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| flickr.com |
FIRST PUBLIC EXECUTION ON GUAM BY THE JAPANESE
January 6, 1942
January 6, 1942
On Three Kings Day (Tres Reyes), the Japanese publicly executed two Chamorro men. One was caught passing a hidden note to an American internee. Alfred Leon Guerrero Flores was visiting an American colleague from work, who was then confined at the Hagåtña Cathedral, which was used by the Japanese to house the American prisoners arrested after the fall of Guam to the Japanese. Flores was asking the American what to do with dynamite that had been left behind at work.
The second man arrested was Francisco Borja Won Pat, half-Chinese, half-Chamorro, the brother of future U.S. Congressman Antonio Borja Won Pat. Won Pat was an employee of the Pomeroy company and one side of the story is that the company managers told employees they could help themselves to the company inventory since war had broken out. The Japanese, however, considered it theft, perhaps, since they said this to others, it all belonged to Japan now.
The two men were brought to Pigo Cemetery, and a crowd of local people were ordered to attend. After having been blessed by Påle' Oscar Calvo, the two stood blindfolded in front of open graves and were shot by a firing squad of five Japanese soldiers.
Flores' mother screamed, "Adios lahi-ho; si Yu'us ga'chong-mo!" (Farewell, my son; God be your companion.)
Had those men not been executed, who knows how our island would have benefited. They both came from families who made great contributions to Guam. This was one of those tragedies of war. Thank you for sharing this story.
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