War in the Pacific War in the Pacific National Historic Park An Administrative History

Introduction

The superintendencies of Edward E. Wood, Jr. (July 1991 to August 1998) and Karen Gustin (1998-2001) was a decade remembered for its special historic events, both planned and unplanned. Planning for the fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the Pacific, typhoon Omar struck the island in 1992 and in December 1997 Super Typhoon Paka wreaked havoc on the island -- it was the worst typhoon in Guam's recorded meteorological history. In August 1998, the park celebrated its twentieth anniversary, that year, the entire island of Guam and War in the Pacific National Park welcomed President Bill Clinton. Also in 1998, Superintendent Ed Wood left the superintendency, and Karen Gustin, the park's first female superintendent arrived shortly thereafter.

Park Staff

As in past years, War in the Pacific National Historical Park continued to be understaffed in the 1990s. In 1993, War in the Pacific National Historic Park had six permanent employees. A 103^rd Congress briefing statement dated January 1993 noted that "a need for an additional ten permanent employees to meet the minimum requirements." [441] The park gained an additional employee around the time of the World War II fiftieth anniversary celebrations. By the end of the 1990s, the park claimed seven permanent staff: the superintendent, three ranger/interpretive staff, and three Maintenance Division staff. [See Appendix 9 for the 1997 C-MAP and CR-MAP FTE calculations.]

Edward E. Wood, Jr., became the park's third superintendent. He was assigned Acting Superintendent in August 1991, about a month after Superintendent Reyes retired from the Park Service. Wood was no stranger to the park. He had worked for seven months, between November 1985 and May 1986, as ranger/interpretive specialist at the park while Chief Ranger Jim Miculka was away on an educational leave. Wood also had worked at the American Memorial Park on Saipan, serving as ranger-in-charge since January 1989. During that time, he had participated in the dive team activities.

Edward Wood began his association with the National Park Service in 1972. After graduating from the University of New Mexico in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and working as a research technician for Lovelace Foundation, then a veterinary medicine laboratory in Albuquerque for two years, Wood was employed as a park ranger in September 1972. Over the next thirteen years, Wood broadened his ranger experience while pursuing various assignments: law enforcement, interpretation, district ranger, division chief, and resource manager. His NPS assignments were at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Site in St. Louis, Everglades National Park in Florida, Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, and Lehman Caves National Monument. In 1985, Ed Wood began training designed to prepare him for a park superintendency at the Western Regional Office (then in San Francisco), in the Washington, DC office, and in three different California parks where he "shadowed" the superintendents. In November 1985, he went to Guam for the first time, where he served as acting interpretive specialist until May 1986. He left the Marianas for two and one-half years to serve as Visitor Center Supervisor for Grand Canyon National Park before taking up the position of Ranger-In-Charge at American Memorial Park on Saipan until July 1991.

He guided the park through the busy years of World War II fiftieth anniversary celebrations from 1991 through 1994. Wood served as first acting, then permanent superintendent for seven years, until August 1998, when he transferred to Arkansas Post National Memorial. He returned to Guam briefly in September to close out the fiscal year. [442]

Sarah Cramer worked as an administrative assistant through much of Wood's superintendency. She first worked as a clerk typist, then, under the Administrative Careers Program, was promoted to Administrative Officer in the mid-1990s. In July 1993, Cramer worked with the Office of Guam's Delegate to Congress and the fiftieth anniversary "Golden Salute" steering committee to coordinate the grand opening of the Asan Bay Overlook. Two years later, Cramer was promoted to administrative officer, the first to hold this position in the park's history. She remained in that position until October 1998, when she left the park around the time that Superintendent Wood left. [443]

During Superintendent Edward Wood's tenure, permanent and seasonal park positions were overwhelming filled by local Guam residents. In 1994, five positions were advertised and three were filled by local hires. Two years later, six park positions were taken by five park positions were filled by local residents. [444]

Figure 10-1. War in the Pacific park staff, 1996-1998. Front, left to right: Superintendent Karen Gustin, Park Ranger Michael Tajalle, Administrative Clerk Tina Borja, park volunteer Felicia Gutierrez, Rita and Jim Powell of the Maintenance Division, and museum curator Steve Keane. Rear, from left to right: Christine DeLury, Regional Manager of the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, Ranger in Charge Chuck Sayon, Chief of Interpretation Rose Manibusan, Administrative Officer Mary Mesa, Collen Wilson, Administrative Support Clerk Angela Wise, Temporary Administrative Clerk Beth Fejerang, and Facility Manager Ron Wilson. Source: War in the Pacific National Historic Park.

Karen Gustin became the park's first female superintendent a few weeks after Ed Wood's departure in the fall of 1998. She came to the park with over fifteen years of National Park Service experience. Not long after receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in outdoor recreation from Colorado State University, Gustin began working as a seasonal park ranger at Death Valley National Monument and the U. S. Forest Service in California. This position was followed by assignments as front-line interpretive specialist at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Chief Ranger at Ocmulgee National Monument in George, Chief of Interpretation at Kenai Fjords National Park in Alaska, and training instructor at the Grand Canyon's Albright Training Center. Gustin was assigned her first superintendency at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa (1994-1996), followed by a position as unit manager at Katmai National Park in Alaska (1996-1998). [445]

Eric Brunnemann became the fifth superintendent of War in the Pacific National Historical Park (and American Memorial on Saipan), arriving in his new post in mid-2002. Brunnemann came to the park with a master's degree archaeological anthropology from the University of Texas, as well as a master's degree in American studies from the University of New Mexico. After working briefly at the San Antonio Museum Association, Brunnemann began working for the National Park Service at Fort Davis National Historic Site, where he was a museum technician. In 1991, he became one of the first staff for newly created Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Over the next eight years, Brunnemann successfully developed critical components of the monuments interpretive program, established museum collections, and implemented the monuments first cultural resource management program. In 1999, he moved to the NPS's Southwest Utah Group of parks, where he served until 2002 as the cultural resources program manager for Canyonlands and Arches National parks and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges National monuments. For a time, he served as acting superintendent at Hovenweep and Natural Bridges National monuments. [446] Brunnemann arrived at the park just six months before another disastrous super typhoon, in December 2002, which caused such extensive damage to the Newman Visitor Center that the National Park Service moved out of the building. This marked the end of the first era of NPS administration of War in the Pacific National Historical Park and the promise of a new beginning of park administration and interpretation of the park.

Through most of the 1990s the Interpretive Division had three permanent staff. Rose Manibusan worked as chief of the Division of Interpretation as well as serving in the role of park ranger throughout the 1990s. She coordinated the exhibits, oral history project, and many other special projects for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, which climaxed in 1994. She also helped coordinate special fiftieth anniversary activities with several organizations, including agencies of the Government of Guam, and the Micronesia Area Regional Center at the University of Guam. For five weeks in late 1995, Manibusan accepted a detail in Yosemite National Park to gain a broader perspective on National Park Service interpretive programs and park operations generally. [447]

Sean Cahill began working as a volunteer in January 1990. He accepted a museum technician position with the park in May 1993. His interest in history had led him to work previously at Fort Douglas Military Museum in Utah, followed by employment with the National Park Service. He worked as a museum technician in the Alaska Regional Office of NPS, at Grand Canyon, and at Scotty's Castle in Death Valley, California, before coming to work at the Guam park. Diligent and hard working, Cahill received a special achievement award for his outstanding contributions to the park in 1990-1991. [448]

Two other rangers/interpreters–Michael Tajalle and Steve Keane–joined the staff during the World War II fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Michael Tajalle was hired as a park ranger in early 1992 after serving in the U.S. Army for twenty-two years. During part of that time, he fought in Vietnam. Tajalle had attended the Park Service's Ranger Academy before arriving on Guam. Tajalle became the first permanent park ranger of Chamorro descent to work at War in the Pacific National Historical Park. In 1993, he was the first male Chamorro to attend the National Park Service's ranger skills course at the Grand Canyon's Albright Training Center. Tajalle became involved in many activities: the Marianas Oral History project (jointly supported by the NPS and MARC, Guam Cable TV, and KGTF Public Broadcasting), the opening of the Asan Ridge Trail, and many other World War II fiftieth anniversary events. [449] Michael Tajalle remained at the park for several years.

