Keith L. Camacho. Cultures of Commemoration

Reading this monograph made me rethink the way I teach about the impact of World War II on American society. While it is accurate to underscore that the continental United States was almost completely unscathed by the war, the same did not apply to U.S. territories in the Pacific region. Keith L. Camacho recounts how those living on Guam endured three years of occupation by Japanese forces, as well as the inherent dangers of living in the midst of a battlefield when U.S. forces retook the island in 1944. In the case of the North Marianas, World War II cannot be told as simply a tale of liberation since these former German colonies had been granted to the Japanese by the League of Nations during the interwar years. American forces interned not only Japanese civilians but also the island's indigenous population until 1946. The memory of World War II is complex and contested in both Guam and the Northern Marianas. Although sharing a common culture, the Chamorros living on these islands were divided between two rival colonial powers who sought Americanization in the case of Guam, and Japanization in the case of the North Marianas. Guam, an American colony since 1898, quickly fell on the same day that the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor. The Chamorros on Guam endured scores of atrocities under Japanese rule, including sexual slavery and the torture and execution of those deemed disloyal. The return of American forces to Guam in 1944 is remembered and observed in a new holiday—Liberation Day—that is commemorated annually on July 21. The North Marianas also celebrate Liberation Day, but theirs commemorates July 4, 1946, the day the United States government allowed Chamorros to leave the internment camps and return to their homes.

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