Introduction, Handbook TTPI 1948
Background
"Introduction" is a section from the Handbook of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1948, published by the United States Navy. It provides general background on the history, context and importance of then-ongoing US efforts in the formerly Japanese controlled Islands of Micronesia.
Introduction
To the United States, the primary significance of the islands is their obvious role in relation to security of its western borders. This was made clear when Japan attempted to make their harbors and airfields a springboard for attack upon the Western Hemisphere. American lives and wealth had been expended prodigally to counter this move, and the costly campaigns which brought to the fore such names as Kwajalein, Peleliu, and Saipan are now a vital memory in United States history.
Following the occupation of the islands, the territory was held by United States forces under the laws of belligerent occupation. On 17 February 1947 the United States Government proposed to the United Nations that the islands be placed under American control as a “strategic” trusteeship, in accordance with the terms of the United Nations Charter. After favorable action by the United Nations Security Council and the United States Senate, the trust territory came into existence on 18 July 1947. Administration of the islands has been, from the first, the responsibility of the Navy, under military government. By Executive Order 9875 of 18 July, 1947 the responsibility for the civil administration of the trust territory was delegated to the Navy on an interim basis pending the enactment by the Congress of organic legislation for the area.
Though the security factor has been to the fore, the United States in acquiring the islands has also assumed responsibility for the welfare of the approximately 50,000 brown-skinned islanders who live on them. These islanders have in the past borne the brunt of a whole succession of what to them are alien regimes, Spanish, German, and Japanese (both military and civilian), and are now in process of adjusting to their new American rulers. The shock and destruction of the war period affected severely many of their scattered communities. The incoming American forces were accompanied by trained military government personnel of the Navy specifically charged with the tasks of providing for their safety and for relief and rehabilitation.
The islanders were generally not classified as enemy nationals. Military government policies and activities were based on the de facto assumption that they were liberated peoples. With the repatriation to Japan of the surrendered Japanese, completed officially by 1 May 1947, the Navy military government authorities did what they could under the short-term nature of their mandate to lay the foundations of a new administration conforming to standards of trusteeship and welfare. Now, with the new trust arrangement confirmed, the civil administration which has replaced the interim military government is able to work with the islanders in longer range development.
Though numerically the islanders are not a large group, their problems of economic security, health, education, and progress in self-government are complex and difficult of solution. They represent an important responsibility which the United States has assumed, along with the benefits it derives from the territory from the security aspect. The sections of the handbook which follow are concerned primarily with analysis of these administrative problems, and of what American authorities is doing and have planned to date.
Relatively little will be said here about Guam. Though this island has served as the administrative center since the war, and is located within the geographic boundaries of the trust territory, it is a separate, outright possession of the United States. Guam was acquired by the Treaty of Paris in 1898 at the termination of the Spanish-American War. At present being built up as a major forward military base in the western Pacific, it has inevitably been the hub of this island area in administrative and commercial as well as military terms. The role of Guam within the governmental structure, together with the chains of civil and military control, is analyzed fully in later pages.
American Samoa, another United States island possession in the Pacific Ocean area, has no direct administrative relation to the trust territory. Samoa lies approximately 2,300 miles to the southeast of Guam. It was acquired by the United States in 1900, and is also administered by the United States Navy. Occasional comparative references will be made to Samoa in this handbook.
The administration of the Bonin and Volcano Islands, which were captured by United States forces during the war, is a function of military government under the military governor, Pacific Ocean area who administers them through Commander Marianas. However, the staff of the Deputy High Commissioner of the trust territory of the Pacific Ocean whose primary function is the civil administration of the trust territory, have collateral duties on the staff, Commander Marianas for the military government of the Bonin and Volcano Islands, and thus have a dual responsibility. Administration on the district level is carried out by the Governor of the Northern Marianas Islands, through the civil administrator at Saipan. These small islands, which were a sovereign possession of Japan, were not a part of the Japanese mandate system, and are consequently not included in the trust territory.