Steve Keane became the park's new museum technician in January 1994, the year of the major fiftieth anniversary celebration in the park. Previously, he had worked at NPS's Western Archaeological and Conservation Center in Tucson. He immediately began taking care of a backlog of curatorial concerns. He helped fabricate new exhibits for celebrations commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the World War II American landing. Over the next six years, he computerized and updated the park museum and library records and improved the overall operations and storage of these areas. Keane transferred to the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 2000. [450] Seasonal rangers in the 1990s included: Rick Sotomayor, Commodore Mann, Jr., DePaul Guerro, and others. [451]

The park's Maintenance Division had three staff throughout most of the 1990s. Brian Strack was hired in February 1994 as the park's facility manager (chief of the Maintenance Division). He had worked previously at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota. Strack was responsible for all maintenance and construction in the park, aided by only two permanent full-time laborers and many volunteers. He coordinated all fiftieth anniversary special project developments in the Asan Beach unit, Gaan Point and Apaca Point in the Agat Unit, and the Piti Unit. He also facilitated the efficient and speedy completion of the Stell Newman Visitor Center improvements in 1994, including painting, installation of new exhibits and updating lighting. [452]

Ronald D. Wilson became the park's facility manager in July 1997. In addition to managing the maintenance division, he also served as the park's contracting officer. Wilson arrived with twenty years of experience as a Navy Seabee, after which he worked for a few years as a construction representative with the Western Division Naval Facilities in California, after which he worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Engineering Center in Denver, and then as a facility manager with the Northwest Biological Center in Seattle. Before arriving on Guam, Ron Wilson had been recognized and rewarded for his creative and innovative approaches to accomplishing work and solving problems, as well as his infectious enthusiasm and positive attitude toward work and life. He put these qualities to use soon after his arrival on Guam shortly after the destructive Super Typhoon Paka battered the island in December 1997. Wilson led the park in its cleanup and recovery efforts. As the result of these efforts, he received a certificate of appreciation from the director of the Pacific West Region of the National Park Service, and also the outstanding employee award.

Prior to President Bill Clinton's visit to Guam and the park in November 1998, Wilson oversaw the improvement of park resources and worked with the Secret Service to plan the president's visit. Wilson left the park in January 2000 to become Chief of Maintenance, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. He returned to War in the Pacific and his former position with the park three years later (in January 2003). His timing remained good: Less than one month after his return, the island was hit by Super Typhoon Pangsona, which caused extensive damage to Guam and to the park's Newman Visitor Center/administrative headquarters and other park resources. Ron Wilson had been back less than one year when he died suddenly on November 15, 2003, at the age of fifty-seven. [453] In 2001, the permanent maintenance workers included Rita Powell and James Powell. [454]

Volunteers played a vitally important role in park operations during the 1990s, just as they had since the Newman superintendency. The divisions of Interpretation and Maintenance, in particular, depended on volunteer contributions. Volunteers helped operate the Visitor Center and participated in the oral history program, which became increasingly active in the 1990s. In 1996, the first Volunteer-in-Parks Oral History Team (also called the "Marianas Oral History Team") was established by Rose Manibusan, Tony Ramirez, Herbert Del Rosario, and Joe Guerro. Some individuals, such as David Lotz, who designed and made a series of airplane exhibits for the Visitor Center, and Sean Cahill, who contributed to the production of a series of guidebooks during the World War II fiftieth anniversary celebrations, made enormous contributions of time, money, energy, and goodwill to the park. [455] Volunteer Joyce A. Quinn wrote the "Asan Beach Guide" in 1992 for the park. And, there were others who contributed enormously, including Anthony Ramirez, a volunteer historian; Herbert Del Rosario, with the College of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); Joe Guerrero, Historic Preservation Office (CNMI); Sam McPhetres, Historian, (CNMI); Warren Nishimoto, University of Hawaii; and Dr Dirk Ballendort, Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam.

Community Service Program [456] enrollees also gave many volunteer hours to the Maintenance Division. In 1998, for example, sixty-eight Community Service Program participants donated 8,016 hours to the Maintenance Division. In fiscal year 2000, 100 Community Service Program clients donated 17,000 hours (equivalent to eight full-time equivalencies, FTEs) to the park. These enrollees took care of routine maintenance, such as mowing laws, cutting back rapidly growing vegetation, and picking up trash. They also helped clean up after Super Typhoon Paka in late 1997. The day-to-day work and special project work of the Maintenance Division could not have been done without the contributions of the Community Service Program volunteers. [457]

During the fiftieth anniversary, park received volunteer assistance from many government agencies, private organizations, and individuals. Several branches of the military–the US Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Air Force National Guard, and the Seabees (U.S. Navy Construction Battalion)–gave of their time and energy to prepare for the celebrations. In addition, many local Guam residents helped in various ways with the production of a new park film, "Liberating Guam," scheduled for a premiere showing in July 1944. Jack Eddy, Ben Blaz, Dirk Ballendorf, Tony Palonio, Annette Donner, Doug Mac Hugh, and several others volunteered their time to make this film possible. [458]

Resource Management: [459]

As with all NPS parks, resource management at War in the Pacific National Historic Park is performed within the parameters of federal legislation, including The National Park Act of August 25, 1916; The Historic Sites Act of 1935; Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958; The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 [and its amended version of 1980]; The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969; The Coastal Zone Management and Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries acts of 1972; The Endangered Species Act of 1973; The Clean Water Act of 1977; and the National Trust Act of 1978. And, in the case of the Guam park, the enabling legislation that created the park. Honoring the mandates of this lineage of federal legislation as well as a plethora of executive orders, and directives from both the DOI as well as NPS, all of which have been engendered by varying political agendas, is an administrative gauntlet not intended for the weak-at-heart. The complexity of the administrative tightrope walking is well exemplified by demands made of the staff during this period of 1991 to 2002. The period commenced with a continuation of the apathy that had characterized the attitude prevalent inside the District of Columbia beltway and had been historically manifested by inadequate funding and inadequate staffing since the park was born in 1978. With the advent of a growing awareness of the impending fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the Pacific political interest suddenly became keen.

