STRIKE up the band! Fire up the grills! Get out the folding chairs and the coolers and prepare to celebrate the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Guam from the Japanese in 1944.

The date was July 21st, tomorrow, but for many – including a lot of people who work for the government of Guam – the holiday is today. Our wish is for sunshine for both days, although it will probably rain at least a little. One recent year it rained a lot, a virtual typhoon, but the celebration still went on.

Newcomers to Guam often wonder why July 21st is a bigger deal than America’s Independence Day, July 4th. But once they learn a little about the unique history and experiences of this little island, they generally appreciate the experiences of Guam’s people, what they went through under the Japanese, and why people so fervently wished for Uncle Sam to come back to Guam.

There aren’t too many people left who were old enough in 1941 to remember when Pearl Harbor, and Guam, were attacked by Japan. For those who do, the memories are vivid and horrible, for in the final weeks of the Japanese occupation the people of Guam were treated very badly. Japanese forces herded them into concentration camps and brutally tortured or killed many.

Today Japan is our friend and ally, the source of most of the visitors who make up our flourishing visitor industry. And most of those visitors are young people with no memory at all of World War II or Japan’s role in the history of Guam. Current diplomatic representatives from Japan on Guam take part in the many memorial services commemorating the occupation atrocities, and have even apologized for the actions of their countrymen nearly 70 years ago.

In fact there will probably be some Japanese participation in tomorrow’s Liberation Day Parade, although that’s a relatively recent development. Thirty years ago that was rare. It was still awkward for Japanese to celebrate Guam’s liberation from Japan, and uncomfortable for the people of Guam to accept them as part of the commemoration.

But time heals all wounds, even the deeply horrible ones of wartime. We are a predominantly Roman Catholic island – the Dec. 8, 1941 invasion of Guam by Japan was on a Sunday morning – and the religion teaches forgiveness.

We hope you are able to spend some time with family this weekend. Even if you cannot attend the parade, visit the carnival at Tiyan or watch the fireworks tomorrow night. And from all of us here at Marianas Variety-Guam: Happy Liberation Day!