North Pacifc Ocean Marianas Island of Guam.
1945 (dated) 45 x 34 in (114.3 x 86.36 cm)
This is a scarce World War II (WWII) era 1945 map of Guam issued by the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office shortly after the 1944 recapture of the island by U.S. military forces. Guam, long an important stopping point for trans-Pacific voyages, was nominally under U.S. control since the 1898 Spanish-American War. In 1941, early in World War II, Guam was seized by the Japanese who saw it as a kind of Pacific Gibraltar. The Japanese occupation of Guam was particularly brutal for the indigenous Chamorro people who were steadfastly loyal to the United States. This chart was originally drawn in 1925 and has been updated to 1945 with minor corrections and alternation. Issued by the U.S. Navy as Chart no. 2186.
The U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office is a branch of the United States Navy founded in 1830 to compile non-domestic hydrographic and bathymetric surveys. These surveys are conducted by the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, which started with the establishment of the Depot of Charts and Instruments in 1830. In 1854 the U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office was renamed the U.S. Naval Observatory and Hydrographical Office. The hydrographic portion became the U.S. Naval Hydrographic Office under the Hydrographer of the Navy. In 1962, under the Kennedy administration, the name was again changed to the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office in 1962. That office, as a matter of historical and semantic interest, and the U.S. Naval Observatory are still part of the command overseen by the "Oceanographer of the Navy" with headquarters at the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.
Very good condition. Appears to have been folded at some point.