[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15224-15228]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



         TRIBUTE TO VETERANS OF PACIFIC THEATER IN WORLD WAR II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hunter). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Guam (Mr. Underwood) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I am taking this opportunity for a one-
hour special order to pay homage to the veterans of the Pacific Theater 
during World War II and especially for those who participated in the 
battles for Guam and Saipan as part of a conflagration sometimes 
referred to as the Marianas Turkey Shoot, one of the greatest naval 
victories during World War II.
  On July 21, at the end of this week, the people of Guam will be 
celebrating the liberation of Guam. It is the day that commemorates the 
landing of the Third Marine Division on the shores of Asan and the 
First Marine Provisional Brigade supported by the 77th Army Infantry in 
Agat.
  I want to send my greetings to the veterans of that conflict as well 
as to draw and honor and pay respect to not only the U.S. forces who 
liberated Guam from Japanese occupiers but also to remember the people 
of Guam and the suffering that they endured during the Japanese 
occupation.
  Japanese troops had earlier bombed and invaded Guam on December 8 and 
10, 1941, as part of Japan's attacks on U.S. forces in the Pacific, 
including the attack, of course, on Pearl Harbor and on the 
Philippines, both areas having also significant U.S. forces.
  This commemoration, which I do annually and which is marked by a 
laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which I did last 
week, will honor the American veterans and remember the sacrifices of 
the people of Guam and will serve as a tribute for the necessity for 
peace. For it is only in the remembrance of the horrors of war do we 
really truly remain vigilant in our quest for peace.
  My purpose this evening is to give an historical perspective to the 
events we are commemorating on Guam and to enhance the understanding of 
people across the Nation of the wartime experience of the people of 
Guam and the post-war legacy which has framed the relationship of my 
island to the rest of the United States. It is a story that is a 
microcosm of the heroism of the soldiers everywhere and the suffering 
of civilians in occupied areas during World War II.
  But, as is sometimes not understood about Guam, Guam is a unique 
story all to itself and it is an experience of dignity in the midst of 
political and wartime machinations of larger powers over small peoples 
and, as well, as a story of loyalty to America, a demonstration of 
loyalty that has not been asked of any civilian community during the 
entire 20th century.
  Guam, which had been an American territory since the end of the 
Spanish-American War in 1898, was invaded in the early morning hours of 
December 10, 1941. Thus began a 32-month epic struggle of the 
indigenous people of Guam, the Chamorro people, to maintain their 
dignity and to survive during an occupation by a brutal oppressor.
  In the months leading up to the war in the Pacific, American military 
planners had decided that it was not feasible to defend Guam against 
possible invasion forces by Japanese forces in the surrounding areas. 
All of the areas in Micronesia, save for Guam, were in the hands of the 
Japanese under a League of Nations mandate and the most significant 
Japanese installations being held in Saipan a hundred miles to the 
north and the naval forces in the Truc Lagoon some 350 miles to the 
south.
  This decision was made because the war plans up to that time had 
called for several fixed fortifications on Guam that required 
congressional appropriations; and, unfortunately, due to rapidly moving 
events in the Pacific and tight military budgets, Guam did not receive 
the necessary funds to build any defenses in anticipation of World War 
II, a conflagration which everyone in the Pacific expected to occur at 
some time.
  When the Japanese landed, they found 153 Marines, 271 naval 
personnel, and 134 workers associated with the Pan American clipper 
station and some 20,000 Chamorros who were at that time under a status 
called United States nationals. All American military dependents had 
been evacuated from Guam in anticipation of the war, with the last ship 
having left on October 17, 1941, pursuant to an order of the Naval 
Governor Captain McMillan.
  The other vulnerable territory, the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, were 
similarly threatened by their proximity to Japanese forces. However, in 
that instance, the army evacuated all of the civilians off of the 
Aleutian inhabitants in anticipation of the Japanese invasion, thus 
sparing the people of the Aleutian Islands enemy occupation. So that it 
ended up that the Chamorros, the U.S. nationals in Guam, were alone 
among American civilian communities to withstand the onslaught of an 
enemy occupation.
  To demonstrate how Chamorros were treated distinctively, a handful of 
Chamorros from Guam who worked at the Pan American station in Wake 
Island were not evacuated. They were civilians, and these were people 
working for Pan American clipper station in Wake Island. They were not 
evacuated. Whereas, their counterparts, American U.S. citizens 
civilians, were.
  The end result was that this handful of Chamorro civilian and 
construction workers ended up fighting like Marines in the battle for 
Wake Island, and many of them died and were placed in prison camps. And 
after a long campaign, we were able to provide those Wake Island 
defenders with the benefits of veteran status as a result of their 
battle efforts at Wake Island during World War II.
  For the actual defense of Guam, it fell to the Guam Insular Guard and 
the Guam militia comprised of civilian reserve forces, along with a 
handful of Marines and sailors. The Japanese invasion force, numbering 
some 5,000, easily overwhelmed the American defenders. And ironically, 
the only ones who really fired any shots in anger with the Japanese 
were members of the Guam Insular Guard, who had set up a couple of 
machine gun nests in defense of the plaza and the governor's offices.
  The signal that the Japanese had used to indicate that they had now 
taken over the island was to lay an American flag on the grounds of the 
plaza. This was early in the morning, so the sun had not fully risen, 
and to flash flashlights over it to signal aircraft overhead.
  Throughout the ordeal of the occupation, the Chamorro people 
maintained their loyalty to America and their faith that American 
forces would soon return to liberate them. The resistance against the 
occupation manifested itself in many, many forms but none so powerful 
and costly as the effort to help American servicemen who had decided 
not to surrender.
  Along with their other fellow servicemen, seven U.S. sailors decided 
not to surrender and they were captured one by one. Each in turn was 
hunted down and killed by the Japanese occupiers.
  One fortunate sailor evaded capture throughout the entire 32 months 
of occupation with the assistance of the people at the cost of numerous 
beatings and even beheadings. The story of this one sailor, George 
Tweed, was made into a movie entitled No Man Is an Island.
  The actual liberation of Guam began on July 21, 1944, and was 
preceded by a serious bombardment which began in mid June. This was a 
time when they thought the invasion of Guam was going to be an 
immediate follow-up to the invasion of Saipan in June of 1944.
  After they began their preinvasion bombardment of the coast of Guam, 
they were called back only 2 hours

