Flag of Guam

What the flag of Guam looks like

The flag of Guam is a dark blue rectangle edged on all four sides by a thin red border. In the center is the Guam seal. The seal is shaped like a Chamorro sling stone, an almond shape, and it has a red outline. The word "GUAM" appears on it in red letters.

Inside the seal is a landscape scene. A coconut palm leans over a beach, and the sea in front of it is shown in light blue. A traditional sailing canoe, called a proa, sails across the water. The scene shows the mouth of the Hagåtña River in Hagåtña Bay, with the cliff of Two Lovers Point in the background. A small version is shown in the Guam flag emoji.

Guam flag meaning and symbolism

The red border represents the blood spilled during World War II and earlier Spanish sovereignty, and was added to remember the suffering of the Japanese occupation. The rest of the meaning is found in the seal. Its shape recalls the sling stones used by the Chamorro people, the indigenous inhabitants of the island, for hunting and sport. The proa is a traditional outrigger sailing canoe.

The coconut palm, the river mouth and the bay show the natural setting of Guam, and the cliff in the background is Two Lovers Point. Together the elements of the seal show the traditional culture and the natural setting of the island.

History of the Guam flag

Guam was under Spanish rule until 1898, when it passed to the United States after the Spanish-American War. The Chamorro people and the island under Spanish rule had no flag of their own. Guam remained under US naval administration, apart from the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, from 1941 to 1944.

The first Guam flag was designed in 1917 by Helen Paul, the wife of a US naval officer stationed on the island, and had a blue field with the emblem but no red border. It was formally adopted in 1930. The version with the red border was approved by military governor Charles Alan Pownall, and the present flag is dated 9 February 1948. Since 1950 Guam has been an unincorporated, organized territory of the United States under the Organic Act, and its residents are US citizens. The Guam flag is flown beside the flag of the United States.

Guam and the United States

Guam is a territory of the United States, located in the western Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Islands. Its capital is Hagåtña. People living on Guam are US citizens but do not vote in presidential elections and elect a non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives. For that reason the island uses its own territorial flag, as do other territories such as Puerto Rico and American Samoa.