Pacific War Museum

Part of our time on Guam we visited the Pacific War Museum. It was a fantastic little museum with actual military vehicles used during WWII on the island and displays on Guam's role in WWII. All of it was of particular interest to myself since my Grandpa Minick served on a submarine in WWII in that part of the Pacific Ocean.  Here are some pictures and little bit of history.

 

 

 The United States took control of Guam in the 1898 Spanish-American War, as part of the Treaty of Paris. Guam came to serve as a station for American ships traveling to and from the Philippines from that time forth. During World War II, Guam was attacked and invaded by the armed forces of Japan on December 8, 1941. This is the same day that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (Japan is a day ahead in time of Hawaii and mainland United States). The attacks were intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

 

Guam's Japanese occupation lasted for approximately thirty-one months.  Approximately one thousand people died during the occupation, according to Congressional Testimony in 2004. Some historians estimate that war violence killed 10% of Guam's some 20,000 population.

The United States returned and fought the Battle of Guam on July 21, 1944, to recapture the island from Japanese military occupation. 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 in Guam

 

One of the most fascinating displays was about a Japanese soldier who hid for 28 years in the central part of the island in the jungle instead of surrendering. Sergeant Yokoi went into hiding during the Battle of Guam in 1944 and was found in January of 1972. He hid in an underground jungle cave, fearing to come out of hiding even after finding leaflets declaring World War II had ended, believing them to be false Allied propaganda. Yokoi survived by hunting, primarily at night and using native plants to make clothes, bedding, and storage implements, which he carefully hid in his cave. After being found by 2 local men he returned to Japan and continued to live another 25 years until he died in 1997.

This is a picture of him receiving his first haircut in 28 years. (Picture taken from Wikipedia.org)