I’m opposed to slavery reparations, so I was pretty sympathetic when I read Michelle Malkin’s post denouncing a new bill that would give reparations to Japan’s World War II victims in Guam. After all, if anyone should pay them reparations, Japan should. (Guam has been a US territory since 1898, and Japan invaded it during WWII.)
Here’s the bill.
However, there’s a major nuance here Malkin (and those she cites) misses. After World War II, the US government did more to help mainland US citizens than to help those residing in US territories. Guam was particularly hard hit — indeed, brutalized both by the Japanese invasion and the American recapture — and thus needed help as much as any area did.
The new bill implements the recommendations of the Guam War Claims Review Commission, and one advocate testifying before that commission said:
There has been some discussion on the directive to “determine whether there was parity of war claims paid to residents of Guam under the Guam Meritorious Claims Act as compared with awards made to other similarly affected United States citizens or nationals in territory occupied by the Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II”. This is the heart of the “fairness” issue and the sense among Guamanians that Guam has not been treated equally.
Here’s the commission’s report, which found the Japanese were “oppressive, cruel, and barbaric.” As for America’s postwar response, Guam was “one of the U.S. Navy’s first priorities” but:
[T]here was a lack of parity in some aspects of the process and the amounts made available for payment to the residents of Guam.
That doesn’t sound like a major injustice — certainly not compared to what Japan did — but it’s clear the US didn’t treat the territory as well as it did its own citizens.
We can debate how much the US owes residents of its territories, and we can ask how far into the past we should go to right wrongs. (In particular, it’s immoral to try to settle the scores of long-dead people by transferring wealth between live ones; that’s only one of my objections to slave reparations.) But it’s not fair to dismiss the issue out-of-hand, as if the US is being expected to atone for Japan’s sins. Rather, the bill gives money to people, many of whom are still alive, for a lack of parity in post-World War II aid.
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5 users commented in " The case for Guam reparations "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThe men of the 3rd Marine Division, the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, the 77th Infantry Division and the United States Navy paid everything the United States owes.
3000 service men died to free Guam. That is 1 service member for every 3 citizens of Guam. Reparations are to be paid (legally) to the individual(s)by the individual(s) who committed the crime. Should most of Europe get reparations from us for what Germany did? What about Poland for the acts of Russia? Maybe we owe the Carthaginians for what Rome did? Guam did not become any part of the U.S. until 1950. So if France joined the U.S., we now owe them money? So this is the Democrats plan for America? Can’t wait until they cry about a deficit again.
I heard about this new plan yesterday on the way home yesterday. I am completely opposed to this idea. America did not commit this crime, Japan did. Liberals are tearing this country apart and pursuing ideas, I have yet to understand. How about all the funding we send Guam each time it is hit by a typhoon and the lack accountability of the funds. Guam received millions of dollars in aid for previous hurricane disasters and the government still can not account for how that money was spent. The people of Guam receive all the benefits of US citizens and answer to their own laws and corrupt government.
When the US Navy offered to for half of the cost for a new water treatment facility, the offer was refused, because they wanted it paid in full and the Navy to install it for them.
Although, the people are friendly… For the most part they are lazy and want everything handed to them on a silver platter.
The US was dragged into WWII by the Japanese… We do not owe a people for saving them from slavery.
The United States had forgiven Japan and prevented any compensation
to be paid to the residents of Guam.
The U.S. acquired Guam from Spain in 1898, but did not give the residents of Guam
U.S. citizenship.
The U.S. new of the impending war with Japan, or attack and seizure of the island of Guam
by the Japanese, but chose to ignore it and remove all U.S. citizens from Guam and
the residents of Guam. The residents of Guam had to fend for themselves.
The U.S. should pay, and then collect from Japan.
Correction:
The U.S. did not evacuate the residents of Guam. Only
U.S. citizens were evacuated from the island of Guam.
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