This year I celebrated American Independence Day in our Nation's capitol. A friend of a friend is a retired major in the Army and he was able to gain us entrance to Fort Myer, just outside of the city. We watched the fireworks over the Washington Monument from an unobstructed hillside on Whipple Field. While we waited for the fireworks to start we sipped on mojitos and gorged on KFC. The fireworks were a sight to behold and afterwards we partook in that other American tradition: sitting in traffic.
Back in Saipan, the local government doesn't officially recognize Independence Day; we celebrate something we call Liberation Day, which coincidentally also happens to fall on the Fourth of July. In one of the many ironies that makes Saipan, Saipan, Liberation Day commemorates the anniversary of the day the Chamorro people living on Saipan were liberated from the US Military, not by the US Military.
For two years after the invasion of Saipan, the indigenous people of Saipan (and the Japanese, Okinawan and Korean civilians living there before the invasion) were forced to live in a concentration camp called Camp Susupe. Our Liberation came when the United States released us from living in a cage. Liberation Day only commemorates Saipan's liberation from the Japanese in the sense that it commemorates the end of the war's hostilities and America's need for a launching pad to invade Japan.
The release from Camp Susupe on July 4, 1946, set the indigenous people down the path towards self-government, something we have not had since Magellan "discovered" the islands in 1521 and Queen Mariana decided we should be Catholic in 1668. We inched closer on January 9, 1978 when we became a commonwealth, but as a modern day colony, we are still unrepresented in the US Congress and cannot vote for our commander in chief. The annual celebration of Liberation Day helps remind us of our democracy's humble beginnings, beginnings much humbler than those of the land- and slave-owning gentlemen who signed the US Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In practice, however, Liberation Day is more a celebration of Independence Day than it is a reminder of the horrors of war or of the beginnings of democracy in Saipan. In essence, we celebrate our liberation from and relationship to the United States on the same day. And this supposed parodox plays out every single day in Saipan. For example, in the local House of Representatives, one member calls America an enemy, while another serves in the Army Reserve. Patriotism runs deep, but so does anti-Americanism.
Just another day in paradise.
Scene in the Camp at Chalan Kanoa. Photograph from the CNMI Museum.
Back in Saipan, the local government doesn't officially recognize Independence Day; we celebrate something we call Liberation Day, which coincidentally also happens to fall on the Fourth of July. In one of the many ironies that makes Saipan, Saipan, Liberation Day commemorates the anniversary of the day the Chamorro people living on Saipan were liberated from the US Military, not by the US Military.
For two years after the invasion of Saipan, the indigenous people of Saipan (and the Japanese, Okinawan and Korean civilians living there before the invasion) were forced to live in a concentration camp called Camp Susupe. Our Liberation came when the United States released us from living in a cage. Liberation Day only commemorates Saipan's liberation from the Japanese in the sense that it commemorates the end of the war's hostilities and America's need for a launching pad to invade Japan.
Camp Susupe (Japanese Section) Saipan, 1944. Photograph courtesy of the CNMI Historic Preservation Office.
The release from Camp Susupe on July 4, 1946, set the indigenous people down the path towards self-government, something we have not had since Magellan "discovered" the islands in 1521 and Queen Mariana decided we should be Catholic in 1668. We inched closer on January 9, 1978 when we became a commonwealth, but as a modern day colony, we are still unrepresented in the US Congress and cannot vote for our commander in chief. The annual celebration of Liberation Day helps remind us of our democracy's humble beginnings, beginnings much humbler than those of the land- and slave-owning gentlemen who signed the US Declaration of Independence in 1776.
In practice, however, Liberation Day is more a celebration of Independence Day than it is a reminder of the horrors of war or of the beginnings of democracy in Saipan. In essence, we celebrate our liberation from and relationship to the United States on the same day. And this supposed parodox plays out every single day in Saipan. For example, in the local House of Representatives, one member calls America an enemy, while another serves in the Army Reserve. Patriotism runs deep, but so does anti-Americanism.
Just another day in paradise.