[[Page 15225]]

after the initiation of the bombardment because of the ferocity of the 
battle for Saipan. So the invasion was actually called off for a period 
of about 5 weeks.
  During the intervening 5 weeks following the original naval attack, 
the onslaught of cruelty endured by the Chamorros on Guam from their 
occupiers was incessant. This gave actually 5 weeks for Japanese forces 
to reinforce their position in full anticipation and, of course, gave 
them additional opportunity to mass the people on one side of the 
island. This increased brutality and intensity of the atrocities and 
marked the beginning of the end of the 2\1/2\ year enemy occupation.
  The invasion, dubbed Operation Forager was scheduled for July 21 and 
was preceded by a preinvasion bombardment lasting 13 days.
  Now, my colleagues have to understand that this was an island 212 
square miles, had a preinvasion bombardment lasting 13 days in large 
measure due to the experience of the battle of Saipan and the invasion 
of Normandy, there was a lot of rethinking about the nature of 
preinvasion bombardment.
  While this bombardment leveled most fortified structures in Guam, it 
also acted as a stimulus for further atrocities against the people of 
Guam. And as the bombardment continued, the Chamorros became more 
restless and the Japanese, realizing their ensuing fate, inflicted 
further brutality and mass slaughter against my people.
  The preinvasion bombardment had been preceded by numerous air raids 
beginning in February 1944, 5 months earlier. After the bombardment, 
underwater demolition teams, UDT teams, spent 4 days sweeping the 
shoreline, making the marine invasion possible. It is maybe perhaps an 
apocryphal story, but the Navy, the UDT, put a sign on Asan on the 
shore of Guam saying ``Welcome U.S. Marines'' signed ``U.S. Navy.''
  The U.S. Marines landed on the narrow beaches of Asan and Agat to 
crawl up their way to what is now known as Nimitz Hill. The men of the 
Third Marine Division were thrust wave after wave onto Asan Beach, 
already littered with Marines that had come before them. And once on 
the shore, the U.S. troops were in the heart of Japan's defense 
fortifications.
  This well-thought-out plan led to the heart of Japan's defense 
fortifications and into the heart of the defense fortifications 
climbing steep ridges.
  I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. William Rose, who came to our 
wreath laying in honor of the liberation of Guam last week, and he was 
a participant in this as a 16-year-old Marine. He was in an advanced 
team of Marines and he had lied his way into the Marine Corps. He had 
joined at the age of 14; and he went on to participate in Tarawa, Guam, 
and Iwo Jima, all as a 16-year-old.
  Simultaneously, the southern beaches of Guam were being braved by the 
First Marine Brigade. However, this less formidable, it is a lot 
flatter area, was quickly interrupted by the only Japanese counter 
attack of the day. It is also in those beaches that former Senator Hal 
Heflin was wounded as a Marine in Guam.
  The people of Guam are a resolute and tenacious people, as was proved 
over 56 years ago as they fought side by side with the Marine Corps 
participating as scouts, lookouts, and even forming little pockets of 
armed resistance to Japanese occupiers.
  The liberation of Guam is commemorated as a time of solemn memory and 
remembrance every year since World War II, because it is this special 
struggle of Americans liberating what must be seen as fellow Americans 
that serves as a reminder of the spirit of freedom and the high cost 
that must be paid to maintain it.

