Agana race riot The Agana race riot took place at Agana , Guam over the two nights of 24 – 25 December 1944 during the War in the Pacific . It was one of the most serious incidents between African American military personnel and White enlisted men during the Second World War . Background . In July 1944 , the 3rd Marine Division took two weeks to recapture Guam from the Japanese Army in a campaign that cost 1 , 600 American lives . After the battle , Guam was turned into a base for Allied operations . Five large airfields were built by Seabees , and B - 29 bomber s flew from the island to attack targets in the Western Pacific and on mainland Japan . Guam continued to station enlisted men from the 3rd Marine Division . But racial tensions began in late August when the all - black 25th Depot Company of the United States Navy started loading operations at the newly created naval supply depot . A black marine stationed on the island compared the island to " a city deep down in the South " because of the bigotry he encountered . He said : Where there are women and white and Negro men , you will find discrimination in large quantities . On Guam , discrimination against blacks involved attempted intimidation by whites who shouted racial slurs , threw rocks , and occasionally hurled smoke grenades from passing trucks into the cantonment area for black sailors of the Naval Supply Depot . Over the next three months , these racially - motivated incidents caused tensions to rise between the two groups until they erupted into a race riot on Christmas Eve , 1944 . Incidents . First confrontation . On December 24 , a group of nine African American Marines from the 25th Depot Company had been given 24 - hour holiday passes ( for exemplary service ) to go into Agana , Guam . However , while in the city white marines opened fire on the black marines while they talked to Asian women , forcing them to run for their lives . Eight marines returned to their depot safely ; however , a ninth man was missing . In response , forty African American enlisted men loaded into two trucks and drove back to Agana to find the missing man . At the same time , an African American marine - who remained at the base - called the Military Police in Agana warning them that the marines were on their way . The MPs proceeded to erect barricades across all the roads leading into Agana . When the trucks arrived at a roadblock a standoff began . Eventually tensions were calmed after a MP officer informed the marines that the missing man was found safe and returned to the 25th ' s camp . Satisfied , they turned their trucks around and returned to base . But around midnight on Christmas morning , a truck filled with armed marines drove into the segregated African American camp . They claimed that one of their marines had been hit with a piece of coral thrown by one of the African Americans . The stand off ended after the depot ' s white commanding officer told the all white marines to leave . Escalation . Racial tensions continued on Christmas Day , when an African - American enlisted man walking back to camp from Agana was shot dead by two drunk white marines . Within hours , another black enlisted man was shot and killed by another drunken white enlisted man in Agana . After the reports of the shootings reached the African - American company , after midnight on the morning of 26 December , a jeep with white service members opened fire on the African - American depot . Camp guards returned fire injuring a white MP officer . The whites in the jeep took cover and fled toward Agana being chased by a group of armed blacks . They were stopped at a roadblock outside Agana by white MPs . They were arrested and charged with unlawful assembly , rioting , theft of government property and attempted murder . Aftermath . Marine Major General Henry Louis Larsen convened a court of inquiry to investigate the riot . Many black marines were court - martialed and received prison terms . No white marines were charged in connection with the events . The NAACP later successfully campaigned to have the black marines released .