Guam’s wartime loyalty was answered with continued U.S. military rule rather than citizenship

Evidence

Chamorros on Guam expected their bravery and loyalty during the war at least to be rewarded with citizenship and self-rule. The Navy thought otherwise. Adding insult to an array of injuries, it reestablished military rule, and Chamorros had to struggle for years to win U.S. citizenship. Only when State Department officials grew concerned that the policy was creating “an island of anti-American radicals,” and there were widespread acts of civil disobedience and threats of a general strike, did the Truman administration authorize the control over Guam to be transferred from the Navy to the Department of the Interior. In 1950, Guam became an “unincorporated territory,” giving the island limited rights to self-governance. The U.S. Congress maintained ultimate control. To this day, Guam remains one of just seventeen non-self-governing territories in the world, as tracked by the UN. (Others on the list include American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with territories like French Polynesia and Gibraltar.) In the words of the Department of the Interior, Guam became an “area in which the United States Congress has determined that only selected parts of the United States Constitution apply.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 242

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader thesis that base land acquisition historically involved colonial and military domination of indigenous populations — parallels the Philippines and Okinawa narratives.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 242