Drawing from studies on empire, labor, and race, this essay examines the recruitment, work, and social experiences of civilian military laborers in post– World War II Guam. This essay argues that the postwar militarization of the island resulted in the racialization of Chamorro, Filipino, and white American workers. The result of this process was the creation of a Filipino labor class that became synonymous with military employment. Since the US military and its contractors perceived Filipinos as being amenable to labor discipline, they hired Filipinos in larger numbers than Chamorros and white Americans. This essay relies on military memos, government correspondences, Philippine newspapers, labor organization correspondences, and oral history interviews from archives in Guam, Maryland, Northern California, the Republic of the Philippines, and Washington, DC.

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Following the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the illegal overthrow and annexation of Hawai‘i, the US government transplanted its colonial education program to places in the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands. Specifically, American Sāmoa, Guam, Hawai‘i, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and the US Virgin Islands would all have some aspect of the native boarding school system implemented. In many ways, the colonial education system in Guam was emblematic and exceptional to native boarding schools in the continental United States. Utilizing Guam as a case study reveals how the US military used schools as a site to spread settler colonial policies in an attempt to transform Chamorros into colonial subjects who would support American occupation.

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