                              {time}  2045

  The Chamorro people suffered severe privations and cruel injustices 
under the 3-year occupation by the Japanese where hundreds lost their 
lives. Thus the mutual and sacrificial experience of Guam's liberation 
holds unique distinction in the hearts and souls of both the Marines 
and the soldiers of the 77th infantry, and their story is the story of 
liberators from without and liberators from within. One came down from 
the mountain while the others came from the shore and some came from 
places called Dededo and Agat and others, the ones coming in from the 
ocean, came from places like Brooklyn and Des Moines. This special kind 
of spirit in the liberation of Guam which was not seen in any other 
battle during World War II was very obvious in the 50th anniversary of 
the liberation of Guam in 1994 when so many thousands of veterans came 
back, still very tearful, still very appreciative and still very 
understanding of the unique nature of this battle.
  The importance of this particular battle for the war was very 
important to winning the war against Japan. The defeat of the forces on 
Saipan and Guam led to the fall of the Tojo government and the 
recognition in Japan that there was no doubt left about the outcome of 
the conflict with the United States. ``Hell is upon us,'' stated 
Admiral Nagano, supreme naval adviser to the Japanese Emperor, and 
indeed it was as the Marianas was used as the primary location for 
bombers to take off from airfields on Guam, Saipan and Tinian, Harmon, 
Andersen, North, Northwest Field, Isley Field, Kobler Field and other 
names, very familiar to the men of the Army Air Corps, including one of 
our own distinguished members here in the House, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Gilman), who participated in many bombing raids flying out of 
Guam, flying out of what was then North Field and now what is called 
Andersen Air Force Base.
  The importance of the Marianas as the islands from which to prosecute 
not only an air war against Japan but as the jumping off points for 
further landings in the Philippines and Okinawa and Iwo Jima became 
crucial to final victory. In effect, Apra Harbor on Guam became the 
forward naval base as Pearl Harbor was effectively moved 3,500 miles to 
the west. And in the words of the victory at sea treatment of the 
battle for Guam, it is said that Guam became the supermarket of the 
Pacific struggle after the recapture in July of 1944.
  From Guam, Admiral Nimitz set up his headquarters for the balance of 
the war. In the island-hopping strategy of the Pacific, the Marianas 
Islands were not to be leapfrogged since they were an integral part of 
Japan's defensive structure. The ferocity of the Marianas campaign was 
an indication of the blood that was to be shed in later campaigns. On 
Saipan, the Americans encountered a phenomenon that had never been 
encountered before but they would subsequently see in greater and 
greater numbers, the site of hundreds of Japanese soldiers and 
civilians committing suicide by jumping off of cliffs rather than 
surrendering. At places that are now called Suicide Cliff and Banzai 
Cliff on Saipan, American soldiers and Marines could only watch 
helplessly as civilian noncombatants chose death over surrendering to 
an enemy that they believed would commit atrocities against them. And 
while sporadic kamikaze raids had been encountered in some air battles, 
naval air battles, nothing could compare to the mass suicides that 
stunned the American forces.
  All of these factors weighed into the decision to avoid an invasion 
of Japan and the eventual use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and 
Nagasaki. Again as we all know the Marianas played a pivotal role in 
providing the airfield in Tinian where the bombers loaded with the 
world's first atomic bombs were launched.
  As I have indicated before, there is a special dimension to the 
battle for Guam which was not present in any other Pacific battle, 
indeed, any other battle during World War II. If you look at it 
historically, Guam was the only U.S. territory inhabited by civilians 
that had been invaded and occupied by an enemy power since the war of 
1812.
  This special relationship between the liberated and the liberators, 
the people who suffered and endured and the people who remained loyal 
and the people who came to liberate them and free them from their 
occupiers is really reflected in this very, very special portrait. This 
is a painting of a picture taken by a serviceman who stumbled

