Tuesday, August 21, 2012

GERMAN REMAINS


Memorial Marker to the German Dead
Navy Cemetery, Hagåtña


This German visitor, after seeing what is left of the buildings and structures built by the Spanish (Malesso' konbento), pre-war Americans (Merlyn G. Cook School) and even Japanese (some pillbox gun placements), asked me if there were any German remains on Guam.

I said, "Yes, come with me."

I think he was expecting a building, but instead I took him to the Navy cemetery in Hagåtña where the skeletal remains of German sailors are buried - sailors who died in the scuttling of the HMS Cormoran ship in Apra Harbor when America declared war on Germany in 1917.

I don't think he was aware that Guam was never part of the German colonies.  Saipan and Rota were, but not Guam.

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