Making Local Sense of a Global Disease: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Guam

ABSTRACT

At the end of October 1918, influenza arrived on Guam aboard a US Navy vessel. It struck quickly and dramatically, killing 5 per cent of the Island’s population in a six-week span. Indeed, more Chamorros died in those six weeks than in the entire previous year. Despite its severity, the 1918 Influenza Pandemic has been largely overlooked in Guam’s histories, as it has also been forgotten in much of the world. This essay provides a historical and historiographical look into the 1918 Influenza Pandemic on Guam, using the deaths of close family members and the transformation of the survivors’ lives as stories meriting greater reflection and remembrance.

Key words:

• Influenza
• pandemic
• Guam
• Chamorro
• health

Acknowledgements

Dangkulu na saina ma‘ase to Lisa Pocaigue, Auntie Doring’s eldest child, who shared some of her mother’s experiences with me; to my mother, the late Fermina Leon Guerrero Perez Hattori, for regaling me with stories of her intrepid grandmother, mother, and aunties; and to the University of Guam College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences for support during this research project.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Scholars Johnson and Mueller argue that the inordinately large gap in the number of estimated fatalities can be attributed largely to unreliable data collection methods, including the underreporting of data in many parts of the world. Niall P.A.S. Johnson and Juergen Mueller, ‘Updating the Accounts: Global Mortality of the 1918–1920 “Spanish” Influenza Pandemic’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 76 (2002): 115.

² C.W. Potter, ‘A History of Influenza’, Journal of Applied Microbiology 91 (2001): 575.

³ Alfred Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

⁴ Ibid., 320.

⁵ Matthew Heaton and Toyin Falola, ‘Global Explanations Versus Local Interpretations: The Historiography of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919 in Africa’, History in Africa 33 (2006): 205.

⁶ Geoffrey Rice, Black November: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New Zealand (Christchurch, NZ: Canterbury University Press, 2005), 1.

⁷ Phyllis Herda, ‘Disease and the Colonial Narrative: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Western Polynesia’, New Zealand Journal of History 34, no. 1 (2000): 133–44; Malama Meleisea, Lagaga: A Short History of Western Samoa (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987); Sandra M. Tomkins, ‘The Influenza Epidemic of 1918–1919 in Western Samoa’, Journal of Pacific History (hereinafter JPH) 27, no. 2 (1992): 181–97; John Ryan McLane, ‘Setting a Barricade against the East Wind: Western Polynesia and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic’ (PhD thesis, University of Otago, 2012); and William Matthew Cavert, ‘In the Grip of Calamity: Tahiti and the 1918 Spanish Influenza Pandemic’, JPH 57, no. 1 (2022): 1–20.

⁸ Herda, ‘Disease and the Colonial Narrative’, 136.

⁹ C. Paul, US Naval Station Guam, Public Works Department, to Commandant, Memorandum, 13 Sept. 1919, US National Archives, Washington DC (hereinafter NARA), RG52, E12, Box 624, 132600-D14.

¹⁰ Richard J. Shell, ‘Notes and Documents: The Marianas Population Decline: 17th Century Estimates’, JPH 34, no. 3 (1999): 296.

¹¹ Shell, ‘The Marianas Population Decline’, 291.

¹² J. Underwood, ‘Population History of Guam: Context of Microevolution’, Micronesica 9, no. 1 (1973): 15.

¹³ Louis Choris, ‘Kotzebue’s First Voyage – Accounts of Louis Choris’, quoted in Rodrigue Levesque, History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents, Volume 18: Russian Expeditions (Gatineau, Quebec: Levesque Publications, 2001), 456.

¹⁴ At the time of the colonial transfer of power from Spanish to American rule in 1898, the population of Guam was estimated at 8,698, among whom 99.5 per cent were categorized as native Chamorro. In 1920, when the US conducted its first census on Guam, the population had increased to 13,168 with native Chamorros comprising 92 per cent of the population, Filipinos at 3 per cent, Japanese at 2 per cent, and Whites at 2 per cent. Bernard Timothy Punzalan, 1920 Population Census of Guam Transcribed (Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project, 2014); Underwood, ‘Population History of Guam’, 28, 30.

¹⁵ Jane H. Underwood, ‘Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Mortality Experience on Subsequent Fertility of the Native Population of Guam’, Micronesica Journal of the University of Guam: Devoted to the Natural Sciences of Micronesia and Related Areas 19, no. 1/2 (1983): 2.

¹⁶ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 232.

¹⁷ Robert L. Haddock, ed., A History of Health on Guam (Hagåtña, GU: Crushers Football Club, 2010), 126.

¹⁸ Robert F. Rogers, Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam, revised 2nd ed. (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2011), 143.

¹⁹ E.L. Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, Notes on Preventive Medicine for Medical Officers, United States Navy, Bulletin No. 61, Dept of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Washington, DC, 25 Jan. 1919, M & S No. 129655-I, 5.