[[Page 15226]]

onto two young Chamorro boys and liberated them and these two young 
Chamorro boys have two flags that are basically replicas of what they 
think an American flag should look like. It was clear that when the 
servicemen first saw this and they first had the experience of this, it 
was reported that many battle-hardened American servicemen broke down 
at the sight of these people and sobbed at the sight of the children 
with the handmade American flags, imperfect in their design yet 
perfectly clear in what they were representing. This was these boys' 
presentation of that same flag which had earlier laid on the ground in 
Guam and which the Japanese commander waved the flashlight over as a 
sign of victory.
  The people of Guam had endured much during the occupation of their 
island. There was forced labor, particularly in the last few months as 
the Japanese hurriedly built defense fortifications and air strips on 
the labor of men and boys as young and 13 and 14. There was 
confiscation of food to feed the thousands of Japanese soldiers brought 
in from Manchuria as garrisoned troops to fight off the invasion. This 
led to some form of malnutrition affecting all of the population of 
Guam, especially the children. In a postwar study of the children of 
Guam, those who were born after the war were on the average two inches 
taller than those children who were born right at the beginning of the 
occupation or just before the occupation. Those who had grown to 
adolescence prior to the war were also taller than the children of the 
occupation.
  And there was the forced marches and eventual internment in camps 
near places called Maimai and Manengon. Manengon was where most of the 
people went and Manengon today still is a testimony to that. It has a 
river running through it, has lots of bamboo, lots of coconut palms, it 
is a very heavily wooded area. As people were marched, many were shot 
or bayonetted or executed or beaten for moving too fast or too slow as 
whole families, young and old, made their way in ox carts and carabao, 
water buffalos and just on foot and carrying each other. And in the 
camps, the people stayed for weeks with no food, waiting for their 
deliverance and hoping that the Japanese would not carry out the 
threats to kill them all which of course were numerous and in many 
instances the Japanese did try to carry out some of these threats.
  In this entire panorama of experience, there were naturally heroic 
stories and very dramatic tales. But most experienced the war as a time 
in which their families were put at risk. My parents lost three 
children during the war. Two were buried in areas that my mother can 
remember but which we cannot really find today. My elder brothers and 
sisters became so ill. One was so malnourished, the stomach walls 
almost became transparent. I am the only child in my family that was 
born after World War II. For most people, this was a very typical 
experience, a very common experience. For most Chamorros, the war 
challenged them in these very direct ways.
  There is an element to this story which does have a legislative end 
to it and which needs some resolution to it. A lot has been said about 
the sacrifices made by U.S. citizens and our allies during the war in 
the Pacific, World War II. The story that I just told about the people 
of Guam has not really been fully understood in the context of how, 
what do you do with the experiences of these people. The people of Guam 
at the time of the Japanese occupation were not U.S. citizens. They 
were in a category of people called U.S. nationals. That is to say, 
they were in political limbo, fully anticipating that one day they 
would become U.S. citizens. Because they were in this particular 
situation, in 1948 the U.S. Congress passed a law that compensated U.S. 
citizens for their experience during World War II, including forced 
labor and internment. The people of Guam were not included in that 
legislation because, A, they were not U.S. citizens at the time and 
there was a bill that Congress had passed in 1945 designed to give them 
property compensation but not compensation for the trials and 
tribulations. The way the law that was passed for Guam worked was that 
if you wanted to make a claim beyond $5,000, you had to personally come 
to Washington, D.C. and present your claim to a Navy committee with 
some congressional involvement. Of course, in 1945 most people on Guam 
were simply trying to piece their lives together, so not much happened. 
So what happened with most people in Guam is that the Navy officials 
who were adjudicating these claims on Guam would simply offer a dollar 
amount for an injury. In one instance, a real life example, a gentleman 
got $90 compensation for loss of his thumb. Another family got $300 
compensation for loss of their father. When the 1948 law was passed, it 
offered, of course, a whole range of different options and an unending 
time period in which to resolve these claims that would arise out of 
the activities of the Japanese government. At the time the theory was 
that the U.S. Government had confiscated much Japanese property, had 
frozen all Japanese assets. This was the pool of money through which 
people who suffered at the hands of the Japanese were going to be 
compensated. The people of Guam were not included in that legislation.
  In 1950, the people of Guam were declared U.S. citizens. A few months 
later, Japan and the United States signed a peace treaty which then 
stated that U.S. citizens could not file claims against Japan for the 
experience of the war. It was kind of a hold harmless which is very 
common in peace treaties. So here we have a situation where in a very 
literal sense, the people of Guam fell through the cracks on this war 
reparations effort. Because they were not U.S. citizens, they were not 
included in the 1948 law. Two years later they were declared U.S. 
citizens, a few months later they were not allowed to submit claims 
against Japan and they were still not included in the 1948 law. In 
1962, this law was then reamended in Congress, but at that time the 
people of Guam were still not included in the law. There was no 
representation of anyone from Guam in 1962 here in the House of 
Representatives. As a consequence, that effort did not include the 
people of Guam.
  So what I have done is there is a piece of legislation which has the 
support of members of the Committee on the Judiciary. I am proud to say 
that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) who is himself a veteran of 
the conflict in the Philippines fully understands and supports this 
effort. I am proud to say Daniel Inouye over in the Senate has a 
companion measure which is basically identical to the measure which has 
been reported out of the Committee on Resources, which is to create a 
commission to study the claims of the people of Guam, those who still 
remain of the original 20,000 who survived the occupation, probably 
less than 6 or 7,000 remain today as living embodiments of that 
experience, to study the claims and for the commission to make 
recommendations regarding that.
  I am hopeful that this legislation will see the light of day and that 
it will bring to light and bring honor and memory to the people who did 
suffer. Many names come to mind in this effort that we have undertaken 
and we have tried to move this legislation over many years. I cannot 
let this rest without again bringing honor to one individual in 
particular, a young lady at the time by the name of Beatrice Floris who 
later on married Mr. Emsley, Beatrice Floris Emsley who as a 13-year-
old survived an attempted beheading by Japanese soldiers. They 
attempted to behead her. She felt a thump, she was dumped into a 
shallow grave, left for dead for 2 days, finally dug her way out, it 
was a shallow grave so she could still breathe, and for the next 3 days 
kind of wandered aimlessly until American soldiers discovered her.

                              {time}  2100

  The interesting thing about Mrs. Emsley, and she was a great woman, 
is that she never liked to talk about this experience. Of course, it 
was a very painful experience. There are not very many people who would 
survive an attempted beheading. And if any of us have ever seen stories 
of these atrocities, that was a favored method of execution, simply a 
big Samurai sword

