Liberation Day!

On July 21, 1944, after several days of US Naval bombardment to soften up the Japanese defenses, the United States returned to Guam and began its liberation of the island.  On the west coast of Guam the 3rd Marine Division landed on Asan Beach, while the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade landed in Agat.  The distance between the two was only seven miles, but in between these two landings was Orote Peninsula where the harbor and airstrip were, and the village of Sumay.  Find more details of the invasion landing at: http://olivedrab.com/od_history_ww2_ops_battles_1944marianas_guam.php. 


US Naval Base Guam now occupies what was once Sumay, but 68 years later, evidence of the war remains on Orote Peninsula and throughout the island.  A series of Japanese defense caves can still be seen bored into the limestone near Apra Harbor on US Naval Base Guam.  These caves have since been closed up, but the openings are still very visible.  

Japanese defense caves in the former village of Sumay.

Along the harbor at San Luis Beach are the charred and rusted remains of the Japanese fuel piers, and in Apra harbor itself is the wreck of a Japanese seaplane, as well as the wreck of the Tokai Maru.  The Tokai Maru came to rest beside another world war wreck, this one from World War I, the German ship SMS Cormoran.

What remains of Japanese fuel piers in Apra Harbor.

From the top of Nimitz Hill there is a breath-taking view of Asan Beach. Imagine what it must have been like to have had this view of the 3rd Marine landing!  Imagine what it must have been like to look up the steep, and in some cases, sheer cliff walls, knowing that your enemy was well entrenched above and the objective was to take those heights as quickly as possible!

View of Asan Beach from the overlook on Nimitz Hill, June 2011.

View from the War in the Pacific National Park, Asan Beach, looking up at the heights above.  
Memorial Day, May 27, 2012.

Other WWII historical sites include the South Pacific Memorial Peace Park in the village of Yigo.  Down the slopes to the right of the Peace Park is the cave where Lt. General Hideyoshi Obata, commander of the 31st Division, committed suicide on August 11, 1944.  There is also the War in the Pacific Museum just outside the gate of US Navy Base Guam that has a fascinating display of World War II and Guam, and well worth the time to visit.  There are the bomb holes in the shoreline of the village of Piti, the Japanese coastal defense guns on static display in the village of Agat, to name a few.

South Pacific Memorial Peace Park, Yigo Guam

Memorial sign for Lt. General Hideyoshi Obata.

Cave where Lt. General Obata committed suicide.

There are the Chamorro massacre sites at Tinta and Faha Caves, at the caves near Fena Lake, Manneggon, and the Chagui'an massacre site nearby the South Pacific Memorial Peace Park in Yigo, places where Guam remembers those who suffered the greatest atrocities.

It is interesting, and makes you stop and ponder with awe the terrible events that took place on this island, those who fought to the death to hold it, those who gave the last full measure of devotion to reclaim it, those innocents who died and the ones who survived to carry on to help rebuild their island while carrying the physical and emotional scars from their terrible ordeal for the rest of their lives.

Since the invasion, Guam takes time every year to mark Liberation Day with a parade here on the island, and wherever Guamanians are around the world it is a day of celebration and remembrance.