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@ Onigirl
2024-06-07 11:14:17
The Chamorros: People of my island
They islanders for centuries took care of the island. They fished, farmed, hunted, voyaged, made tools, art, had stories, had marriages within clans. Then, the Spanish came. When they first came, the Chamorros boarded their boat to greet the weird people(I'm sure they thought they were weird too). It started peaceful until the Spaniards coffer's slowly dried up. This led to the occupation of the island and grew oppressive. Eventually, The Spanish lost the war to the Americans. Guam was then sold to the American gov't as spoils of war, trading one oppressive regime for another.
The TakeOver Process-1
The TakeOver Process-2
The TakeOver Process-3
Get a job, you lazy islanders. We need to tax you, come work for us. This was the price to become American to the indigenous islanders.
Then the war came.
close up
Guam was hit first before Pearl Harbor(The international Date line puts Guam timezone first ahead) but after this, The Japanese invaded and then occupied the island. **Note at the bottom**, The American Naval governor surrendered. This led to the islanders thus to become slaves to the Japanese Empire.
Recall "Day of Infamy" by FDR
Life under Japanese Rule
**Note** Northern Marianas islands are the smaller islands above Guam. See the next image below.
Map of the island geography.
Guam is referred as NYC in the Marianas. The rest are really, really small.
Nearly 16k of indigenous islander died, by the end of the war less than 6kish Chamorro survived.
The Federal Government then claimed parts of the land and since then and haven't returned it. They've returned some of it. This was a long time ago, I think it's time to let it go. Some islanders demand war repatriations. It makes zero sense to demand money from future Americans to pay for those war repatriations. The enemy is not the people, it's those that wield the pen to create unreasonable bills and the ones that enforce it.
Final Words.
The islanders lived peaceful. There was no room to be a bad person of the colony because that person was risked getting shunned. Often, they sent the bad natives (thus becoming 2nd class citizens) inland, barring them from getting access to the ocean. But the land is rich and fertile. Instead of saltwater fish, they had fresh water 🐟fish, 🐍eel, 🦐shrimp and 🦞crawfish and plenty of fruit to eat and farm.
They didn't ask to become Spanish or American. It was this way or the highway. When countries want to expand they need more territories, land, money and human capital(your life energy). History doesn't repeat, it just rhymes.
🦋The best way to combat this is go back to a similar economy that is less corruptible. I believe Bitcoin can do this. History gives clues. Don't trust, verify.
Thank you for joining me on this walk (lol, reading) through the museum, please comment if you enjoyed this.