[[Page 15227]]

would come down and basically make a fatal cut in your neck, sometimes 
decapitating people right on the first stroke.
  This young lady at the age of 13 did not like to talk about it. I 
remember when I was in high school I used to see her, and we would 
always say, did you get to see Mrs. Emsley's scar? Sometimes young 
people, not being as sensitive as they should be, would take note of 
it.
  Mrs. Emsley proved to be the most courageous spokesperson for this 
generation of a very courageous people, because we would ask her to 
come to Congress to tell her story, and she would. She did so at great 
personal sacrifice and discomfort for herself, but her words were 
remarkably free of any bitterness.
  She never said anything that could be considered unkind. She never 
said a hostile word. She only recounted the experience and the 
brutality of the war and then made a special plea for recognition of 
the Chamorro people of Guam.
  The very first piece of legislation that I was able to pass as a 
Member of this body, and I did so with the assistance of the gentleman 
from Minnesota (Mr. Vento), at that time who was chair of the 
Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands, to him I owe a great 
debt for helping me with this, and Mrs. Emsley, was to construct a 
memorial wall of the War in the Pacific National Park.
  There is only one national park that is devoted to the attention to 
the war on the Pacific, and that happens to be in Guam. We did build a 
memorial wall listing all of the people, the soldiers and the Marines 
and servicemen, who died in the Liberation of Guam and the People of 
Guam who died and were injured and who were subjected to force labor 
interment.
  Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, Mrs. Emsley has since passed away. I 
cannot let any commemoration of the Liberation of Guam pass without 
drawing special attention to her courage and her dedication and her 
genuine humanity.
  Today, as we try to resolve these issues, it brings attention that 
Guam has a very important role, not only in World War II, but also 
today. And as Guam's Representative here in the House of 
Representatives, as a Member of the House Committee on Armed Services, 
I have frequently maintained and tell the message that the Euro-centric 
focus, much of our attention, not only economically but sometimes in 
terms of strategic vision, is an anachronistic vestige of a by-gone-
era.
  We often heard the cliche that the last 100 years was known as the 
American Century, and that the next 100 years will be known as the 
Pacific Century. After World War II, America's Asian presence was 
relegated to bases in Japan and the Philippines and the Pacific 
Islands.
  All of these things have happened since then, the Cold War and Guam's 
vital part in the Cold War, and also its part as a staging area again 
for the Korean conflict, as a major B-52 base for the Vietnam conflict, 
as a very important part of the network of basing and forward presence 
of the United States in Asia and being a part of the Cold War struggle; 
now we are beyond the Cold War, but the importance of Guam has, 
nevertheless, taken on new dimensions as we try to figure out what we 
are going to do in that part of the world.
  Guam is the only American territory on the other side of the dateline 
that has a $10 billion military infrastructure. It is the only place 
where American forces can operate with complete freedom and mobility 
without having to consult local authorities or foreign countries. It is 
the place which demonstrates and which continues to demonstrate that 
America is a Pacific power and an Asian power.
  As we contemplate what we are going to do in the 21st Century, and as 
we determine what is going to be our strategy on strategic vision in 
the 21st Century, and it would be, I think, simplistic to simply say 
that China has somehow replaced the Soviet Union, but we certainly need 
to consider what the challenge of China means to us as we consider all 
of those elements and all of the areas that could go wrong, that could 
