CHAMORRO GRAVE IN ANGAUR

 

CECILIA CAMACHO CABRERA

1922 to 1923

Angaur is one of the Palau islands, situated at the very southern part of the island chain.

When the Germans got control of the Caroline Islands in 1899, they got control over Palau. Around 1909, the Germans started to mine Angaur for phosphate, which makes excellent fertilizer in the production of plants. It can also be turned into phosphoric acid which is used for many things, from cosmetics to animal feed. Money could be made selling phosphorus, and the Germans wanted to make money.

But they needed workers. Angaur had a small population, so workers from all over those parts of the  Pacific where the Germans were in control were recruited to work in Angaur. Workers came from the other Caroline islands under the Germans, from China (the Germans controlled the port city of Tsingtao) and the Northern Marianas, also under the Germans.

ANGAUR PHOSPHATE MINES

When the Japanese took over all the German territory in Micronesia in 1914, they continued the mining of phosphorus in Angaur and the recruitment of workers from other areas.

So, Chamorros from Saipan, and a few from Luta, moved to Angaur.

One of them was Ramón Taisague Cabrera and his wife Consolación Campos Camacho. Ramón was born in Guam but moved to Saipan when he was a child when his parents, Antonio Garrido Cabrera and Agapita San Nicolás Taisague, moved to Saipan in the 1880s. One of their children, María, was born in Angaur in 1917 so the Cabreras were in Angaur at least by 1917.

If Cecilia, the deceased infant buried in Angaur, is indeed the child of Ramón and Consolación, as I suspect she was, then she, too, was born in Angaur but died in her first year of life. The Cabreras may have had other children born in Angaur who died there in infancy.

THE CHAMORRO LÁPIDA IS IN SPANISH

Some of the writing on the gravestone or lápida is no longer legible, but most of it can still be read and it's in Spanish. The Spanish had left Micronesia for twenty years already, but the Spanish language was still being used by older Chamorros who had been raised under Spain and by the Spanish missionaries. In 1923, when Cecilia died, all the Catholic missionaries in Micronesia (except for Kiribati and Nauru), including Guam, were Spanish.

After World War II, almost all the Chamorros on Palau went back to the Marianas, except for some Palauans who had Chamorro blood, the children of Chamorro men who had married Palauan women.

VERSIÓN ESPAÑOLA

(traducida por Manuel Rodríguez)

LÁPIDA CHAMORRA EN ANGAUR

Angaur es una de las Islas Palaos, situada en la parte más meridional de la cadena insular.

Cuando en 1899, los alemanes obtuvieron de los españoles el control de las Islas Carolinas, se hicieron también con el control de Palaos. Alrededor de 1909, los alemanes comenzaron a extraer fosfato de Angaur, que es un excelente fertilizante para la producción de plantas. También se puede convertir en ácido fosfórico que se usa para muchas cosas, desde cosméticos hasta alimento para animales. Se podía ganar dinero vendiendo fósforo, y los alemanes querían ganar dinero.

Pero necesitaban trabajadores. Angaur tenía una población pequeña, por lo que se reclutaron trabajadores de otras partes del Pacífico donde los alemanes tenían el control. Los trabajadores llegaron de las otras Islas Carolinas bajo el poder de los alemanes, de China (los alemanes controlaban la ciudad portuaria de Tsingtao) y de las Islas Marianas del Norte, también bajo soberanía germana.

Cuando en 1914, los japoneses se apoderaron de todo el territorio alemán en Micronesia, continuaron con la extracción de fósforo en Angaur y la contratación de trabajadores de otras áreas del Pacífico.

Entonces, los chamorros de Saipán y algunos de Rota se mudaron a Angaur.

Uno de ellos fue Ramón Taisague Cabrera y su esposa Consolación Campos Camacho. Ramón nació en Guam pero se había mudado a Saipán cuando era un niño, cuando sus padres, Antonio Garrido Cabrera y Agapita San Nicolás Taisague, se mudaran a Saipán en la década de 1880. Uno de sus hijos, María, nació en Angaur en 1917 por lo que los Cabrera residían en Angaur al menos desde esa fecha.

Si Cecilia, la bebé fallecida y enterrada en Angaur, es efectivamente hija de Ramón y Consolación, como sospecho que lo era, entonces ella también nació en Angaur pero murió en su primer año de vida. Los Cabrera podrían haber tenido otros hijos nacidos en Angaur que murieron allí durante su infancia.