To put the resource management responsibilities of the staff in perspective it would be helpful to briefly review the environment (geological and climatic) within which they performed these tasks. As mentioned in chapter 1 of this history, Guam is a volcanic peak that has undergone several periods of subsidence and uplift resulting in much of the island's volcanic material being interbedded, and in many places covered, by limestone created by the island's reef. The slopes of the island are characterized by alluvium thinly covered by unconsolidated clays, silts, sands, and gravels that have been eroded from higher slopes. These slopes are accented by scattered large boulders consisting of very dense, hard limestone that have been sliding down the hills, displaced by erosion and transported by gravity. This thin layer of silt, sand, gravel, and clays is exposed to a uniformly warm and humid tropical climate. The 81° F. year-round average afternoon temperature, 81 percent year-round average humidity, and average four-to-twelve mile per hour trade winds, are interrupted at least twice each year by severe tropical storms that drop an average 81 inches of rain on this silt, sand, gravel, and clay. Since record keeping began in 1908, typhoons have either hit Guam or passed close enough to cause wind, rain, and flood damage every three years. Since 1908, typhoons have scored direct hits on Guam at least every eight years. The low elevation occupied by the island's population centers (including much of the acreage of the park), and the fact that the soils at these low elevations are high in clay content, combined with the faithful, cyclical return of typhoons and severe tropical storms has resulted in a history of severe property damage and loss (including park resources). This same combination of factors also carries with it an ironclad guarantee of future severe property damage and loss to park resources.

These threats to park resources take on a very realistic focus when one appreciates that the historical cultural resources of of the park are structures built hurriedly using local materials (including high salt-content water), little or no reinforcement, and intended to be temporary. The Japanese defenders had no interest in creating structures to be enjoyed by future generations; they were simply erecting temporary protection from small arms fire and shrapnel. These are the historic cultural resources staff is charged with protecting from heat, humidity, floods, typhoon winds, and the persistent trampling of curious tourists. In short, the charge of War in the Pacific National Historic Park is little more than the protection of sandcastles on a heavily used beach shaking in the midst of an earthquake during a prolonged heavy, tropical rain.

The first stirrings of awareness that the fiftieth anniversary of the American 1944 landing on Guam also precipitated awareness that these historical resources need to be examined. In early 1991, an interpretive planning team was dispatched to the park from the Western Regional Office and Harpers Ferry Center to examine existing interpretive activities and plan for the fiftieth anniversary ceremonies. [460] Also in 1991, park staff contracted with the company Wiss, Elstner Associates, Inc., to examine the World War II concrete structures and present preservation alternatives to the park. One of the options the company presented was the removal of the historic, salt-laden, non-reinforced roofing and replacing it with steel-reinforced concrete having a chemical composition more appropriate for the tropical climate. Park staff preferred another alternative the company presented which was the stabilization of the original roofing rather than replacement. Unfortunately, an impasse apparently arose between the park and the Western Region architects and funds were pulled from the entire stabilization program. [461] This stabilization program included a pillbox, two gun emplacements, and a stone/concrete wall at Asan Beach, a gun emplacement and pillbox at Gaan Point, and two pillboxes at Apaca Point. The total cost of stabilization based upon retention of the historic fabric of these structures was $41,000 (in 1991 dollars).

Other cultural features dating from the period of relevance (June-July 1944) included the small community of Asan, which was a farming and fishing village, rice paddies, and various roadways and scattered buildings. In 1994 The Western Regional List of Classified Structures (LCS) Team members Jamie Donahoe and Hank Florence evaluated historic structures at the Guam park. NPS Park Ranger Rick Sotomayor, and an administrator with the Guam Department of Parks and Recreation, David Lotz, with Logan Oplinger functioned as tour guides.

Natural resources dating from the period of significance include the beach itself, strand vegetation typical of Pacific islands, including Pandanus, coconuts, beach morning glory, and various grasses. Both these cultural and natural features were largely destroyed by the bombardment of Americans just prior to and contemporaneous with their 1944 invasion. [462] As stated in the Resource Management Plan completed in 1997:

The terrestrial habitats of War in the Pacific National Historical Park have been devastated by alien biotic introductions more than any other park in the system. Of course, the entire park area was devastated by U. S. bombardment during the re-invasion — without a single square yard of real estate unaffected. Following the bombardment in Guam's wet climate erosion in these devastated lands washed tons of silt onto the fringing coral reefs and threatened their very existence. The Navy responded to curb the erosion by aerial broadcasting seeds of tangentangen as a quick expedient ground cover. It has been effective. A half-century later, tangentangen endures as the dominant shrub land community in the park. [463]

That same 1997 Resource Management Plan identified one of the goals ("Management Objectives") of managing the resources as:

Develop an appropriate interpretive program, which will foster an understanding of the reasons for the Pacific War, the sequence and nature of its conduct, its effects upon the people involved, its basic themes and broad patterns, the manner of its resolution, and the course of its aftermath. [464]

Perhaps the most profound dynamic of the management of natural resources was the complete loss of a number of specie of birds. In preliminary biodiversity studies conducted by the park in the mid-1970s, over thirteen separate bird species were identified. By the late 1980s, all but one species was gone. An explosion of a non-native snake population destroyed the avibiota. The brown tree snake was inadvertently introduced to Guam from New Guinea. The indigenous Guam bird population had evolved in the complete absence of snake predators, and having no experience with snakes, the birds of Guam had not evolved any survival characteristics or behaviors that would have protected them. The abundant bird population (food) discovered by the newly arrived brown tree snakes (thought to have arrived on aircraft — traveling coach or baggage class) encouraged a snake population explosion. At the height of its population, biologists estimated that prime habitats contained approximately 12,000 brown tree snakes per square mile. This may have been the greatest density of snakes anywhere in the world at that time. The loss of the bird population has resulted in an equal diminishment of the island snake population; however, populations of mice, rats, lizards and geckos still provide adequate cuisine for a sizable population.

Other than baseline information derived from sources other than NPS, there was no baseline information on park vegetation, nor was there any marine inventory as late as February 1997. In fact, the 1997 the park Resource Management Plan states, "In sum, there is no current, valid baseline information on the park's terrestrial biota." [465] The Resource Management Plan continued:

Plant studies and vegetative mapping specific to the park have not been done. In general, the goal of vegetation management is to maintain the park vegetation in broad appearance to the landscape aspect, which prevailed at the time of the U. S. invasion and recapture of Guam — the historic period for which the park was established. In that regard, two historic landscapes (the Asan Beachhead and the Agat Beachhead) should be defined. Both Asan Invasion Beach and Agat Invasion Beach are already listed on the National Register. This CMP identifies them as Cultural Landscapes of the Historic Site category, associated with the U. S. invasion at these beachheads in July and August of 1944. Portions of these landscapes lying within boundaries of War in the Pacific National Historical Park should be nominated to the National Register as historic landscapes. The park proposes to add Asan and Agat Beachheads to the Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) and seek funding to prepare Cultural Landscape Reports (CLR) of the two beachheads. [466]

In addition to threats to the resources from weather and climate, park staff was forced to contend with issues common to any historical park in an urban setting. Needs and demands of residents have often been in conflict with the mandates inherent in a historical park. Baseball on park property is an excellent example. In March 1994, the park Superintendent sent a memorandum to Marilyn Merrill, the Congressional Liaison of WASO:

Since 1980, when the park areas at Gaan were cleared and developed for interpretation of the historic defensive structures and caves, we have had to deal with special interest groups that do not understand the significance of the historic resources. Their idea of a "park" is a place to play sports. This consequently leads to some real confrontations.

Among the groups desiring to use the Gaan site for sports are the various organized baseball and softball teams. We have had Little League teams, Babe Ruth teams, and even teams from the Guam Major League (semi-pro) all playing in the open fields of the park. They contend that their presence in no way affects the visitors to the park (they do not consider the baseballs flying across the parking lots, trails and wayside exhibit panels as hazardous to anyone). The baseball practice also causes bare ground paths to be created in the landscaped areas and the players have openly stated that they have poisoned park vegetation to prevent interference with their activities.