provide serious involvement of American forces, whether it is things 
going wrong in Southeast Asia, as we look at what is going on in 
Indonesia, and the problems with the rebels in the Philippines and the 
disputes over the Spratlys or the issues that are pertaining to Taiwan 
and China, or the possibility of a Korean conflict on the Korean 
Peninsula, which hopefully will dissipate over time; all of that has 
Guam as a very important part of it.
  Even in a more peaceful scenario in the Pacific, if we pull out of 
Guam, if we pull back from Guam, we are really going to pull out of the 
eastern hemisphere. We are really going to have to pull back all the 
way to Hawaii, and that would basically mean that the United States is 
no longer an Asian power.
  In the early part of the 1990s, there was a lot of knee-jerking, I 
believe, in the military that tended to deemphasize the importance of 
Guam. The 
military until recently not only dramatically reduced their presence on 
Guam, but closed down a ship repair facility, forced thousands of loyal 
civil service workers to leave the island through very ill-advised 
commercial outsourcing studies. In order to balance this, we are happy 
to see that there is a new emphasis on East Asia.
  We on Guam recognize that we live in a very important neighborhood 
where global stability and economic growth will hinge upon the delicate 
regional interplay of security, trade and the peaceful resolution of 
grievances.
  The Pentagon's reexamination of the role of Guam within this is 
refreshing and prudent and necessary. What remains to be seen, however, 
is whether this renewed look will result in renewed commitment, and 
that is through budgetary support and concrete action. In any case, the 
people of Guam stand ready to join the military in a renewed 
partnership.
  July 21, the end of this week, will mark the 56th anniversary of the 
Liberation of Guam. In Guam, this is the single biggest holiday. Its 
recognition of the unique nature of the history of the island, 
commemorating not just the fact that the Marines and the soldiers 
conducted themselves in a heroic way to defeat what was ultimately a 
brutal, oppressive enemy, but it is also a commemoration of the fact 
that the Chamorro people were tested severely; they not only survived, 
but they proved that they could thrive under the most difficult 
circumstances.
  Mr. Speaker, in that interplay between the Chamorro capacity to 
survive and the Chamorro capacity to deal with adversity and the fact 
that the Americans did come back and the fact that the Chamorro people 
were themselves Americans, it is in that interplay that makes this 
particular commemoration, I think, unique amongst all the other 
commemorations of World War II and why it continues to have a very 
powerful hold upon the people of Guam.
  If one can understand the scene of Guam as in Washington, D.C. or 
anyplace else here, it is seen as a very isolated community, a very 
insulated community. All of my days as a child, I looked forward to 
Liberation Day. We had a great parade. We would see lots of recreations 
of the war experience. We would see a lot of military people parade up 
and down. We would see a lot of community floats, and there would just 
be a lot of spirit of contentment and commemoration mixed with 
happiness and laughing and also some serious reflection upon this.
  We also had at that time the Island's only successful carnival, 
islandwide carnival. It would be what would be seen here as a county 
fair atmosphere. All of those things together really cemented our 
understanding of what it means to be American.
  I have to say this with a very strong sense of pride in my people and 
the people that have brought me here to Washington, D.C. to represent 
them that they did something that is remarkable, is historical and 
stands as a great testimony to their potential, their loyalty, their 
devotion to duty and their commitment and their capacity to survive. As 
we deal with legislation here in the House, or as we deal

