Annexation versus Trusteeship: Private Perspectives on U.S. Policy toward the Pacific Islands, January 1945-November 1947

Between 1945 and 1947, a public debate ensued in the United States over the future political status of the Pacific Islands that had been either conquered or liberated from the Japanese Empire during the Pacific War. This debate took place in books, articles, magazines, newspapers, and letters to politicians between advocates of annexation and advocates of United Nations trusteeship. At times, participants were not just private citizens but public officials who were writing in a private capacity. This book explores this debate in these venues as a way of providing another perspective on an additional dimension of American expansion into the postwar Pacific Basin.