Guam wants the United States to pay millions of dollars in reparations for the brutal Japanese occupation of the Pacific island during World War II, a debt the U.S. government forgave in 1951 for diplomatic reasons.
"Although we feel that a moral obligation" falls on Japan, "we cannot seek justice from the Japanese," said Joseph F. Ada, governor of the U.S. territory located only 1,150 miles from Tokyo.From 1941-44, Guam suffered through some of the most brutal treatment ever inflicted on an American community. Survivors recall massacres, beatings, forced labor and other horrors.
But the United States "most unfortunately gave away our right to reparation from the Japanese in its 1951 peace treaty with Japan . . . without anybody once asking our people," according to Ada.
The Bush administration opposes reparations, saying the U.S. government spent $8 million immediately after the war on 4,200 death, personal injury and property damage claims.
"There is no reason for the American taxpayers to pay further compensation for World War II claims arising from enemy action," said Larry L. Morgan of the Interior Department, which in 1950 took over responsibility for Guam from the Navy.
A Guam Reparations Commission appointed this year asked for compensation totaling $160 million to include payments for deaths, injuries, forced labor, forced marches or internment.
The waiver of Japanese reparations, granted early in the Korean War, "was a policy decision of the United States to conclude a quick treaty with Japan . . . to turn Japan into a valuable Asian ally and a bulwark against communist expansion," Ada said.
Ada appeared last month at a hearing on Guam war reparations legislation introduced by Ben Blaz, Guam's non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. The measure faces more hearings and a possible committee vote later this year.
The island of 212 square miles remains a key U.S. Pacific military base.
Japanese still invade Guam, but this time as tourists boosting the island's main civilian industry, accounting for most of the 500,000 annual visitors to Guam's beaches.
Blaz and Ada say the new payments are justified in light of $67 million paid in Micronesian war claims and the $20,000 authorized by Congress for each Japanese-American interned during World War II.