Slain By Their Masters

SLAIN

BY THEIR MASTERS

By Father Eric Forbes

Japanese ship, SS Shoun Maru, being attacked and eventually sunk by US planes on June 21, 1944. Fear of the Americans was what drove the Japanese to retaliate against any Chamorro or foreigner suspected of espionage or sabotage, whether guilty or innocent

That hundreds of Chamorros on Guam were directly killed by Japanese soldiers during the two-and-ahalf years they governed the island is well known. Guam had been under the United States since 1898 and the Japanese had every reason to be wary of the Guam Chamorros as being attached to and loyal to the American cause. What is less known is that the Japanese also turned on some Chamorros of the Northern Marianas; islands that had been under Japanese rule since 1914; where younger generations of Chamorros grew up fluent in Japanese and educated to give up their lives, if necessary, for the Emperor. On the island of Rota, smallest of the four main southern Mariana islands, four Chamorro men were executed by the Japanese between June 25 and July 8, 1944. For thirty years, these men had lived as subjects of Japan. All had at least some knowledge of the Japanese language. They followed the Japanese system of life, and the Chamorros of Rota and Saipan were considered so much a part of the Japanese family that many were sent to American Guam to work as interpreters. What caused these Japanese masters to turn against their own wards?

Brother Miguel Timoner, SJ - Spanish Jesuit poisoned then bayoneted.

This is what's left of a building built in Tatachok during the Japanese period.

Satellite map showing the areas of the killings, both Tatachok and Tatgua. By June of 1944, Rota was completely cut off from the rest of the world. The Americans had taken control of Saipan and Tinian beginning in that month of June. The Japanese military on Rota could no longer communicate with their higher-ups on Saipan, nor receive food, supplies or reinforcements from the bigger islands. All they knew was that the Americans were at their doorstep, and fear and paranoia stepped in.

Although the Americans never did invade Rota, American planes and ships did their part in sending a clear message that they were now in control. Bombs and bullets sent Japanese and Chamorros scurrying for cover, and the Japanese nervously expected their beaches to be stormed at any moment.

News that some Rota Chamorros were possibly trying to communicate with the Americans offshore sent the Japanese into a frenzy. Fifteen or so Rota men were rounded up on suspicion of treason. Of these fifteen, five were judged guilty and the others set free. Some, they said, had lit fire signals on the beach, or spread white sheets on the ground for American planes to see. Notebooks with sensitive information on Japanese military assets were allegedly found, believing these to be shared with the Americans once they came. Some were accused of cutting telephones lines and of spreading demoralizing propaganda among the Chamorros.

The first to be executed were Bonifacio Esteves and another unnamed man, both on June 25. A firing squad of six Japanese soldiers shot them dead, after they had been given a cigarette to smoke. Esteves was identified only because some soldiers said the island shoemaker was one of the two, and Esteves was the only shoemaker at the time. Then, two weeks later, a Spanish Jesuit brother, Miguel Timoner, and his Chamorro companion, the elderly Ignacio de la Cruz, were executed.

The Japanese offered coffee secretly laced with cyanide to Timoner, whose shaking hands spilled some of the coffee. He took a small sip and had an instant reaction, refusing to drink more. He fell to the ground in excruciating pain, clutching his stomach. The Japanese thrust a bayonet into his abdomen, finishing him off. De la Cruz was put some distance away, so he did not see what happened to Timoner. When he was offered the poisoned coffee, he was so thirsty he drank the whole cup in one gulp, and he fell back dead. The last victim, an unnamed Chamorro male, was shot on July 8. An unhappy end for all of them, who, even if they had tried to contact the Americans, did little to harm their Japanese masters, as the U.S. waited till 1945 to peacefully stroll into Rota and inform the Japanese that the war was over.

*Funding has been provided to Pacific Historic Parks from Humanities Guåhan and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal ARP Act of 2021.*