The park has had a difficult time convincing the community of the need to preserve the historic resources. The usual response is one of indifference and actual animosity because they feel that a historic park does not serve the needs of the community. Many believe that if land is not used for houses, hotels, businesses, or sports fields, it is being wasted. [467]

The superintendent had attached several news clippings to his memorandum, one from the Pacific Daily News, a Gannett Newspaper, dated March 21, 1994. The article read, in part:

Almost every afternoon, young athletes and coaches gather at the long, flat open field at Agat's Gaan Point to practice baseball, soccer and other sports. But the National Park Service wants to put a stop to that. On Friday, Park Service workers placed a 5-foot high boulder on the field's pitching mound to render the field unusable for baseball games, village Mayor Antonio Babauta said. Yesterday, several Agat youths and village residents gathered to express their outrage with the Park Service.

The author of the news article failed to mention the attempts made by the Park Service over the preceding fourteen years to find some compromise, including arranging to modify the park boundaries to permit the construction of an alternative baseball diamond, and actually arranging with the U. S. Navy to have the alternate area graded and prepared for use as a diamond. [468]

The historical integrity of park resources not only had to be protected from local baseball, softball, and soccer teams, it also had to be protected from the United States Army. In 1995, the Army Corps of Engineers concluded that it would be nice to permit the construction of platforms over the lagoon at Asan Cut and Togcha Beach to be used by fishermen. As reported in an October 20, 1995, letter to the Corps from the superintendent, both areas are within the boundaries of the historical park, and their historical integrity would be diminished by the fishing platforms. Twelve days later, on November 1, 1995, the Corps of Engineer's Chief of Guam Operations wrote the superintendent asking what the superintendent's jurisdictional authority was for objecting. The superintendent photocopied the enabling legislation together with boundary maps, and sent it back with a cover letter that mentioned that the area in question (including the submerged area) was on the National Register of Historic Places and suggesting that the Corps of Engineers may also want to speak with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation since any modification to a historic scene by a federal agency required the Council's review. The next piece of correspondence in the file is dated four years later (August 12, 1999). It is a letter from the new park superintendent to the Army Corps of Engineers; the reference line of the superintendent's letter reads, "Application to construct public fishing platforms, Public Notice No. 990100143." The new superintendent patiently reiterated the Park Service opposition based upon historical integrity arguments. This interagency tug-of-war lasted over four years; time that could have been more productively spent playing baseball at Gaan Point.

Resources management cannot be discussed in a sociological vacuum any more than it can be discussed absent a thorough examination of climate and weather. War in the Pacific is an urban historical park not only exposed to an extraordinarily harsh tropical climate but also operated within a consumptive culture and a public assistance economy. Open space featuring manicured landscaping is rare on Guam. Rusting cars, refrigerators, discarded shreds of blue plastic tarpaulins, and empty beer and soda cans litter the margins between rights-of-way and impenetrable brush growth. Chronic traffic jams are more reminiscent of the Ventura Freeway than a Pacific island. It is telling that the single most notable attribute of the web page published on the Internet by Guam's chamber of commerce in 2001 was the boast that the island had the largest K-Mart in the world. Between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Marine Drive in the central west side of the island (the most heavily populated) is so filled with traffic that it is unable to move faster than a rapid walk. The beach running parallel to this four-lane, clogged roadway and less than two blocks away, is caressed by the gentle lapping of a crystalline blue lagoon, and is completely deserted. The economy of Guam rests squarely on three legs: government employment, government assistance, and tourism (with its typical minimum-wage jobs).

The park created an extraordinarily unique environmental feature on Guam — well-manicured, open spaces next to beaches without the suffocating presence of strip malls, the homogeneous facades of fast-food drive-ins, and four-lane roadways slowly undulating with the ebb-and-flow of shopping hours. The Park Service transformed what had been landfills camouflaged by vociferous jungle growth, into mowed lawns overpoweringly seductive to players of baseball, soccer, and Frisbee. What had once been the repositories of the detritus of consumerism — the battered and rusted toasters, automobile axles, differentials and misshapen wheels, the torn and frayed blue plastic sheeting, and the endless piles of plastic once containing promises of hair dye, fingernail paint, sugar water for Olympic athletes and luminescent prophylactics, had been cleared, scraped, planted, and mowed. And, all this within an urban area populated by persons who had never visited Yosemite, Yellowstone, Gettysburg, Olympic, or Denali. Into this setting, the Park Service placed its staff and charged them to literally stand alongside that four lane roadway, filled bumper-to-bumper with motorists heading home with shopping bags filled with future additives to the island's ad hoc landfill, and expected them to preach preservation and historical integrity. From the 1950s on, the Park Service dispatched historians, landscape architects, archeologists, generic planners, and real estate appraisers to investigate the historical integrity of extant artifacts, and the costs associated with the creation and growth of the park; however, NPS did not investigate the cultural climate its park would inhabit.

Building and Maintaining the Park

Park construction and maintenance during the 1991 — 2002 period were carried out with inadequate funding, in a destructive tropical climate, while dodging typhoons and severe tropical storms. If a park resource was constructed of metal, it rusted, if it was organic, it had to be mowed or trimmed weekly, if it was steep it was shaken loose by earthquakes, if it was not firmly embedded in the earth, it was blown away, and if it was anywhere near sea level, it flooded. Park maintenance required the patience of Job and the marine architecture of Noah. In the midst of all of this, park staff was thrust into the vanguard of preparations to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1944 American World War II landing on Guam.

According to available records, 1991 was merely the continuation of a routine that had evolved in the park since its founding in 1978. In the summer, two members of the Youth Conservation Corps who worked in the park from June 17, 1991, to August 9, 1991, supported park staff. [469] The six park staff and the two YCC employees were busy. Vehicle gates and automobile barriers were installed at both Asan Point and Asan Overlook; native vegetation was restored at Asan Point and Gaan; flagpoles were replaced, restrooms repainted, and picnic sites replaced at Gaan; and park roadway striping was repainted. [470] Within the seven separate park units there were seven miles of beach, seventeen miles of roads, and eight miles of trails to be maintained; and there were seventy acres of grass to be mowed each week throughout the entire year. Additionally, staff completed and installed a special Insular Guard exhibit, and had started construction of wayside exhibits; and begun the production of audiovisuals. In July, park staff won second place for its float in the Liberation Day parade. The maintenance staff, under the direction of former maintenance supervisor Roque Borja (who had retired in the fall of 1991), built a full-scale replica of a World War II amphibious vehicle that had been designed by Dave McLean, NPS Harpers Ferry.

The year 1992 was a continuation of 1991. Painting, repairing, mowing, and planting were briefly but noticeably interrupted by a typhoon. On August 28, 1992, Typhoon Omar, with winds of 140 to 165 miles per hour graced the island. Three park employees lost their homes, two other park staffers lost most of their roofs, and every park employee suffered some damage to their personal property. Broken windows, soaked carpeting, uprooted trees, and damaged cars accented the aftermath. The Arizona Memorial Museum Association immediately set up a relief fund and purchased supplies, both food and materials needed for repairs.

