Today we went to see the "War in the Pacific" visitor's center and park. This is a small visitor's center next to the entrance of the Naval Base here on Guam. Of course, we could not go onto the Naval base, but we WERE welcome at the visitor's center. I finally found the WWII/Guam information I had been seeking for the past two weeks at THIS gift shop! We wanted to learn more about Guam's involvement in WWII, and this is the place to go for that information. No other souvenir shop on the island addresses the war, since the Japanese are the primary tourists here.
At the time we visited, they were featuring the 90th Anniversary of the sinking of the WWI ship, the German Cormorran, which was discussed in a previous post. Toni Ramirez, a friend of ours and a local historian with the Guams Parks and Rec center, worked tirelessly to assemble old WWI photos and set up a roomful of displays. But normally, the focus here is Guam and the U.S. role in the Pacific for WWII.
The top photo shows Werner and I, Toni Ramirez, historian with the Guam Parks and Rec Dept., and our other friend, Pilar Laguana, marketing manager at the Guam Visitor's Bureau (GVB).
The park service staff showed some videos about WWII and also the wreckage of the Cormorran, and then had hundreds of books, DVD's and videos all about the "War in the Pacific". Of interest, the USS Arizona staff, based in Hawaii where the Japanese sunk her during WWII, runs this center. This had me totally confused for a bit, until a staffer explained this to me. I was trying to figure out HOW the USS Arizona, which was sunk in Hawaii, suddenly arrived in GUAM of all places, but it is an internal "National Parks Service" administrative thing! :-)
So if you are visiting Guam, and want to get some books/souvenirs specifically related to the WWII battles fought here, this is the place to go!!
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