Hours after Battleship Row’s ruins smoldered in Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces attacked the Philippines and Guam. Historians have written extensively about Hawaii’s “day of infamy” and General MacArthur’s 1942 retreat from Corregidor. However, the story of Guam’s heroic resistance to Japanese occupation from 1941-1944 remains unknown in U.S. history.
The Chamorros, Guam’s indigenous people, governed themselves until the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Spanish colonial rule continued until the Spanish-American War in 1898 when the United States took control of the island. The Chamorros embraced some elements of Spanish and American culture while maintaining their own cultural heritage.
After World War I, the United States capitulated to Japanese demands to demilitarize Guam. Ironically, scholars associate pre-World War II appeasement with Britain’s Neville Chamberlain. But U.S. leaders pursued a similar policy in Guam. Many U.S. military commanders considered Guam indefensible, and by October 1941, most Americans evacuated the island. Only a small detachment of U.S. military personnel remained when the Japanese military invaded.
Though dismayed by the American exodus, the Chamorros never gave up hope that the United States would return and liberate Guam.
Life under Japanese occupation was brutal. Nevertheless, many brave Chamorros worked to undermine Japanese authority. Individuals and families concealed George Tweed, a U.S. navy radio operator. Tweed fled into the jungle to avoid capture and restored the radio connection to the U.S. mainland. News of U.S. military successes elsewhere boosted the island’s morale.
Sadly, Japanese soldiers tortured and murdered some Chamorros for refusing to reveal Tweed’s whereabouts. They beat one brave Catholic priest, Father Jesus Baza Duenas, until he was nearly unrecognizable and then beheaded him and three others, including a U.S. serviceman. Despite this cruelty, the Chamorros refused to break. They defied the Japanese and aided the American war effort.
After U.S. troops claimed a bloody victory on Saipan, Japanese forces on Guam sensed their fall was inevitable. Consequently, their treatment of the Chamorros worsened. Historian Don Farrell recounts a harrowing story of Juan Cabrera and Beatrice Flores Perez, two Chamorro teenagers, who somehow survived beheadings after the Japanese command accused them of supporting the Americans:
Juan never lost consciousness. Although he had been cut deeply, the bayonet had missed the jugular vein. Frightened beyond speech, his neck bleeding profusely, he lay silent and motionless… Bodies nearby jerked spasmodically. The Japanese left…Then Beatrice sat up. With blood and mud caked on her neck, she wandered aimlessly into the woods. Juan, in shock from his slashed neck, could not call out to her, and was in too much pain to go to her…[After five days] they struggled back through Japanese lines, through the jungle and the mud, and finally reached the Manengon concentration camp of the eastern side of the island…[where Nurse Joaquina Siguenza] removed the maggots from their wounds and washed away the blood and dirt.
The Chamorros endured Japanese cruelty that rivaled atrocities committed at Nanking in China and on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines. Stories of the Chamorros’ suffering during the Manengon Death March and the rapes at Fena Reservoir remain unknown to most Americans.
Guam’s inhabitants also persevered throughout the American bombardment and invasion as the prospect of friendly fire posed another danger. Finally, in late July 1944, U.S. forces retook the island, and the Chamorros began to rebuild their lives.
Don Farrell writes, “The battle-hardened Marines were stunned by the condition of the Chamorros, many of whom had marched across the island barefoot.” As the first chaotic efforts began to stem the humanitarian crisis, the resilient and self-reliant Chamorro refugees set to work. According to Farrell, the women began washing clothes and setting up makeshift tents in the refugee camps.
Still, the American liberation of Guam did not end all the Chamorros’ difficulties. The massive postwar buildup of U.S. forces on Guam redistributed the population. Some families lost ancestral lands. Still, Farrell asserts, “The Chamorro people remained steadfastly patriotic to America and thankful for the liberation of their island. It is a lasting tribute to the Chamorros of occupied Guam that during [postwar investigations] there was not one single conviction for collaboration with the enemy.”
After extensive political wrangling, the people of Guam and their descendants gained the hard-earned right to U.S. citizenship in 1950. Still, conflicts remain regarding Guam’s powers of self-government and U.S. voting rights.
The story of Guam’s heroic resistance during World War II is one every American should hear and celebrate. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Chamorros for their loyalty and sacrifice during the terrible years of Japanese occupation.
For more information on Guam in World War II, please see Don Farrell’s Pictorial History of Guam: Liberation 1944 and Guampedia.