The typhoon paused briefly at the park's visitor center where it broke three large windows and flooded the entire administration area. Electrical service was lost (as it was throughout much of the island) and was not returned for two months. Park staff purchased a 30-kilowatt generator and had it shipped from Honolulu. [471]

The Asan Beach area was littered with downed trees and debris resulting from the high winds and water; the Asan Inland area suffered major tree loss (the maintenance building located in this unit survived with only minimal damage); and the Piti Guns area lost at least two hundred trees, including twelve old-growth mahogany trees. The Apaca picnic area in the Agat Unit was totally submerged under several feet of water; the wooden pavilions were torn apart, and when the water receded the entire picnic area was covered by sand, gravel, and coral. Five major old-growth trees were felled in the Gaan area, falling trees destroyed its picnic tables, and most of the beach vegetation was lost. The World War II bunkers, however, survived the storm. The restroom facility at the Rizal area of the Agat Unit lost its roof resulting in the complete loss of its fixtures.

Both the Mt. Alifan Unit and the Fonte Plateau Unit suffered heavy winds, that stripped much of the vegetation and enthusiastically stirred up the rusted car bodies and refrigerators the residents of Guam had been so graciously donating to the park's cultural landscape for many years but had been well concealed by the lush tropical flora. Of all the park areas, the only site that escaped severe damage was the future site of the Asan Bay Overlook on Nimitz Hill. [472] Due to its location, it escaped the most severe winds. [473]

Water and electricity were not restored to the entire island for several months. Within just a few weeks of the typhoon all island retail stores ran out of batteries, gas stoves, propane, candles, kerosene, flashlights, small portable electrical generators, and bottled water. Residents, who could afford it, relocated their entire families to temporary rentals in motels and other temporary lodging where generators could supply electricity for air conditioning and food refrigeration.

As the fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the Pacific approached, suddenly the eyes of the world, and the eyes of the United States Congress, became narrowly focused on War in the Pacific National Historic Park. Specifically, the eyes of Congress and the eyes of the world were focused on the six permanent employees at the park. Prior to this 1991-94 period, park maintenance had emphasized clearing non-historic structures and providing visitors with basic, essential services such as restrooms and parking areas. Inadequate staffing and funding prohibited the realization (and perhaps even the conceptualization) of any greater aspirations. As reported in a 1992 report by the superintendent:

Developments in both War in the Pacific NHP and American Memorial Park have lagged behind the initial estimates. Funding has not materialized and only recently has the interest been sufficient to bring about any substantial improvements. With the exception of the American Memorial Trust Fund and some small donations, all development of the parks has been accomplished within programs of the National Park Service's annual appropriations for operations. [474]

During this same period, the park was gaining in popularity with Japanese tourists as well as an increasing number of World War II veterans. Over 60,320 guests stopped at the visitor center in 1991, and certainly an exponentially larger number of persons drove right past the unimposing two-story building to visit the various park units. [475] Although the park had an FTE ceiling of 10.9 (which would probably have still been inadequate for a park with seven discontiguous units situated in a typhoon-bashed tropical climate), only six staffers were there. According to a Congressional briefing sheet:

The park was established in 1978 and has been operated at a below minimally acceptable level ever since. Little progress has been made toward the park goals since the low staffing has prevented the programs from being advertised in interpretive programs. The park image is poor in the community because most staff time is utilized to complete the protection of the historic resources. With few exceptions, training of the staff has been delayed because of the high costs and long time requirements inherent in mainland training courses. Thus, the staff is not as efficient as is required to operate adequately at the current level of staffing. [476]

And, the very physical nature of the historic sites these six staffers were charged with protecting exacerbated problems confronted by staff even more was:

Numerous historic sites and artifacts exist within the boundaries of the park that relate to World War II. Many of the sites were constructed rapidly and without regard for longevity. A large number are deteriorating badly and will collapse if not treated immediately. The salt-water mixed aggregate will not withstand weathering and after nearly fifty years the structural integrity is questionable. The historic value of rebuilt temporary defensive structures is a matter of conjecture since the historic fabric would no longer be intact and only a replica would remain. [477]

In 1992, Robert Underwood, representative from Guam, introduced House Bill 1944 in the 103^rd Congress that authorized the construction of a monument within the park commemorating the "loyalty of the people of Guam and the heroism of the American forces that liberated Guam." The legislative motivation that had been building behind this proposed law was made very clear by a letter sent almost a year earlier to Manuel Lujan, Jr., then Secretary of the Interior, by members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, asking the Park Service to budget funds for park improvement:

In 1978, Public Law 95-348 established the War in the Pacific Park in Guam and the American Memorial Park in Saipan and authorized $19 million for park development. However, to this day only $3 million has been appropriated. The "parks" are not only incomplete, but are a sad statement of our Nation's indifference to the memory of those who suffered under occupation or fought for freedom. It would be truly negligent for us to fail to complete these parks in time for the 50^th anniversary of the very battles they commemorate. [478]

The single most significant maintenance and construction activity undertaken to prepare for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations was the construction of the Asan Bay Overlook, complete with memorial walls listing United States military and Guam civilians who were casualties of the war. This construction was contracted out with the exception of paving which was performed by the navy. In addition to the overlook, landscapes were manicured, parking areas and roads re-striped, signs repaired or replaced, and museum exhibits readied. [479]

After the last trumpet notes of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations had echoed across the Philippine Sea, park routine again became routine, until the latter part of 1997. On December 16, 1997, Guam was struck by another super typhoon. Referred to as Paka, it was the most severe typhoon in the history of the park. The damage visited on the island and on the park, as well as the damage control and logistical problems caused by the storm were reruns of issues and problems caused just six years earlier by typhoon Omar. Loss of electrical power and the consequential threat to artifacts and furnishings, exhaustion of emergency equipment, severe damage to park structures including picnic tables, vehicle roadways and pedestrian trails, felled trees, and loss of vegetation. A new visitor center/administrative offices/museum had not been funded; consequently those activities remained in the same building still located the same twenty-five yards from the edge of the same lagoon. Winds tore off a basement door facing the water, which resulted in severe damage to carpets, exhibit cases, and exhibits, not only from flooding, but also from actual wave action to which the bottom floor was exposed. The roof of the building was also damaged. The combination of waves pounding the ground floor and wind-driven rain caused an estimated $137,000 in damages. It was only through the extraordinary efforts of park staff that the visitor center was reopened to the public in less than one month, and within two months Asan Point and Gaan Point were both reopened for visitation. [480]

One of the more unexpected, and yet in hindsight probably obvious results of the typhoon was an increase in park visitors. The island-wide loss of both electricity and water and the resulting closure of most public facilities, including other public parks, resulted in a 7.7 per cent increase in park visitation, further exacerbating the already extraordinarily stressful conditions under which park staff was working. [481]

On January 16, 1998, the Incident Command Team, Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation, National Park Service (BAER) group arrived on Guam to evaluate park damage caused by Paka. After conducting an examination and analysis of park damage, much as it did six years earlier, the group concluded that damages suffered by the park were valued at $1,865,003. [482]

Park cleanup efforts were augmented by forty volunteer participants from the Volunteer-In-Parks Program who provided a total of 466 labor hours, and sixty-eight Community Service Program clients [483] who provided a total of 8,016 hours in park cleanup. Additionally, NPS employees from HAVO, NEPE and OLYM were dispatched to the park, the Government of Guam assigned ten temporary employees and the park hired thirty additional temporary employees over a period of several months. A bucket truck, bobcat, backhoe, dump truck, stake-bed truck, and tilt trailer were either rented by the park or provided by SEKI and HAVO to support the cleanup.