LÁPIDA CHAMORRA EN ESPAÑOL

Parte de la escritura de la lápida ya no es legible, pero la mayor parte todavía se puede leer y está en español. Los españoles ya habían dejado Micronesia desde hacía unos veinte años, pero el idioma español todavía lo usaban los chamorros mayores que se habían criado bajo la soberanía y los misioneros españoles. En 1923, cuando falleció Cecilia, todos los misioneros católicos en Micronesia (excepto Kiribati y Nauru), incluido Guam, eran españoles.

Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, casi todos los chamorros de Palaos regresaron a las Marianas, excepto algunos palauanos que tenían sangre chamorra, hijos de hombres chamorros que se habían casado con mujeres palauanas.

ESCAPE TO THE AMERICANS!

An American PT boat during World War II

Fermin Flores was a Chamorro from Palau. His father Joaquin left Guam during the late Spanish era and, by way of Yap, eventually settled in Palau.

A Chamorro community developed in Palau, many of them living in Ngatmel, at the very northern tip of Babeldaob, the main Palauan island.

Fermin was working for the Japanese military on a special project, producing coconut oil for the needs of the Japanese as supply ships from Japan could no longer reach Palau due to American advances in the Pacific.

Thus, Fermin was able to circulate around the island quite a bit and, being fluent in Japanese, could understand everything being said around, even things that perhaps were not meant for his ears. For some reason, people would converse in his hearing, even though he shouldn't have heard things like - the possibility of killing all the Chamorros in Palau so that they would not aid the Americans should they invade.

Black smoke indicates hits by Americans on Japanese naval positions in Palau

Palau was being hit pretty badly by American bombs in the fall of 1944. Many people left their homes to seek shelter in more wooded areas, in caves, trenches and foxholes. This included the Chamorros in Ngatmel.  Everyone was unsure of the future. Would the Americans really invade? Would the civilians survive that, or would they perish alongside the Japanese troops? Would the Japanese themselves turn on the Palauan and Chamorro civilians?

Fermin was putting all this together in his head in October of 1944.  The Spanish missionaries and Hondonero family were, at least, missing, by then.  Even if people had no proof the Japanese had killed them, their absence would have raised suspicions.

Perhaps all this moved Fermin to seek a radical solution to this uncertainty. He abruptly asked his cousin Jack Borja if he would follow him.  "Where?" Jack asked. Fermin told him to never mind that and just answer the question. Jack must have sensed the underlying message and agreed to do it.

Fermin and Jack knew that American PT boats patrolled Palau's waters, but at about two miles' distance, keeping adequate length from any Japanese shore guns. Their plan was to steel away in darkness from an isolated point and make it to one of these American PT boats.

At 7PM that night in October, Fermin and Jack pushed out to sea. The waves were high and they had reason to fear that they may not make it in one piece. It took them all the way till dawn the next morning to reach the PT boat, which thought the two Chamorros were Japanese. Once they realized they were not Japanese, the Americans brought them aboard.

The Americans brought Fermin and Jack to Peleliu, in the southern part of Palau, which was now in American hands. The Americans obtained information from the two about Palau and the Japanese military strength there and overall conditions.

But then came the next thing, which must have been quite a surprise. The Americans said that they would rescue the Chamorros from Ngatmel. The plan was for Fermin and Jack to go back to Ngatmel and inform the Chamorros about the plan. That is what Fermin and Jack did. Then, in December of 1944, the Chamorros did as planned.  On three long boats, 119 Chamorros from Ngatmel reached an American ship lying outside Palau.

The Americans took the Chamorros to Angaur, another southern Palau island taken by the Americans, where a refugee camp was set up. The Chamorros of Palau were now safely out of Japanese hands. The Japanese would not surrender Palau for another nine months or so. One can only imagine what danger the Chamorros avoided by not living under the Japanese for another nine months.

Ruins of the Japanese Lighthouse at the Northern Tip of Palau

The day after the Chamorros escaped from Ngatmel, the Japanese noticed that no Chamorro showed up to work. Some of the Chamorros did the cooking for the Japanese. The Japanese figured the man on duty at the lighthouse should have spotted them. When they interrogated him, they found out that the man fell asleep.

(For further info, read Fermin Flores' book Vision Fulfilled)

TILL DEATH DO US PART

The hill in Ngatpang, Palau

Site of the execution

A Chamorro woman in her 20s, married to a Filipino, with two young children ages 5 and 3.  All of them - shot dead by the Japanese.

Agapito Cairela Hondonero was a Filipino who left his home country and settled in Yap around 1928 or 1929.  He was employed at the  "American" weather station on Yap, an island which was under the Japanese at the time. This station had a working relationship with the Manila Observatory, sending weather reports there. As the Philippines was still under American control at the time, he was considered an "American national."

