’s life is simply a requirement, a necessity. The emotional consequences of killing another person are overlooked.
When the Argentina Maru sailed from Guam on Jan. 10, 1942, all American prisoners of war were accounted for except six Navy sailors:
World War II was an experience that shattered lives around the globe, leaving few countries little affected by the conflict.
Perhaps the most well known dive sites on Guam, this combination of wrecks from two different world wars is the only such dive site in the world.
In the summer of 1996, my mother took me to Guam, a tiny island sitting on the southern left edge of the Pacific Ocean.