Editing History of Guam (section)

===World War II===
[[File:1944 Guam Plaza de Espana.jpg|thumb|[[United States Marine Corps|Marines]] before the ruins of the church in [[Hagåtña, Guam|Hagåtña]] during the [[Battle of Guam (1944)|liberation of Guam]] in 1944.]]
{{Main|Japanese occupation of Guam}}
{{Further|Pacific Islands home front during World War II}}
During [[World War II]], Guam was [[Battle of Guam (1941)|attacked and invaded]] by [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] on Monday, December 8, 1941, at the same time as the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], across the International Date Line. In addition, Japan made major military moves into Southeast Asia and the [[East Indies]] islands of the South Pacific Ocean against the British and Dutch colonies, opening a new wider Pacific phase in the Second World War. The Japanese renamed Guam {{lang|ja-Latn|Ōmiya-jima}} (Great Shrine Island).

The [[Northern Mariana Islands]] had become a League of Nations mandate assigned to Japan in 1919, pursuant to the [[Treaty of Versailles]] of 1919. Indigenous [[Chamorro people]] from the Northern Marianas were brought to Guam to serve as interpreters and in other capacities for the occupying Japanese force. The Guamanian Chamorros were treated as an occupied enemy by the Japanese military. After the war, this would cause resentment between the Guamanian Chamorros and the Chamorros of the Northern Marianas. Guam's Chamorros believed their northern brethren should have been compassionate towards them, whereas having been administered by Japan for over 30 years, the Northern Mariana Chamorros were loyal to the Japanese government.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-10-01 |title=Chamorus: A People Divided - Guampedia |url=https://www.guampedia.com/chamorros-a-people-divided/ |access-date=2024-05-16 |website=www.guampedia.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

The [[Japanese occupation of Guam]] lasted for approximately 31 months, from 1941 to 1944.<ref>Wakako Higuchi, ''The Japanese Administration of Guam, 1941-1944: A Study of Occupation and Integration Policies, with Japanese Oral Histories'' (Jefferson  McFarland, 2013); [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38466  online review]</ref> During this period, the indigenous people of Guam were subjected to forced labor, family separation, incarceration, execution, concentration camps and forced prostitution. Approximately 1,000 people died during the occupation, according to later [[United States Congress|Congressional]] committee testimony in 2004. Some historians estimate that war violence killed 10% of Guam's then 20,000 population.<ref>Werner Gruhl, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ow5Wlmu9MPQC&pg=PA102 Imperial Japan's World War Two, 1931–1945] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101014017/https://books.google.com/books?id=ow5Wlmu9MPQC&pg=PA102|date=January 1, 2016}}'', Transaction Publishers, 2007 {{ISBN|978-0-7658-0352-8}}</ref> It was a coercive experience for the Chamoru people, whose loyalty to the United States became a point of contention with the Japanese. Several American servicemen remained on the island, however, and were hidden by the Chamoru people. All of these servicemen were found and executed by Japanese forces in 1942; only one escaped.

[[File:Women washing clothes in a river near Hagåtña on 12 August 1944.jpg|thumb|Women washing clothes in a river at [[Hagåtña, Guam|Hagåtña]] next to trees destroyed by the bombardment, August 1944]]
The second [[Battle of Guam (1944)|Battle of Guam]] began on July 21, 1944, with American troops landing on western side of the island after several weeks of pre-invasion bombardment by the U.S. Navy. After several weeks of heavy fighting, Japanese forces officially surrendered on August 10, 1944. More than 18,000 Japanese were killed as only 485 surrendered. Sergeant [[Shoichi Yokoi]], who surrendered in January 1972, appears to have been the last confirmed [[Japanese holdout]], having held out for 28 years in the forested back country on Guam.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kristofferson|first=Nicholas D.|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D81F3BF935A1575AC0A961958260|title=Shoichi Yokoi, 82, Is Dead; Japan Soldier Hid 27 Years|work=The New York Times|date=September 26, 1997|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201172619/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE7D81F3BF935A1575AC0A961958260|archive-date=February 1, 2009}}</ref> The United States also captured and occupied the nearby Northern Marianas Islands.

Guam was subsequently converted into a forward operations base for the U.S. Navy and Air Force. Airfields were constructed in the northern part of the island (including [[Andersen Air Force Base]]), the island's pre-WWII [[Naval Base Guam|Naval Station]] was expanded, and numerous facilities and supply depots were constructed throughout the island. North Field was established in 1944, and was renamed for Brigadier General [[James Roy Andersen]] of the old [[United States Army Air Forces|U.S. Army Air Forces]] as [[Andersen Air Force Base]].

Guam's two largest pre-war communities ([[Sumay, Guam|Sumay]] and [[Hagåtña]]) were virtually destroyed during the 1944 battle. Many Chamoru families lived in temporary re-settlement camps near the beaches before moving to permanent homes constructed in the island's outer villages. Guam's southern villages largely escaped damage, however.