Word: guam
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Guam. More than halfway across the Pacific, over 8,000 miles from Washington D. C., 1,400 miles from Tokyo, the island of Guam lies midway in the passage to India. About 50 miles away, visible on a clear day, lies the mysterious, Japanese-controlled island of Rota that Pan American clippers are forbidden to fly over. Guam's 20,000 natives raise vegetables, do little work to keep alive. Its tiny U. S. naval establishment keeps the nine towns clean and healthy, and ponders the strange ways of the U. S. Congress...
...years ago, a $52,000,000 naval authorization bill introduced in the House contained an item of $5,000,000 for harbor improvements at Guam. For three days Congressmen raged against this item. Their theme: the appropriation might offend Japan, cause war. The debate began on the eve of Washington's Birthday; speaker after speaker summoned the shade of the Father of his Country, keened over the insult to Japan (though amused Japanese politely protested that the U. S. had a perfect right to improve its own property), and the item was stricken from the bill...
Last week, in a bigger naval authorization bill, there was an item of $4,700,000 -principally bombproofing and dredging of the harbor-for Guam.* This time there was no such debate, no such delay. Pennsylvania's Charles Faddis down-with-Japanned; Representatives who had fought improvements for Guam two years ago now paid their respects to the "contemptible, squint-eyed sons of the Rising Sun." The authorization went through by acclamation, with one lone Nay registered against it: the methodical, dutiful Nay of New York's left-wing Vito Marcantonio, who has voted against almost every bill...
...vote on improvements for Guam meant little change in the U. S. defense line-up in the East-but it proved that Japanese could no longer count on a divided U. S. Positively, the U. S. had not accepted old Walt Whitman's vision. But negatively it had served notice that it would not let the passage to India be closed without a fight...
...Japanese, who had started the scare, were dismayed at the length it had gone. To their protestations of peaceful intentions U. S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles coldly replied that the U. S. was interested in deeds, not words, and Congress voted an appropriation to fortify Samoa and Guam. At this point Ko Ishii bustled into his press conference and suggested that the U. S. restrict its activities to the Western Hemisphere. Then...