Pacific Steppingstones: Guam

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The island of Guam lies 1,510 miles due west of Wake, and 2,570 miles east of Manila, Pan Am’s original terminus for its transpacific route. 

 

Unlike the coral specks of Midway and Wake, Guam was a true destination for Pan American’s Clippers. At 210 square miles and with a population in 1930 of 20,000, lushly tropical Guam offered visitors much more than the dull distractions of birdwatching and ratcatching that passed for entertainment on the atolls.

Traditional Chamorro dancing

Most Americans knew nothing of Guam in 1935, and the first Pan American passengers found Guam to be a relative paradise. Although Guam was not only the most economically depressed jurisdiction in the United States but possibly in the world in 1935, the native Chamorros were friendly, the island had a decently diverse variety of attractions, including mountains, beaches, valleys, a charmingly small capital city, and it offered a vibrant Malayo-Polynesian native culture which wealthy visitors found just exotic enough.   

The Governor’s Palace as it appeared in 1902

For the very hidebound, there were luncheons, teas and dinners at the slightly tatty Governor’s Palace, a holdover of the Spanish colonial presence that had ended in 1898. The more curious could listen to old Chamorros retelling their ancient legends, they could tor the island with native guides, and they could buy Chamorro crafts (particularly woven items) cheaply. 

 

Chamorro palm-frond weaving

Although most Clipper passengers were just passing through, a good number eventually picked Guam as their vacation spot of choice. 

The crew of the Pan American Clipper posing with local Naval officers, 1935

There was already a significant U.S. Navy presence on Guam; Pan American changed Guam forever by introducing tourism.  Pan Am’s decision to choose Guam as a layover trebled the cash flow into the island’s coffers, helping to lift Guam out of poverty. While Pan Am didn’t have to develop an entire infrastructure in Guam, the airline did build a twenty room hotel, the Pan American Skyways Hotel, in Sumay, not far from the Clipper base that the airline had rented from the Navy. The Clippers used friendly Apra Harbor as their landing field. 

Apra Harbor, 1935

If Pan Am’s development of Wake had raised Japanese hackles, the airline’s development of Guam almost pushed the United States and Japan to the brink of war. Guam is the largest island of the Marianas, and in 1935, the Marianas were otherwise Japanese territory. Lying just 135 miles away from Guam was the Japanese island of Saipan. On ebon sparkling clear Pacific nights, the ambient light of one island could be seen from the other.

Apra Harbor and the town of Sumay, with the Pan American Skyways Hotel in the background

The Pan American Clipper arrives in Guam for the first time, October 13, 1935

The fact that Guam was American territory was a thorn in Japan’s side. The fact that Pan Am had to overfly the Marianas to land there enraged the Japanese. Once Clipper flights became the norm, Japan, concerned about American espionage, insisted that the Clippers not stray from a very narrow overwater air corridor. They often did. Frequently, American photophiliac tourists --- or men who seemed to be tourists --- armed with huge zoom lenses, shot distance photos of the Japanese Marianas as obliging Pan Am pilots maneuvered the Clippers for the best shots. The passengers pretended to ignore it, most of them. It was bald spying, and it didn’t take long for the Japanese to discover it. Complaints to Washington were ignored, and so Japanese planes sometimes buzzed the Clippers in midflight. Occasionally, an impatient Japanese pilot fired a burst in a Clipper’s general direction. No one was hit --- yet.  But what America discovered on Saipan was the same thing that the Japanese discovered on Guam: Evidence of a military buildup.  
 

Guam, relative to Japan, the Philippines, and the Asian mainland

 

Guam today, with it’s luxury hotels, is a popular vacation spot for Asian tourists. Relatively few American mainlanders visit