Monday, November 20, 2017

AT BREAK OF WAR : CHAMORROS ON CANTON ISLAND


Pan Am 1941 route map showing Canton Island


Canton Island in 1941 was a tiny, barren atoll of sand and rocks, with no native population. But it made a convenient spot where Pan American Airline's clipper planes could stop for refueling on their way from Hawaii to New Zealand.

Pan Am also had a station on Guam, and it was from Guam that Pan Am recruited workers to staff various positions on Canton Island.

That's how these Chamorro Pan Am workers got stuck on a remote atoll, far from home, when World War II broke out on December 7, 1941.



From the list of Chamorro Pan Am employees working at Canton Island in 1941

When war broke out and disrupted normal travel and communications, and with the Japanese at the outer fringes of that Pacific area, the residents of Canton Island abandoned the island. The Chamorro workers were first taken to Pago Pago in American Samoa, not too far from Canton Island. From American Samoa, they went by ship to Honolulu in January of 1942.

The Chamorro workers were (name, age, occupation, home village) :

ANDERSON, Jose (24, waiter, Sumay)
BORJA, Antonio (21, launderer, Sumay)
CARBULLIDO, Albert (23, clerk, Agat)
CHARFAUROS, Ignacio (23, mess boy, Agat)
CONCEPCION, Juan (23, waiter, Sumay)
CRUZ, Ignacio (31, cook, Sumay)
CRUZ, Vicente (25, assistant cook, Agana)
DE LEON, Jose (46, aircraft mechanic, Agana)
DUEÑAS, Ramon (47, carpenter, Sumay)
GARRIDO, Anselmo (27, aircraft mechanic, Sumay)
GUERRERO, Jose (27, cook, Agana)
GUERRERO, Magno (18, messboy, Agana)
MAFNAS, Antonio (23, waiter, Agana)
MATAGULAY, Juan (41, aircraft mechanic, Garapan, Saipan)
MATERNE, Domingo (23, laundryman, Agana)
MESA, Felix (24, utility man, Agat)
PEREZ, Vicente (20, waiter, Agana)
QUITUGUA, Enrique (30, cook, Asan)
RIVERA, Vicente (22, waiter, Agana)
SALAS, Juan (33, cook, Agana)
VALENZUELA, Francisco (27, mess boy, Agana)
WON PAT, Vicente (23, bar keeper, Sumay)

The large number of Sumay men is not surprising, given that the Pan Am base and hotel site were located in Sumay before the war.



JOSÉ PANGELINAN DE LEÓN IN 1960
One of the Chamorro Pan Am employees on Canton Island in 1941




CANTON ISLAND



PAN AM'S CANTON BASE BEFORE THE WAR

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