Join us in Guam’s capitol city of Hagåtña for the Liberation Parade Festival July 21, 2025! Witness Guam’s biggest parade of floats as the entire island community gathers for the annual commemoration of the invasion by U.S. military forces on July 21, 1944, which ended the Japanese occupation that had begun in 1941.

On July 21, 1944, the 3rd Marine Division stormed the island’s beaches off the coasts of Asan and Agat to recapture the island from the Japanese Imperial Army. Marines fought their way toward the center of the island to Manenggon in Yona, the site of Guam’s largest concentration camp. It was there that Chamorro men, women and children found re-invigorated hope in America’s return to the island.

Though many lives were lost during the war, the people of Guam remember and pay them homage every year at memorial sites.