More than twenty dump-truck loads of debris were removed from the visitor center parking lot, including more than six inches of beach sand and multiple loads of concrete debris. New security gates had to be installed at the entrance to the office as well as the entrance to the parking garage. It took an unbelievable 200 dump-truck loads to clear rubbish from the Asan Beach Unit, where twenty fully-dedicated employees spent over thirty days removing rocks and coral from the grass and beach areas. Some of the rocks rolled in by the typhoon weighed more than 300 pounds each. [484] The typhoon also demolished a 100' x 10' section of sidewalk that had been constructed using reinforced concrete with extra wide outside edges. Approximately one-and-one-half miles of sidewalks and parking lot were covered with at least six inches of sand; gates, bollards, parking curbs, trashcans, and restroom doors were all replaced. [485] The palm trees were only minimally damaged — more than 450 palm trees were still standing after the storm, park employees merely trimmed them and removed any coconuts still attached.

It took a crew of fifteen seventeen days to remove downed trees from the Piti Guns area; they filled thirty truckloads with debris from the area. Two weeks were spent clearing rock and sand from Gaan Point; fifty truckloads of debris and twenty truckloads of sand and rock were taken off. Over one hundred truckloads of debris were removed from Apaca Point; and 300 yards of fill had to be brought in. Again, palm trees survived. The 200 palm trees that graced Gaan Point merely had to be trimmed and coconuts left hanging removed.

In the brief four-year respite between typhoons (please note "severe tropical storms" have been too numerous to detail), park staff stabilized three pillboxes by patching concrete, replaced Mabini Monument plaques, trimmed over 900 coconut trees, installed picnic tables and grills, built forty trash can holders, planted over one hundred flowering plants at the new Asan Bay Overlook, and replaced forty concrete steps leading up to the Piti Guns. Staff also modified the maintenance shop by constructing a mezzanine storage area inside the building and an outbuilding for the storage of hazardous waste. With the exception of emergency hires blown in by typhoons, one Chief of Maintenance and two WG-3 laborers performed all this maintenance. As stated by one recent superintendent:

Community Service program participants donated in excess of 10,000 hours [in 2001] — equivalent to 5 FTE. Without this program, the Park would not be able to keep up with general and daily maintenance — the Park desperately needs more personnel in maintenance. War in the Pacific has a critical need for additional maintenance personnel. The park cannot continue to depend on this program [community service] so heavily. Within the last two months, the park has seen the number of people drop from 20 to 5 because other agencies are now taking these people. [486]

In addition to mowing more than seventy acres each week, every week of the year, pruning 900 palm trees, restoring restrooms and trails from vandalism damage, the installation of the Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Plaques created a whole new set of maintenance problems. The extremely high humidity of the Guam tropical climate, coupled with frequent severe tropical storms and frequent vandalism (due to the complete absence of any law enforcement budget), [487] Park staff has recently been forced to deal with the rapid deterioration of these memorial plaques, including stripping and treating them. In 2001, that effort cost $36,000. [488]

Interpreting Park Resources

The Division of Interpretation continued to tell the story of World War II in the Pacific and on Guam throughout the 1990s. The T. Stell Newman Visitor Center with its exhibits, slide and video programs, and its gift and bookshop remained the primary place of park visitor contact with NPS staff. The Asan Beach Overlook, developed in the mid-1990s, became a popular point of interpretation and contemplation. Outdoor interpretive plaques, commemorative monuments, and a few pieces of large military equipment and machinery in three park units (Asan Beach, Agat Beach, and Piti) remained less-visited places of park interpretation. A few grand plans initiated in the late 1980s, such as the relocation of a two-person World War II Japanese submarine from the U.S. Naval Station on Guam to the park, and the construction of an 8,000 square-foot visitor center on Nimitz Hill, never materialized. The fiftieth anniversary of World War II, however, brought about many new programs, exhibits, and activities at War in the Pacific National Historical Park that began in 1991 (fifty years after the Japanese invasion of Guam) and climaxed in July 1994 (fifty years after the U.S. military landing on Guam). In addition to rapidly advancing development efforts, the fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the Pacific presented the park with numerous opportunities to reach out to and cooperate with the larger Guamanian community in a way that it never had before, in planning, commemorative celebrations, and interpretive programs. The oral history program, in particular, became an important vehicle for not only gathering valuable historical information but for bringing the people of Guam and the park staff together.

Two interpretive efforts in the late 1980s–the relocation of a Japanese submarine to the park and the construction of a new visitor center on Nimitz Hill–never became the reality originally conceived, but evolved into slightly different interpretive projects. For several years, the National Park Service pondered the borderline appropriateness of the costly maintenance of a Japanese two-man submarine in the park. In 1992, the submarine, located at the Naval Station on Guam, was judged in poor condition due to rusting and exposure to the marine environment. The vessel could not be moved as a whole because its diminished structural integrity would result in breakage. The Navy began studying the best method for moving the submarine; these investigations dragged on for many months. [489] The U.S. Navy eventually began to lose interest in paying to have the submarine moved from the Naval Station to the park. By 1994, the climactic year of NPS's interpretation of World War II in the Pacific, all plans to move the submarine to the park had been apparently abandoned. Instead, park staff took its interpretation outside the park to the off-site submarine. NPS created and placed an exhibit about the submarine at the Naval Station (along with a second exhibit at the War Dog Cemetery, also at the Naval Station). [490] These two exhibits were among the thirty new outdoor exhibit panels created by NPS for the World War II fiftieth anniversary celebrations on Guam. [491]

The planned new park visitor center atop Nimitz Hill on Spruance Drive in the Asan Inland unit of the park also experienced a transformation in its execution. Between 1989, when the NPS's Denver Service Center and Harpers Ferry Center had initially put together a conceptual design for the visitor center, and 1992, $15,000 had been spent developing these conceptual plans further. By 1992, the Denver Service Center and the new Superintendent, Edward E. Wood, Jr., estimated that the cost of the Nimitz Hill Visitor Center would be $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. [492] In early 1993, Superintendent Wood justified an appropriation for the construction of the Nimitz Hill Visitor Center to the 103^rd Congress by stating that: "With the 50^th Anniversary Commemoration approaching, a park presence needs to be established and the Visitor Center is an [sic] major portion of this requirement." [493] By the early summer of 1993, the plan to construct such a visitor center by 1994 had been abandoned, due to inadequate congressional funding and the diminished time left to complete the project in time for the celebrations scheduled for July 1994. [494] In June 1993, Leslie Turner, assistant secretary of Territorial and International Affairs, noted that the National Park Service still preferred the Nimitz Hill location for its new visitor center, with its commanding views of the American Marine landing beaches (and park units) at Asan and Agat. Congressional funding of $45,000 for the project, however, only permitted gradually phased development of the site. "The first phase would be a scenic overlook with parking, walkways and wayside exhibits. The second phase would be the visitor center." In late 1993, Guam State Historic Preservation Officer Richard D. Davis, confounded what had already become an unlikely venture when he stated that design restrictions were needed and desirable for the Nimitz Hill Visitor Center, otherwise it might negatively impact the historic scene and disturb potential prehistoric and historic archaeological deposits in the vicinity of the site. [495] As late as January 1993, the Park Service held out hope for a visitor center on Nimitz Hill, which might be ready to open in July 1994. By then, however, confusion reigned among some Western Region staff about whether NPS and the Government of Guam might jointly build a visitor center and/or veterans memorial at Asan Point, rather than construct a solely NPS visitor center on Nimitz Hill. [496] After fiftieth anniversary celebrations ended in 1994, Congress, apparently, felt less compelled to appropriate a huge sum to implement the phase II construction of the visitor center on Nimitz Hill.

