Play as · WW2 1939 · L1 · US Territory · About to Be Invaded

Guam - 1939

Guam in 1939 is the United States unincorporated territory in the Western Pacific - under US administration since the 1898 Spanish-American War transferred sovereignty from Spain through the Treaty of Paris, with the post-1898 institutional architecture having been institutionalized through the substantial US Navy-administrative framework (the Governor of Guam was a US Navy officer until the 1950 transfer to Department of the Interior administration). Population about 22,000 (substantially indigenous Chamorro population alongside the small US administrative-and-military community). The strategic identity is the US Western Pacific unincorporated territory with the substantial post-1898 US Navy-administrative-and-strategic positioning, the looming December 8-10, 1941 Japanese invasion (the post-Pearl-Harbor invasion that will take Guam in just two days against the substantially-outnumbered US-and-Chamorro defenders), the brutal 31-month Japanese occupation that will follow (the substantial Chamorro-population mistreatment, forced labor, and broader occupation-period suffering), and the substantial August 21, 1944 US recapture (the substantial US Marine Corps and US Army assault that produced the principal Mariana Islands campaign result).

Starting position

Guam's defense-architecture in 1939 includes about 700 US-and-indigenous personnel - the small US Navy-administrative force, the substantial Insular Force Guard (Chamorro-recruited territorial-defense formation), and the limited US Marine Corps detachment at Sumay. Equipment is substantially below the level required for the eventual Japanese invasion - the substantial pre-war US Pacific-strategic-resource limitations and the broader US Pacific Strategic-positioning prioritization toward the Philippines and Hawaii had compressed the substantial Guam-investment that the looming threat would have required. The substantial pre-1941 US Navy investments at Apra Harbor and the broader Naval Air Station Sumay had been continuously-modest. The looming December 8, 1941 Japanese invasion - by the South Seas Detached Force from the Bonins - will take Guam in just two days (December 8-10, 1941), with the substantial Chamorro-population civilian-suffering through the subsequent 31-month occupation.

What turns the campaign

What Guam in 1939 wants is the US territorial-administrative framework preserved through the looming wartime period, the substantial pre-war US Navy-strategic positioning preserved at the operational scale the looming Pacific-strategic-confrontation will require, the indigenous Chamorro population political-cultural framework preserved through the substantial wartime-environment disruption, and the broader US Western Pacific-strategic positioning maintained against the substantial Japanese-aligned challenge. What Guam fears is exactly the historical answer - the December 8, 1941 Japanese invasion (the post-Pearl-Harbor sequence that produced the simultaneous attacks across the broader Pacific theater) takes Guam in two days against the substantially-outnumbered defenders, the brutal 31-month Japanese occupation produces the substantial Chamorro-population suffering and forced labor, and the eventual August 1944 US recapture (the substantial Marine Corps and Army assault that the broader Mariana Islands campaign required) will substantially-damage the territorial infrastructure that the post-1944 reconstruction will require.

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