When the Attorney General of the United States was asked for an opinion on the political status of America’s new territories, he stated:
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“The political status of these islands [Guam and Tutuila] is anomalous. Neither the Constitution nor the laws of the United States have been extended to them and the only administrative authority existing in them is that derived mediately or immediately from the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” (Leibowitz, 1989, p. 329) Thus, the Mariana Islands and the people living there were politically partitioned between the US Territory of Guam and the German Northern Mariana District of German New Guinea. Although Guam Chamorros attempted to form a local government for the Marianas, President McKinley designated a US Naval Officer to become Commander, Naval Station, Guam, and Naval Governor of Guam. Captain Richard Phillips Leary arrived at Guam on August 10, 1899, with two companies of US Marines to establish and maintain order on Naval Station, Guam, which suddenly comprised not just a coaling station at Apra Harbor, but the entire island (Farrell, 1986, p.82). Some 10,000 Guam Chamorros began studying the English language and Navy law, while the Northern Marianas Chamorros and Carolinians began studying the German language and German law.
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World War I: An Opportunity for Reunification The lackluster German administration of the Northern Marianas was cut short by World War I. When England declared war on Germany in 1914 and requested its ally Japan to use its navy against German shipping and military outposts in the Pacific, Japan saw an opportunity to vastly expand its Pacific empire at little cost. The Japanese Imperial Navy quickly captured not only the German naval base at Tsingtao, China (now Kiautschou Bay), but also the German Mariana and Caroline islands. All German citizens were gathered and deported to prisoner-of-war camps in Japan. The Northern Marianas Chamorros and Carolinians quickly found themselves studying the Japanese language and law.
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Suddenly, just as Commander Bradford and Senator Lodge had feared in 1898, a commercial rival had gained control of Micronesia in 1914, surrounding Guam and crossing America’s lines of communications to the Philippines Territory. All was not necessarily lost, though. Japan announced that its intentions were perfectly honorable and in keeping with its alliance with Great Britain. Japanese Prime Minister Count Shigenobu Okuma addressed a telegram to The Independent stating, as premier, that Japan had “no desire to secure more territory, no thought of
420 ! ・ 2nd Marianas History Conference 2013