Also, disagreement arose between the Government of Guam, which had initially promised to financially support the Nimitz Hill Visitor Center, and the Park Service over the best site for visitor contact within the park. In the early 1990s, the Guam Legislature had established a Veteran's Memorial Committee, charged with planning the construction of a memorial complex with a visitor contact area, outdoor exhibits, and a remembrance wall within the Asan Beach unit. This site, more than the Nimitz Hill site, had greater historic World War II significance to the people of Guam. The Government of Guam, thus, withdrew its pledged financial support of the Nimitz Hill Visitor Center plan. [497]

Fiftieth Anniversary Projects

Fiftieth anniversary special projects, programs, and commemorative ceremonies involved special planning, projects, and people War in the Pacific staff participated in local planning for fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Guam Governor Joseph Ada appointed the park's Interpretation Division Chief Rose Manibusan to the "50^th Anniversary Defende Tanota (Defense of Guam, 1941) Steering Committee. [498] The National Park Service focused tremendous attention on interpreting the American landing on Guam in July 1994 and World War II in the Pacific. Many volunteers, employees of the Micronesia Area Research Center at the University of Guam, and National Park Service personnel from Harpers Ferry Center and the Western Regional Office in San Francisco worked together to plan, pay for, and produce several interpretive projects, including wayside exhibits, indoor exhibits and video programs that included an oral history component, construction of the Asan Bay Overlook (in the Asan Inland unit), and trail rehabilitation to Asan Ridge and Piti guns.

In 1991, an interpretive planning team comprised of staff from Harpers Ferry Center (HFC) and the Western Regional Office visited the park. Planning team members included Lynne Nakata, Dave McLean, Karine Erlebach, and Cliff Soubier, met with the Interpretation Chief Rose Manibusan to evaluate and improve the park's interpretive programs. [499] This team began developing several interpretive projects, planned for completion by July 1994. Even before the end of 1991, Rose Manibusan and Lynne Nakata developed a scope of work for a new indoor exhibit in honor of the Insular Force Guard. [500] On December 10, 1991, Superintendent Wood and Rose Manibusan unveiled this new exhibit, "Guam Insular Guard," at the Stell Newman Visitor Center. Attending the exhibit opening were local dignitaries, former members of the Guam Insular Force Guard, and the NPS Chief Historian Edwin Bearss, who was a guest speaker at the ceremonies. Other guest speakers included Guam Governor Joseph F. Ada, U.S. Congressman Ben Blaz, Rear Admiral James Perkins, III, and Insular Guardsman Pedro G. Cruz. [501]

In fiscal year 1992, Harpers Ferry Center allocated funds for wayside exhibits and audiovisual projects. In January that year, the HFC audiovisual producer spent several weeks at the park. Wayside exhibit planner from HFC, Richard Hoffman, came to Guam in April 1992 to meet with Rose Manibusan and determine the number, location, and interpretive needs for each wayside exhibit. Manibusan and volunteers immediately began compiling research data for the wayside interpretive panels. [502]

Over the next two years, the National Park Service moved ahead with the implementation of plans to interpret and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of World War II in the Pacific wayside exhibits. Funding for these exhibits came from the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, the Guam Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. By mid-1994, thirty wayside exhibits had been completed by Harpers Ferry Center (for approximately $150,000). These outdoor interpretive panels stood at various sites in the park–Asan Beach, Piti, Apaca Point, and Gaan Point (Agat Beach unit)–as well as at the two-person Japanese submarine and the War Dog Cemetery, both located at the U.S. Naval Base on Guam. [503]

For the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, the park interpretive staff, led by Rose Manibusan, put together a suite of changing indoor exhibits in the Stell Newman Visitor Center. Exhibits presented a number of themes: the first year of war, the Chamorros during the war, women and children on Guam during the war, the fall of the Philippines, naval battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, the Guadalcanal campaign, the atomic bomb, and aircraft of World War II (presented by models fabricated by park volunteer David Lotz). Typically, the indoor exhibits changed about every six months, between June 1992 and mid-1994. Many of the interpretive panels were written English, Chamorro, and Japanese. [504]

Media served as an important aspect of the park's indoor exhibits. Harper's Ferry Center and the Western Region played the lead role in planning and developing interpretive media for the fiftieth anniversary celebrations. Harpers Ferry Center put together a video, entitled "Recapture of Guam" (for around $250,000). The HFC also produced a video, "Liberating Guam." This film relied heavily on oral history videotaped interviews conducted by park staff and volunteers, in conjunction and with the enthusiastic guidance and support of MARC, especially Dirk Ballendorf, at the University of Guam. The Guam Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Arizona Memorial Museum Association contributed large sums to the film's production. These interviews passionately captured the personal stories of Guamanians, while the Japanese occupied the island during World War II. This interactive video premiered in July 1994. A year later, "Liberating Guam" won a finalist award (one of four top awards given) at twentieth-eighth Annual WorldFest in Houston, Texas, in a film contest with 4,100 entries competing from thirty-seven countries. [505]

Construction of the Asan Bay Overlook on Nimitz Hill, considered seriously as the site for a new visitor center for five years (1998-1993), was another important fiftieth anniversary project. The overlook provided a spectacular panoramic view of the American landing beaches at Asan and the highlands rising up from the beaches. The overlook interpretive memorial garden was dedicated to the Chamorro who suffered during the Japanese occupation (1941-1944) and to the American casualties of the Guam campaign. The new Asan Bay Overlook had space for twenty cars and six buses. It opened in July 1944, during the climactic events of the fiftieth anniversary ceremonies. [506]

The preparations made by the National Park Service and other government agencies and organizations for celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of World War II on Guam and Saipan in the Pacific culminated in July 1994. During the week of July 18-22, when the U.S. had landed and retaken Guam fifty years earlier, the Government of Guam, U.S. armed forces, and the National Park Service organized a series of commemorative activities promoted as the "Golden Salute." Highlights of the week included memorial services on land and sea, several dedication ceremonies, an air show, a parade, a fireworks display, and a festival. On July 19, the parks new memorial complex at Asan Bay Overlook as formally dedicated. A joint ceremony for Japanese and American veterans, aimed at closing the book of war to peace and harmony in the future, closed the Golden Salute weeklong activities. [507]

American Memorial Museum Association

The Arizona Memorial Museum Association (AMMA), one of over fifty non-profit cooperating associations throughout the United States that supported the educational, scientific, historical, and research efforts of the National Park Service, helped promote and interpret War in the Pacific park in numerous ways in the 1990s. The Guam branch of AMMA, headquartered at the USS Arizona Memorial Park in Honolulu, helped fund new exhibits in the Stell Newman Visitor Center, prepare and print new guidebooks and pamphlets, and contribute to special events.