²⁰ Haddock, A History of Health on Guam, 126.

²¹ Paul J. Searles and Ruth Searles, A School History of Guam (Hagåtña, GU: Naval Government of Guam, 1937), 48.

²² Ibid.

²³ Paul Carano and Pedro C. Sanchez, A Complete History of Guam (Rutland, VT: C.E. Tuttle, 1964), 230.

²⁴ Pedro C. Sanchez, Guahan Guam: The History of Our Island (Hagåtña, GU: Sanchez Publishing House, 1989), 107–12.

²⁵ Rogers, Destiny's Landfall, 134.

²⁶ Calvert, ‘In the Grip of Calamity’, 20.

²⁷ Anne Perez Hattori, Colonial Dis-ease: US Navy Health Policies and the Chamorros of Guam, 1898–1941 (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004), 209, footnote 4. I embarrassingly admit that I overlooked it because of the navy government’s relative silence on the subject.

²⁸ Haddock, A History of Health on Guam, 124–7.

²⁹ Underwood, ‘Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic’, 7–8.

³⁰ Ibid., 1. Indeed the topic of Pacific Islanders’ demographic agency in the aftermath of devastating epidemics has received scant attention. One noteworthy exception is Harry Needham, ‘A Story of Our People’s Triumph: Histories of Survival, Autonomy, and Memory on Nauru, c. 1888–1992’ (Honours thesis, Australian National University, 2021).

³¹ Editorial, ‘We Have Taught Guam to Wash Her Face’, Guam News Letter, Sept.–Oct. 1911, 2.

³² US Department of the Navy Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, US Navy Report on Guam, 1899–1950 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1951), 3.

³³ Annual Report of the Naval Governor of Guam, 1919 (Hagåtña: US Navy Government), 20.

³⁴ Potter, ‘A History of Influenza’, 572.

³⁵ Ibid.

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ Johnson and Mueller, ‘Updating the Accounts’, 115.

³⁸ Eugenia Tognotti, ‘Influenza Pandemics: A Historical Retrospect’, Journal of Infection in Developing Countries 3, no. 5 (2009): 332.

³⁹ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 39.

⁴⁰ G. Dennis Shanks, Tracy Hussell, and John F. Brundage, ‘Epidemiological Isolation Causing Variable Mortality in Island Populations During the 1918–1920 Influenza Pandemic’, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 6, no. 6 (2012): 417.

⁴¹ James A. Brasseur, ‘Pandemic Influenza: A Brief History and Primer’, Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants 20, no. 1 (2007): 27.

⁴² Tognotti, ‘Influenza Pandemics’, 332.

⁴³ David Killingray, ‘A New “Imperial Disease”: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–9 and its Impact on the British Empire’, Caribbean Quarterly 49, no. 4 (2003): 30.

⁴⁴ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 28.

⁴⁵ Tognotti, ‘Influenza Pandemics’, 332.

⁴⁶ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 37; Killingray, ‘A New “Imperial Disease”’, 33.

⁴⁷ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 57.

⁴⁸ McLane, ‘Setting a Barricade against the East Wind’, 1.

⁴⁹ Ibid., 110.

⁵⁰ Ibid., 145.

⁵¹ Ibid.,152.

⁵² Herda, ‘Disease and the Colonial Narrative’, 136.

⁵³ Tomkins, ‘The Influenza Epidemic of 1918–1919 in Western Samoa’, 181.

⁵⁴ Meleisea, Lagaga, 129.

⁵⁵ Malama Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the Modern History of Western Samoa (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987), 121.

⁵⁶ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 236.

⁵⁷ Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa, 121; Herda, ‘Disease and the Colonial Narrative’, 136; Tomkins, ‘The Influenza Epidemic of 1918–1919 in Western Samoa’, 187; Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 237, 249.

⁵⁸ McLane, ‘Setting a Barricade against the East Wind’, 72, 294.

⁵⁹ Ibid., 279.

⁶⁰ Melissa A. McLeod, Michael Baker, Nick Wilson, Heath Kelly, Tom Kierdrzynski, and Jacob L. Kool, ‘Protective Effect of Maritime Quarantine in South Pacific Jurisdictions, 1918-Influenza Pandemic’, Emerging Infectious Diseases 14, no. 3 (March 2008): 468.

⁶¹ Crosby, America’s Forgotten Pandemic, 234.

⁶² Ibid., 238.

⁶³ Ibid., 56.

⁶⁴ Ibid., 31.

⁶⁵ Ibid.

⁶⁶ ‘Arrivals in Guam’, Guam News Letter, Dec. 1918, 16; ‘Departures’, Guam News Letter, Dec. 1918, 16.

⁶⁷ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 4.

⁶⁸ Ibid.

⁶⁹ ‘Order, Oct 31, 1918’, Guam News Letter, Nov. 1918, 4.

⁷⁰ ‘Epidemic of Influenza’, Guam News Letter, Nov. 1918, 4.

⁷¹ Ibid.

⁷² Ibid.

