Guam Casualties on War’s First Day

THEY, TOO, DIED AT PEARL HARBOR

GUAM CASUALTIES ON WAR’S FIRST DAY

By Father Eric Forbes

“A date which will live in infamy,” is what American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, that Sunday morning when the Japanese attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - an attack which began America’s participation in the Second World War.

Atotal of 2,390 people lost their lives in that surprise and unprovoked attack, including sixty-eight civilians. The dead came from all over the United States, but a little-known fact is that twelve Chamorro men from Guam, none of them United States citizens but all of them American nationals serving in the United States Navy, also perished in their watery graves that Sunday morning.

Ever since the United States came into possession of Guam in 1898, the doors allowing enlistment in the US Navy were kept rather closed. A few managed to join as regular Navy recruits. Then, in the 1930s, the US Navy changed its policy and heartily welcomed recruits from Guam, but only to serve as mess attendants. Still, hundreds of young men from Guam signed up. After being trained on the island, these Guam recruits were sent all over the world, wherever American Navy ships sailed. That also meant Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese had chosen December 7th precisely because it was a Sunday morning. They knew that the Americans would be taking it easy on that day of rest. In fact, as many survivors would later share, many were recuperating from a night of drinking in town the night before. One Guam survivor, Henry Cruz, was sipping his coffee on the deck of the USS Arizona, looking over the calm waters, waiting for his buddy, another Guam recruit, Gregorio Aguon, to sleep off his hangover.

Out of nowhere, the Japanese planes appeared and released their bombs and torpedoes. At first, no one knew what

This group photo taken before the war includes USS Arizona victim Francisco Rivera, front row, left. Next to him is Jose Rivera. Back row left to right are Vincent Sablan and Jesus Cepeda. Photo by Carmelita Edwards