Guam, won in the Spanish-American War of 1898, before WWII.
Japanese militarists make their plans for the war, plans which include taking Guam.
The Japanese attack the island and land troops. Dec. 10, 1941.
The Japanese try to integrate Guam into their empire.
The children are taught Japanese.
1944. The Americans return and attack.
Saipan is also attacked along with Tinian.
A Japanese carrier force from the Philippines plans to crush the American landings.
Subs find the fleet. The Japanese pilots are young and not very experienced.
Thus starts the Marianas Turkey Shoot (the Battle of the Philippine Sea). Around 400 Japanese planes are shot down. 26 American planes are downed.
The U.S. also sinks three Japanese carriers and two tankers.
The Japanese resist. The Japanese die. 17,000 Japanese fall in the battle for Guam.
American soldiers help the civilian survivors. (There's a lot of good scenes here of soldiers giving medical help to the civilians.)
Houses are rebuilt.
Liberty has its price; freedom its cost.
The U.S. military also does a lot of construction.
The harbor is rebuilt at a cost of $280 million.
All this gives a person a really good idea of one of the major problems Japan ran up against. With the exception of people like Yamamoto, the Japanese leadership did not even begin to understand just how much stuff the U.S. could produce if it got made enough. Japanese soldiers ran short of food, ammunition and fuel, but these pictures in this video show the U.S. soldiers were supplied and resupplied from the power of American industry.
The bases on the islands also allowed the U.S. to begin using the B-29s to bomb Japan.
