Letters from Post World War II Reconstruction Guam.Pdf

Letters From Post-WWII Reconstruction Guam From the Papers of James and Erin Stewart Compiled by: James Murray Stewart, Jr., 2464 Shoreland Dr., Toledo, Ohio 43611 Alice Allen Stewart, 550 Harmon Loop, Homer, Louisiana 71040 Eliza Stewart Martin, 2049 Young St., Memphis, Tennessee 28104 October, 2011 This document contains excerpts from letters written by James Stewart, who worked with Government of Guam planning during the post-WWII reconstruction years 1948 through 1959, and by his wife, Erin Gary Stewart, both of whom were involved in civic activities during those years. Appendices include copies of items among the papers, including work-related documents and two of Erin’s informal writings about reconstruction Guam. The Stewart children compiled this document in 2011 to deliver to the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. Letters From Reconstruction Guam Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Page 1: About this document....................................................................................................................... 1 2: Brief background on Guam ......................................................................................................... 1 3: The letters ............................................................................................................................................ 3 LETTERS – SECTIONS 1: Before Guam ....................................................................................................................................... 5 2: Letters From 1948 Through 1953 ............................................................................................... 9 3: Letters From 1954 Through 1956 ............................................................................................. 55 4: Letters From 1957 Through 1959 ............................................................................................. 87 5: After Guam Years: 1960 On ...................................................................................................... 103 APPENDICES 1: Guam History ....................................................................................................................................... i 2: Documents A: JMS works and 10 Year Plan ........................................................................................... xi B: Guam Education ................................................................................................................. xxi C: Parks, Monuments, Museum .......................................................................................xxv D: Guam Symphony Orchestra ........................................................................................ xxxv E: Guam Women’s Club & Other Civic Involvements ......................................... xxxvii F: Medical ................................................................................................................................. xxxix G: Miscellaneous ...................................................................................................................... lix 3: Hand-Written Letters .................................................................................................................. lxiii 4: EGS Writings ...................................................................................................................................lxvii 5: Guam Elementary Textbook .................................................................................................. lxxvii Post Script: Alice Stewart’s Impressions of the Guam Years & Maps Letters From Reconstruction Guam 1 INTRODUCTION I. ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT James Stewart (1915-2008) worked with Government of Guam planning during the post-WWII reconstruction years 1948 through 1959. He and Erin Stewart (1917-1987) were involved in civic activities during those years. This document begins with a collection of excerpts from reconstruction era letters among the papers of James and Erin Stewart. Appendices include copies of original documents among the papers. In Appendix 1 are papers on Guam history. In Appendix 2 are drafts, letters of invitation, clippings, and other items. In Appendix 3 are several hand-written letters. In Appendix 4 are two of Erin Stewart’s informal writings about reconstruction Guam. Appendix 5 is an elementary school text book discovered among the papers, with the hand-written name “Maria Francisco” on the front. Maria Francisco was our neighbor on Guam. Pictures are copies of photographs among the papers, except for a few, the sources of which are noted. This document is written for our family and for students of Guam’s post-WWII era. Its purpose is to inform about events and to communicate some of the ambience of that era. Murray Stewart’s anticipated visit to Guam this year offers an opportunity to deliver these documents and this paper to the Richard Flores Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. II. BRIEF BACKGROUND ON GUAM Sources. We who compiled the letters are not formal students of Guam history, so we have chosen to rely for this background on documents in the Stewarts’ papers, which are listed as references on page 3. Some references are from the time of our parents’ stay on Guam, and some are earlier. More recent referenced documents that were discovered among the papers lend a retrospective glimpse of the reconstruction days. Geography, Geology, Population, Climate. Located about 5100 miles west southwest of San Francisco and 1500 miles east of Manila, Guam (Guahan1) is the largest and southernmost of 17 Mariana islands. Its capital is Hagadña (Chamorro name that, in 1998, officially replaced “Agaña”, the name used during Stewart years on Guam). James and Erin Stewart’s letters mention Saipan, Tinian, and Rota in the northern Marianas, also Wake, Palau, Ponape (Pohnpei), Yap, and Truk among other Micronesian islands, of which the Marianas are a part. The letters refer also to the “Trust Territory”, a former United Nations trusteeship that included Micronesia except for Guam. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was administered by the U.S. Navy from Guam until 1951, after which the U.S. Dept. of Interior administered it from Saipan. Guam covers approximately 225 square miles, about one-sixth the size of Rhode Island. Thirty miles long, 8 miles at its widest, and 4 ½ miles wide at its middle, Guam is shaped like a “footprint — heel north- northeast and the toe south-southwest.” 1 Geologists consider the island “a mountain top on the crest of a large wrinkle in the earth’s crust” 3 (see Google map of ocean floor topography at end of this book). The more populous northern and central Guam is a volcanic rock plateau, covered with coral and limestone, only a few hundred feet above sea level. Mt. Lamlam, Guam’s highest peak at 1334 feet, is located in the mountainous southern half of the island, also of volcanic origin. The island is encircled by a coral reef. The population of pre-European Guam is described as perhaps tens of thousands. A 1903 census reports 9,676 indigenous residents.1 In 1960, the population was about 30,000 indigenous and 30,000 transient.3 By 1990, the population had increased to about 25,000 service personnel and dependents and 100,000 residents.5 Letters From Reconstruction Guam 2 Guam’s humid, tropical climate has little seasonal temperature variation. The mean high is 86° F and mean low is 76° F. Average annual rainfall is 96 inches. Typhoons may occur any time but are most common toward the end of the rainy season (July through November). Several super typhoons occurred after the Stewarts’ stay on Guam, with wind gusts reported to have exceeded 200 miles per hour. History. The Chamorros, a sea-faring people, are thought to have first populated Guam as long as 4,000 years ago. A 1948 elementary school textbook2 reports that historians speculate their origin as 1) the Malay Peninsula, because of similarities in (Austronesian) language, or 2) Patagonia (from a Magellan term, a region located in Argentina and Chile), because of similarities in culture and arts as well as ocean currents favorable to a canoe voyage. Authorities point to linguistic and archaeological evidence of the former. Ferdinand Magellan landed on Guam in 1521, the first European on record to do so. Spain established the first colony in 1668 and controlled Guam, sometimes brutally, until 1898, when Guam was surrendered to the United States following the Spanish-American War. William Safford, in recording the Spanish occupation, begins one chapter “Conquest of the Natives”.1 Guam was captured by the Japanese on December 8, 1941, hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and was occupied, often brutally, for two and a half years. After 18 days of fierce fighting, U.S. troops recaptured the island. The beginning of this Battle of Guam, July 21, 1944, is commemorated every year as Liberation Day. The road toward self- determination lay ahead. The U.S. Navy administered immediate post-war Guam affairs. A major early step toward self-rule was the Guam Organic Act of 1950, which established Guam as an unincorporated organized territory of the United States, provided for the structure of the island's civilian government, and granted the people U.S. citizenship. Until 1968, the legislature was civilian but the Governor was appointed by the U.S. President. Today, Guam is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Steps toward self-determination and economic

Load more