--- description: From the Marshall Islands, which have been held successively by Spain, Germany and Japan, came two solemn petitions. One, bearing signatures or fingerprints of 835 natives on Arno Atoll (one of 32... title: POSTWAR: We All Agree image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # POSTWAR: We All Agree by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 9, 1945 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Jul 9, 1945 4:00 AM CUT From the Marshall Islands, which have been held successively by Spain, Germany and Japan, came two solemn petitions. One, bearing signatures or fingerprints of 835 natives on Arno Atoll (one of 32 islands in the group\*) declared: “When this war is over we request as it is written below. “1\. We ask the United States of America to look over us. “2\. And it should also keep our customs. “3\. We want the U.S. as long as we live on the world.” The other, signed by 1,025 natives on Ma jura Atoll, seconded the suggestion : “We all agree to this, that the America should not give away these islands to any other nation. “We have known Americans for 89 years and Americans have lived with us since 1857\. They are not new to us. “We want and ask the United States of America to be our guardian and protector.” \*Four of which (Wotje, Maloelap, Mille, Ja-luit) are still held by the Japanese. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6789761/postwar-we-all-agree/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6789761/postwar-we-all-agree/"},"headline":"POSTWAR: We All Agree","datePublished":"1945-07-09T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T18:20:59.036Z","description":"From the Marshall Islands, which have been held successively by Spain, Germany and Japan, came two solemn petitions. One, bearing signatures or fingerprints of 835 natives on Arno Atoll (one of 32...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6789761/postwar-we-all-agree/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6789761/postwar-we-all-agree/","name":"POSTWAR: We All Agree"}}]}] ```