AMMA played a critically important role in helping the park fund and orchestrate numerous items and activities associated with the 1994 fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the World War II landing of the American military on Guam. The association funded completely or in part some of the commemoration ceremonies and guidebooks, such as the "Asan Beach Guide" [508] and four companion guidebooks produced for each of the four fiftieth anniversaries of the War in the Pacific. [509]The American Memorial Museum Association also contributed to the fiftieth anniversary commemoration poster contest battle map, visitor center library activities, and oral history transcriptions. [510] The association funded and staged a volunteer appreciation banquet in late August 1994 to thank all those volunteers who had contributed to the fiftieth anniversary celebratory programs. In August 1994, Superintendent Wood loudly praised the AMMA for all its contributions to the park. "The assistance we received from you," Wood wrote to AMMA executive director Gary Beito, "and the Association for these activities has proved to be . . . a godsend. Without it, we would have been hard-pressed to accomplish what we did and the whole commemoration would have been significantly lacking in the details that made it so successful." [511]

After these celebrations, AMMA continued to support the purchase of equipment and supplies, such as curatorial storage facilities, traveling and stationary exhibits, and the conversion of historic photos to high quality CD-ROM format. AMMA aided the park in continuing to develop its oral history program. In 1998, AMMA contributed $25,000 to park operations, mostly to interpretive activities and projects ($8,000 to oral history, $8,000 to special events, $6,000 to the visual interpretive computer system, and a total of $3,000 to curatorial projects and the park library.) [512] Between 1989 and 1999, AMMA donated over $300,000 to the park, primarily its interpretive activities. AMMA occupied space in the Stell Newman Visitor Center throughout the 1990s. [513]

Oral History Project at War in the Pacific Park

The fiftieth anniversary celebrations of World War II invigorated the park's oral history efforts, then in its infancy. Since the founding of the park, Dirk Ballendorf and other staff at the University of Guam's Micronesia Area Research Center had encouraged first Superintendent Stell Newman and subsequent park superintendents to interview and tape record the valuable World War II recollections of selected Guam island residents, before these memories were totally lost. The return of hundreds of World War II U.S. and Japanese veterans to Guam for fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1994 provided the park and the other agencies on Guam with an abundant rationale to forge ahead with a serious well-organized oral history program. The fifty year-old video-taped remembrances of Guam residents and military participants would not only be a valuable addition to the historical record of the war, but could also be used to created poignant and effective interpretive educational NPS programs being produced for the anniversary activities at the park. Importantly, recording the different memories and perspectives of eye witnesses also presented the park with a superb opportunity to reach out beyond the park boundaries and connect in a personal way with the Guamanian people and, at the same time, meaningfully communicate important aspects of the park's mission and goals to island residents.

In the early 1990s, individuals in NPS's Western Regional Office and Harpers Ferry Center began working on a film production that would incorporate videotaped eyewitness accounts of the war on Guam. In late 1992 and early 1993, Chief of Interpretation Rose Manibusan and Superintendent Ed Wood began writing to U.S. and Japanese World War II veterans who had fought on Guam, asking that they record their memories of experiences on Guam. [514] Discussions between Wood and Manibusan, Lynne Nakata and Jonathan Bayless (NPS Western Region), and Karine Erlebach (Harpers Ferry Center) about the logistics of and funding for a fiftieth anniversary "Oral History Project" continued through 1993. Interviews actually began soon afterward. Among those interviewed were Beatrice Emsley, Pedro Cruz, Hiram Elliot, Carmen Artero Kasperbaur, Ralph Reyes, Juan Perez, Pete Perez, Francisco Cruz, and war veterans Jack Eddy, Pete Siquenza, and Ben Blaz. [515]

In the spring of 1994, Manibusan met with MARC Professor Dirk Ballendorf to discuss the park's oral history program. One month later, the National Park Service sponsored oral history training for park staff, park volunteers, and other interested individuals on Guan in preparation for fiftieth anniversary tours in July that year. During the "Golden Salute activities, marking the climax of the fiftieth anniversary commemorative celebrations in July 1994, two teams of NPS (Steve Haller and Daniel Martinez) and Air Force (Al Miller and Chuck McManus) historians interviewed more than fifty returning U.S. veterans and Guamanian survivors of World War II. Guam cable TV and KGTF-TV donated the crews and equipment to film the interviews. The Guam Hilton Hotel donated rooms to be used to conduct oral history interviews. [516]

War in the Pacific's oral history program subsided after the climatic fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1994. Other interpretive activities, such as the installation of new exhibits in the Visitor Center and the design, construction, and dedication of the Asan Memorial Wall, diverted some of the park's limited human and financial resources away from the oral history program.

In 1997, the oral history program became re-energized by the Arizona Memorial Museum Association-sponsored oral history training workshop that featured instructors Warren Nishimoto (director, Center for Oral History, University of Hawaii), Dirk Ballendorf (professor, MARC), Donald Platt, Daniel Hildenbrandt, and Tony Palomo, held at the Guam Hilton in early June. Two months later, the park organized the park's first volunteer oral history team, the "Marianas Oral History Team," coordinated by Rose Manibusan, Tony Ramirez, Herbert Del Rosario, and Joe Guerrero. Soon, the Mariana Islands Oral History Team hosted an oral history photographic exhibit on Saipan and Guam in the fall of 1997. Super Typhoon Paka and the tremendous damage caused to the park in December 1997 as well as preparations for the park's twentieth anniversary and for the arrival of Presidential Bill Clinton in the summer and fall of 1998, diverted attention away from the oral history efforts. [517]

Celebrating the Park and the President in 1998

The spring and early summer months of 1998 were spent preparing for the twentieth anniversary of War in the Pacific National Historical Park. August 18 marked the park's official birth date. Earlier in the year, Acting Governor Madeline Bordallo signed a proclamation designating the month of August as National Park month on Guam. The park staff and the Guam's delegate to Congress invited the public to a special ceremony, "Preserving Out Natural and Cultural Heritage," at Asan Point on August 18. Roughly 200 people attended this special event. Dirk Ballendorf, professor at MARC, presented a history of the first ten years of the Park Service on Guam. Tony Palomo, director of the Guam Museum, presented the history of the second ten years War in the Pacific National Historical Park, and a new twenty-minute video entitled, Guam's Past and Promise for the Future, produced by Greg Champion and Tim Rock and written by Jim Miculka and Rose Manibusan featuring park sites, awareness of endangered species, and environmental concerns on the island, was shown at the Visitors Center. In his keynote address, Honorable Robert A. Underwood, delegate to Congress, talked about the history and significance of War in the Pacific. Underwood and Chief of Interpretation Rose Manibusan presented special awards to significant park partners, volunteers, and the park staff. The Arizona Memorial Museum Association financially sponsored this event. [518]

Less than four months after the twentieth anniversary celebrations, President Bill Clinton visited Guam and War in the Pacific National Historical Park. Air Force 1 arrived with the president at Won Pat Guam International Airport on November 23, 1998 to a warm, flag-waving and wildly cheering crowd, with raised "Hafa Adai" signs, all along the route of the presidential motorcade on Marine Drive. In the mid-morning, President gave a short, fifteen-minute speech, the first presidential address on Guam since 1986, to about 25,000 Guam residents at the Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor's Complex at Adelup. Later, the presidential motorcade ascended Nimitz Hill to War in the Pacific's Asan Bay Overlook. Chief of Interpretation Rose Manibusan and park ranger Michael Tajalle took turns presenting a fifteen-minute history of Guam during World War II and the significance of the park to the President, who stood quietly with his hands behind his back and listened. "He listened–he just listened," Manibusan later said. Ranger Tajalle exclaimed later that it was "really a great honor to meet the president . . . I was really shocked–I figured he had a lot of questions to ask about the story we gave, but he didn't." [519] Clinton led Guam Governor Carl Gutierrez and First Lady Geri Gutierrez along the wall of names stopping briefly at the name of the First Lady's mother. The president then laid a wreath at the memorial, before being greeted by a small group of World War II veterans, dressed in their military uniforms. The presidential limousine soon afterward, wound its way down Nimitz Hill amidst more island residents waving American flags. Only a few hours later, President Clinton left Guam, a stop on the final leg of his tour of Asian countries. [520]