Joaquin Flores Lujan (1920-2015), commonly known as “Tun Jack” and “Kin Bitud” to family and friends, is part of a legacy of more than 100 years of CHamoru blacksmiths.
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 »
The word “låncho” comes from the word Spanish word “rancheria” and refers to Chamorro farms, ranches, gardens, or family property in the hålomtåno’ (jungle), and even properties along beaches. They can be small or large, and can be active farming ventures with crops and livestock, or can be overgrown jungle in which families harvest wild tinanom, fruta yan gollai siha (plants/crops, fruits and vegetables).
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 »
On July 15 and 16, 1944, with the American forces approaching Guam near the end of the Japanese occupation of the island in World War II, Japanese soldiers massacred nearly fifty Chamorro men and women from Malesso’ in two separate confrontations in the Tinta and Faha areas just outside the village of Malesso’.
War Atrocities: Tinta and Faha Massacres, Malesso Read Post »
Ben Blaz (1928 – 2014) was a distinguished public elected official and military officer. He lived his life in service to his country and carrying the banner of his home island wherever his service took him.
Congressman Vicente “Ben” Garrido Blaz Read Post »
Some months before the end of the Pacific War, the US Navy impaneled a war crimes commission for Guam. The responsibility of the commission, a national one rather than an international one as at Nuremberg and Tokyo, was to bring to trial suspected Japanese and native war criminals.
US Navy War Crimes Trials in Guam Read Post »