This is not the same as a U.S. citizen. An American national owes allegiance to the U.S. and falls under the protection of the U.S., but does not have all the benefits of U.S. citizenship. Up until 1950, people born on Guam were American nationals only, unless they acquired U.S. citizenship some other way.  In 1950, the Organic Act granted U.S. citizenship to those born on Guam who weren't already U.S. citizens by another route.

Filipinos were considered American nationals till their country's independence from the U.S. in 1946. Being an American national alone would have put Hondonero in a bad light to the Japanese in Yap.

When war was declared between the U.S. and Japan in 1941, Hondonero was put in jail by the Japanese in Yap.

Hondonero was married to a Chamorro.  Her name was Filomena Adriano Untalan.  Her father, Jesus Guzman Untalan, had moved to Yap, not from Saipan (as the majority of Chamorros on Yap had), but from Guam. Her mother, Mecaila Chuapaco Adriano, was also a Chamorro from Guam.

In July of 1944, Hondonero was sent by the Japanese to Palau, along with two Jesuit priests (one Spanish, the other Colombian) and a Spanish Jesuit brother.  Hondonero's wife Filomena, and their two children, Baltazar, around 5, and Carolina, around 3, accompanied him to Palau.

In Palau, the priests were joined by three other Spanish missionaries, two priests and a brother.  The missionaries and the Hondoneros were together, waiting their fate at the hands of the Japanese.  Alfonso Untalan Diaz, a nephew of Filomena, happened to be in Palau and managed to talk to her.  He told her that she and the two children were not considered spies and that the Japanese were willing to set them free. Filomena told him that she knew the Japanese meant to kill her husband, and that she would not abandon him now.

On September 18, having heard of the Japanese losses in the Marianas and the American attack on Peleliu, an important island in the southern part of Palau, with heavy American shelling going on daily in the main section of Palau, the Japanese expected that an American invasion could happen at any moment.  They feared that the missionaries and the Filipino weather man would run to the Americans and help them with intelligence. The Japanese decided to kill them all.

Two trucks came in the early evening of September 18 to take them to their executions. The shooting happened on Ngatpang Hill, called Gasupan Daijo by the Japanese. The trucks stopped and the prisoners were taken into a jungle area, where they found a trench freshly dug. They were informed that they had to die. While the priests chanted, the whole group was made to kneel in front of the hole.  Japanese lined up behind each prisoner. The soldiers were told to shoot one prisoner each at the back of the head. They were to use pistols, since using rifles at such close range would be dangerous to the bystanders.

Hondonero and his family knelt on the far left. When the order was given to fire, the Japanese standing behind Filomena was so taken with emotion that he misfired. Filomena was carrying her baby girl on her back. The girl started to cry at the sound of the guns. Since he was faltering, the Japanese soldier was replaced by another soldier who came up and shot the girl, killing Filomena at the same time.

The three Jesuits from Palau, killed with the three Jesuits from Yap and the Hondonero family

The bodies of all ten were buried in the hole.  When the Japanese in Palau heard that their country surrendered to the U.S. on August 15, 1945, they decided to cover their tracks.  The bodies of these ten dead were exhumed, burned and what was left was buried in a new spot, but not far from the original site. The Japanese agreed to tell the Americans, once they came, that the prisoners were sent off to the Philippines and that they did not know what happened to them afterwards.

But, their crime was not hidden enough. The Americans soon found out about it and the Japanese soldiers involved were tried for it and found guilty. The leading culprit committed suicide before he could face trial. The trials, by the way, happened on Guam after the war.

For the Untalan family, the bitter memories are coupled with the failure to find the remains of their loved ones. There have been several attempts to do so and some spots have been found that could very well have been the site, but no human remains, so far, have been found.

Alfonso Untalan Diaz, nephew of Filomena, did get her rosary and crucifix, given to him by a local girl who got it from a Japanese soldier.

The soil of Palau remains the final resting place of a Chamorro mother, her Filipino husband, and their two children.  One was killed on suspicion of being an American spy; killed without trial, without evidence and without witnesses. The wife was killed because she would not leave her husband.  The two little ones were killed, as the Japanese officer said, because, with mother and father dead, there would be no one to take care of them.  A very sad tale.

Depiction of the Execution Scene

One of the Japanese at the scene indicated the positions of the ten people killed.  There are only nine spots shown, but that is because Filomena was carrying Carolina on her back when both were killed at the same time.