[[Page 15228]]

with what sometimes appears to be very mundane matters, when compared 
to the kinds of sacrifices and tribulations that we pay homage to, at a 
time when we reflect upon great conflagrations like World War II, it 
really is with a sense of awe and a sense of deep satisfaction that I 
am able to represent them.
  Later on this week, ironically, there will be a time to review the 
World War II memorial, which will be built here on the Mall. There is 
some level of controversy as to whether to build a memorial to World 
War II. There is some people who are saying that it is an intrusion on 
the Mall between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, and 
that somehow or another this will somehow change the nature of that.
  It is hard to believe and it is hard to imagine that there will be 
people actually opposed to a World War II memorial, only someone who is 
totally out of touch with historical reality would fail to understand 
what World War II means to the lives of everyone alive today in the 
world.
  I do want to point out that there was a particular dimension of the 
memorial, which was envisioned when the very first memorial was 
proposed for World War II, it had 50 pillars. I inquired of the people 
that were building the memorial. I said what did the 50 pillars stand 
for? They said they stand for each of the 50 States, and this is how we 
are going to commemorate World War II. I said where is the pillar for 
Guam? They said that is not a State. It is not part of the thinking 
that went into it.
  I was incredulous, because given just the remarkable story that I 
have told about the unique circumstance of the battle for Guam and the 
occupation and then the return of the Americans to Guam and all the 
unique Americans liberating, in effect, other Americans, that that 
story for this memorial was now not going to be included. So there 
proceeded a series of discussions over time.
  I pointed out to them your memorial is historically inaccurate. There 
were only 48 States at the time of World War II. So what does that mean 
for Alaska and Hawaii? You said you are not honoring territories, but 
Alaska and Hawaii were territories at the time.
  So after a series of discussions, we have now settled on 56 pillars. 
I am very happy to report that at least we had a little bit of a 
victory in getting people to understand the true impact of World War II 
and the true dimension of all the contributions of all of those people 
who live under the flag and who participated in a very direct way in 
World War II.

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