Smiling barefoot girls heading for school, Guam, 1945

Description: 

Photograph. Three smiling barefoot girls, wearing dresses, heading for school on Guam. Official Caption: "Rome, 6/11/45--Guam Children Head for Newly Opened School--Smiling, barefoot children head for their school, reopened shortly after the liberation of their Central Pacific Marianas Island by U.S. forces on Aug. 9, 1944. Since that time, U.S. Navy Seabees (construction battalions) on the island have trapped a new water supply, built miles (kms.) of hard surfaced roads, cleared the 225 square-mile (585 sq. km.) island of disease-carrying insects, and constructed hospitals to care for the island's sick and wounded. The Japanese invaders had kept all schools closed during their occupancy of the island, and the children returned eagerly to their studies when the U.S. liberation forces opened them.--FN photo--Serviced by Rome OWI (A list out). Approved by appropriate military authority. 6618."”Guam. 11 June 1945

Image Information

Donor: 
Dylan Utley
Accession Number: 
2012.019.370
Date: 
06/11/1945
Location: 
Hometown: 
Branch: 
Theater of Service: 
Unit: 
Campaign / Event: 
POW / KIA: 
Topical Subjects: 
School children--Guam
Girls--Clothing & dress--Guam
Smiling--Guam
Collection Level: 
Items from the service of Isaac "Ike" Bethel Utley, who was born in Smith Mills, Kentucky on 3 March 1920. Ike enlisted in the Army Air Corps on 19 January 1942. He was shipped overseas to the European Theatre and worked with a supply division based out of the city of Naples with an office set up in a residential villa. Utley worked with the Office of War Information and used their photographs in news articles to inform soldiers of the progress of the war. At war's end, Utley returned stateside. A trunk full of over 800 photographs from the O.W.I. arrived on his doorstep from his office in Italy, sender unknown. This collection consists of those photographs.
Geography: 
Guam
Latitude: 
13.467
Longitude: 
144.833
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
School children--Guam
Girls--Clothing & dress--Guam
Smiling--Guam