⁷³ ‘Executive General Order No. 297, November 5, 1918’, Guam News Letter, Nov. 1918, 8.

⁷⁴ Ibid.

⁷⁵ Gov. Seaton Schroeder to Asst Sec. of the Navy, Navy Dept, Washington, DC, 26 April 1902, NARA, RG 52, Box 386, 9351, 262–75.

⁷⁶ US Army Major & Surgeon, Medical Supt. A.T.S., to The Surgeon, Army Transports, 18 June 1902, NARA, RG 52, Box 386, 9351, 262–75.

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ J.F. Leys, USN, Health Officer, Quarantine Orders and Regulations of the Island of Guam, 7 May 1904, NARA, RG52, Box 387, 9351: 485–500, 1–2.

⁷⁹ Ibid., 3.

⁸⁰ Ibid.

⁸¹ Ibid., 2.

⁸² In 1913, a measles epidemic infected 6,884 with 43 deaths, and in 1915, a whooping cough epidemic caused the death of 60 children. Haddock, A History of Health on Guam, 196.

⁸³ Leys, Quarantine Orders, 1.

⁸⁴ Julius Sullivan, OFM, Cap., The Phoenix Rises: A Mission History of Guam (New York: Seraphic Mass Association, 1957), 118.

⁸⁵ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 4.

⁸⁶ ‘Deaths’, Guam News Letter, Dec. 1918, 29–31.

⁸⁷ Ibid., 21–23.

⁸⁸ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 4.

⁸⁹ Ibid., 5.

⁹⁰ Ibid., 4.

⁹¹ Ibid.

⁹² Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5; E.L. Jones, Sanitary Report, Island of Guam, Fiscal Year 1919, 1 July 1919, Hagåtña, GU, Naval Government of Guam, NARA, RG 52 Headquarter Records, Box 2, NM-2, Entry 38, 9.

⁹³ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5.

⁹⁴ ‘Epidemic of Influenza’, The Guam News Letter, Nov. 1918, 5.

⁹⁵ Sullivan, The Phoenix Rises, 119.

⁹⁶ Pale' Eric Forbes, OFM, Cap., Pale' Roman (Hagåtña, GU: Capuchin Friars, 2009), 25.

⁹⁷ Sullivan, The Phoenix Rises, 119.

⁹⁸ Forbes, Pale' Roman, 25.

⁹⁹ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 4.

¹⁰⁰ ‘Epidemic of Influenza’, The Guam News Letter, Nov. 1918, 5.

¹⁰¹ Jones, Sanitary Report, Island of Guam, Fiscal Year 1919, 6, 9.

¹⁰² Manuel Flores Borja and Jose Somorang Roppul, Directory of Traditional Healers and Medicinal Plants in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan: Inetnon Amot Natibu/Ammwelil Safeyal Faluwasch, 2009), 357.

¹⁰³ Ibid., 272–3.

¹⁰⁴ Ibid., 357.

¹⁰⁵ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ Punzalan, 1920 Population Census of Guam Transcribed.

¹⁰⁹ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5.

¹¹⁰ Hattori, Colonial Dis-Ease, chap. 3.

¹¹¹ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5.

¹¹² Jones, Sanitary Report, Island of Guam, Fiscal Year 1919, 6, 9.

¹¹³ C. Paul, US Naval Station Guam, Public Works Department to Commandant, memorandum, 13 Sept. 1919, NARA, RG52, E12, Box 624, 132600-D14.

¹¹⁴ Haddock, A History of Health on Guam, 196.

¹¹⁵ W.C. Braisted, Secretary of the Navy Naval Hospital Guam via Commandant Gilmer, memorandum, 27 Oct. 1919, NARA, RG52, E12, Box 624, 132600-D14.

¹¹⁶ Punzalan, 1920 Population Census of Guam Transcribed.

¹¹⁷ US Naval Government of Guam, Information on Living Conditions in Guam, March 1920 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920), 1.

¹¹⁸ Laura Thompson, Guam and its People (New York: Greenwood Press, Publishers, 1947), 352–3.

¹¹⁹ Underwood’s study compares birth levels prior to the pandemic with levels two and four years later. ‘Effects of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Mortality Experience’, 7

¹²⁰ Thompson, Guam and Its People, 352–3.

¹²¹ Jones, ‘Special Sanitary Report of Influenza at Guam’, 5.

¹²² Kate Lyons, ‘Anger in Guam at “Dangerous” Plan to Offload US Sailors from Virus-hit Aircraft Carrier’, Guardian, 2 Apr. 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/anger-in-guam-at-dangerous-plan-to-offload-us-sailors-from-virus-hit-aircraft-carrier (accessed 3 Apr. 2020); Courtney Mabeus, ‘How an Island Oasis Became the Navy’s Coronavirus Epicenter’, New York Times Magazine, 11 Apr. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/magazine/guam-theodore-roosevelt-navy-coronavirus.html (accessed 13 Apr. 2020).