Rep Lieu to MTG: Guam Representative San Nicolas votes in House Committees, something you cannot do.

[riversedge]

whow. grand smack down after he corrected her history mistake.



Dear Rep @mtgreenee
: Guam is a US territory, not a foreign country. I served on active duty at Andersen AFB, the only base in the Western Pacific that can permanently service US bombers.

Oh, and Guam Representative San Nicolas votes in House Committees, something you cannot do.

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[madaboutharry]

1. You learn this in middle school.

The University of Georgia should ask for its degree back.

[riversedge]

2. I was trying to think of when --what grade we probably learned the states and territories. Probably

early middle school IMHO or maybe 4th grade. One of those memory games I think.

[madaboutharry]

3. I seem to remember 6th grade when we learned about all the territories

and their political systems.

[riversedge]

4. early or mid middle school for sure. settled. te he.

[modrepub]

5. Guam Was the Last US Territory To Be Occupied By A Foreign Power (Japan)

So were the Philippines, but they are an independent country now.

Father's side of the family was on the island when Japanese troops occupied the island. The Japanese attacked several US territorial possessions in the Pacific on the same day they attacked Pearl Harbor. Most of the American troops on the island were slowly withdrawn before the attack since the US military knew that an invasion was imminent. At the time of the attack I think there were only several hundred troops on the island supplemented with a couple hundred newly raised native units and one converted ship (which the Japanese sunk almost immediately). The island surrendered a day or so after the original attack and all military prisoners were transferred to the Philippines.

The Chamorro people (Guam natives) were considered "liberated" by the Japanese. They were forbidden to speak their language in front of the Japanese soldiers and their children were taught Japanese and Japanese culture when schools reopened. My grandfather and uncle, who was about 12 at the time were forced labor by the Japanese during the occupation. My uncle was tall for his age and the Japanese mistook him for someone much older. He spent the first night laying in a bomb creater on the beach crying for his mother. He told his children he was assigned a job to shine a Japanese general. He was late one day and fearful the general would punish his family for his transgression. In his haste to get to the barracks he stumbled into a pit filled with severed body parts of people the Japanese had killed.

My grandparents never talked about the Japanese occupation. When my cousins asked my grandmother about the Japanese all she said was the Japanese navy was OK. The Japanese navy was the original strike force and were replaced by army personnel who were notoriously cruel. My step mom told me that my aunt had her hair cropped short during the occupation because she was a blond and the Japanese soldiers had a thing for blonde girls. My father never told me that. The only thing he said was that he remembers the US Marines and Navy bombing the Japanese positions in 44 (he was almost 4 when the occupation ended). Guam still celebrates Liberation Day on July 21st to mark the end of a dark part of their history.

There was a reparation bill in Congress to compensate those on Guam who were involved in the Japanese forced labor. It was never passed and probably never will be; my grandfather passed in the early 80s and my uncle about 10 years ago.

What's amazing to me is that in the early 1970s a Japanese soldier was caught stealing shrimp from a Chamorro fish trap. He had refused to surrender in 44 and he and a few other Japanese solders hid for almost 3 decades to avoid the shame of capture; he was the last holdout. Despite all the bad things the Japanese had done to them the native population fed him and took care of him and he eventually returned to Japan. He returned to Guam several times before his death and received a cordial welcome despite the attrocities the Japanese army for which he served inflicted on the local population.