Hiding in the jungle. After the US declared the WWII invasion of Guam to be over on August 10, 1944, two companies of approximately 60 Japanese infantry, each still under military command, were ordered by their officers to conduct guerilla warfare against American forces. These Japanese troops followed smaller groups of stragglers who had already escaped into the rugged interior of the island to avoid combat.
Japanese Stragglers on Guam Read Post »
Cecilia Cruz Bamba (1934 – 1986) was a community organizer, senator, businesswoman and mother of 10 whose legacy is manifested in her involvement in numerous civic organizations that remain active today.
Cecilia Cruz Bamba Read Post »
Beatrice Peredo Flores Emsley (1929-1995) is best remembered as a survivor of the Japanese Occupation on Guam during World War II, and subsequently, as the voice of fellow Chamorro survivors with her powerful testimonies for the Guam War Reparations Commission in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Beatrice Flores Emsley Read Post »
After nearly 8 decades, a resolution. The war remains a sensitive issue for the Chamorros, in no small part, because, for decades, payment of war reparations by the US, for wartime atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Forces, was delayed as the number of Chamorro survivors from the war continued to diminish.
Guam World War II War Claims: A Legislative History Read Post »
Sumai/Sumay’s history dates before the Spanish colonial period, although not much is known about its pre-contact history. Findings in a cave complex in the old village site suggest that ancient Chamorros dwelled in them long before the Spanish first arrived.
CHamoru patriot priest. On 10 January 1942, all foreign Catholic missionaries in Guam were sent by the Japanese occupying forces to prisoner of war camps in Japan.
Monsignor Oscar Calvo Read Post »
Saburu Kurusu, diplomatic pouch in hand, stepped off the Pan American Airways Clipper at Sumay while rumors persisted in Guam that war with Japan was imminent.
WWII: From Occupation to Liberation Read Post »
While remembrance of World War II atrocities against the CHamorus occur every year for the massacres at Fena in Sånta Rita-Sumai and Faha and Tinta in Merizo, as well as the Manenggon concentration camp, there were atrocities by Japanese soldiers against the CHamorus that took place on smaller scales in other areas.
WWII: War Atrocities on Guam Read Post »
One of the worst atrocities that took place at the end of the Japanese occupation of Guam during World War II was the Manenggon concentration camp. In July 1944, as American forces prepared to invade Guam, Japanese forces ordered nearly the entire civilian population of Guam to move to Manenggon as well as other smaller concentration camps.
War Atrocities: Manenggon Concentration Camp Read Post »
The Fena Caves Massacre occurred on 23 July 1944, shortly after American troops invaded the island on 21 July, when Japanese soldiers killed more than 30 young men and women from Hågat and Sumai with grenades and bayonets in the caves near Fena Lake, raping many of the women before killing them. In some accounts, it is reported that 66 others barely survived the massacre.
War Atrocities: Fena Massacre Read Post »
