THE MURDER OF BROTHER MIGUEL

BROTHER MIGUEL TIMONER, SJ

While a great many people know about Guam's Father Jesús Baza Dueñas, killed by the Japanese just before the American return to Guam in 1944, very few people have even heard of Luta's Brother Miguel Timoner.

Timoner is Luta's Father Dueñas. He was executed by the Japanese in Luta around June 5, 1944, just a month ahead of Father Dueñas.

BEFORE THE WAR

Miguel Timoner Guadera was born in in 1892 in the town of Manacor, on the island of Mallorca in the Baleares, a part of Spain.

MIGUEL TIMONER

before he left for the Jesuit mission of Micronesia

He joined the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) but to remain as a brother, not to become a priest. As a brother, he was assigned to assist Father Juan Pons as his secretary. Pons was in charge of the Jesuit novitiate in Veruela near Zaragoza in Spain. The novitiate is the first formal step in becoming a member of a religious Order or congregation. It is a time spent in rigorous discipline and training.

Pons felt called to the missions and left, in 1921, to work in the Jesuit missions of the Carolines. Timoner followed Pons, ever his ready assistant. When Pons was assigned to Luta (Rota) in 1937, Timoner moved to Luta, as well. Timoner dedicated his whole life to nursing Pons who suffered from terrible ulcers on his legs. Pons eventually died in Luta in March of 1944.

TROUBLE WITH THE JAPANESE

In June of 1944, the Americans began making war on Luta. American ships and planes bombed the island intensely. The 800 or so Chamorros, many of whom lost their homes to American bombs, were sheltered in caves on orders from the Japanese. The Japanese eluded air raids as much as they could, and a thick feeling of dread overcame the Japanese as they expected the Americans to land any time. Even though the Americans never did invade Luta, the Americans sure made the Japanese think it was just about to happen.

Just as it happened on Guam, the Japanese were put in a volatile mood due to their fears of an American invasion, helped by locals feeding them information about Japanese defense positions. The Japanese on Luta were on high alert for any signs of Chamorro betrayal.

In this tense atmosphere, a dozen or so Chamorros were suspected of being American spies. After investigating their cases, only five of the suspects were deemed guilty of espionage. The rest were let go. Timoner was included among the five "guilty."

ESPIONAGE

What were these acts of espionage? The Japanese observed that torches, flashlight signals and different colored flares would go off at night, and that the American ships responded with their own signals. It was as if someone on shore was communicating with the American ships.

During the day, the Japanese discovered wide sheets of cloth spread out over the beach, as if to signal American planes. They would also find the remains of bonfires, some of them shaped like an arrow pointing to the Japanese air strip at Sinapalo. If lit at night, these fires could be seen and, even during the day, their ashen remains could still be seen by a passing plane.

As the Japanese investigated and interrogated people, they claimed to find secret notebooks and letters among these five "spies," indicating Japanese positions, describing weaponry, ammunition and numerical strength. Some of the information dealt with areas off-limits to the civilian population, indicating that these suspects trespassed into prohibited territory.

The Japanese claimed that these five individuals recorded all this sensitive and confidential military information to give to the Americans once they came. In addition, the Japanese claimed that these men cut off Japanese telephone lines, and spread demoralizing rumors among the people. Finally, the Japanese claimed that some Chamorros mentioned that these five men said they would contact the Americans once they arrived, in order to assist them, and some of these five men admitted, so the Japanese claimed, all the above to the Japanese when they were questioned.

Unfortunately, the records spelling out the specific instances of espionage by each of the five individually did not survive the war. We do not know what exact evidence was obtained (if at all) against Timoner, nor the others. All these accusations concerning these five men were based on oral statements by the Japanese involved in the killing of the five.

For the Japanese command in Luta, it was all cut and dry. They were convinced these five men were siding with the Americans and doing everything possible to harm the Japanese and assist the enemy. The Japanese commander in Luta asked the higher command in Guam what to do with these five men. Guam replied that the Japanese Army policy was to execute spies. No trial was considered necessary. The Japanese commander on Guam was judge, lawyer and jury.

THE EXECUTIONS

The first execution took place around June 25 along the cliff line in Tatåchok, not far from Songsong. A Japanese captain, Akira Tokunaga, had two Chamorro men taken to the spot and told them they were to be shot for the crime of espionage. Both men were given a cigarette each to smoke right before the execution. Six Japanese soldiers formed a firing line and shot them. Since the written records were lost after the war, one man was never identified and the second man was believed to be Bonifacio Esteves. Esteves was the only shoe maker in Luta at the time and several Japanese remembered that a Chamorro shoe maker was one of the two shot that day.

Around two weeks later, it was Brother Miguel Timoner's turn. A Japanese officer claimed he wanted more time to confirm the evidence against Timoner before killing him. What specific evidence surfaced was never identified. Around the 5th of July, the Japanese ordered Tomás Cruz Mangloña, Valentino Songao and Tomás Mendiola to fetch Brother Miguel and another man, the elderly Ignacio de la Cruz, from the cave where they were sheltered along with many other civilians.

By this time, the Japanese command had moved its headquarters to Tatgua, as American bombardment had rendered the Tatåchok area unusable. Timoner and de la Cruz were taken to Tatgua. There, Yoshio Takahashi, a military doctor, added potassium cyanide, a deadly poison, to a cup of coffee and offered it to Timoner, who did not know about the poison.

Timoner took a sip of the coffee but his shaking hands spilled some of it and he had an instant reaction, refusing to drink any more. He fell to the ground in great pain, clutching his stomach. Eventually he was able to sit up, but he writhed in agony. He had taken enough to poison to affect him, but not enough to kill him quickly. Takahashi sent a runner to inform Tokunaga of the situation and to ask what to do next. The runner came back with the instruction to finish off Timoner. It was seen as an act of mercy to kill him quickly, rather than let him suffer the effects of the poison some more.

Takahashi ordered a guard, Shigeo Koyama, to kill Timoner. Koyama hesitated at first, but then plunged his rifle's bayonet into the left side of Timoner's chest. Just one thrust, and Timoner fell back and died quietly.

Next, it was de la Cruz's turn. He was taken some distance away from Timoner's dead body, where it can be assumed de la Cruz could not see what happened to the Jesuit brother. De la Cruz was seated at a table where several Japanese were also sitting, with cups on the table as if they were drinking. Takahashi gave de la Cruz a cup of coffee laced with potassium cyanide, but this time de la Cruz was so thirsty that he drank the whole cup at once, after which he fell back and died in an instant.

After an American air raid, the Japanese and some Korean workers buried the two bodies in the area. No markers were used to identify the graves.

Thanks to a Chamorro passing by, Ramon Blanco Barcinas*, who knew Ignacio de la Cruz and saw him at the execution site, we can be sure it was de la Cruz who was killed. Barcinas also testified that it was Timoner who was also killed that day. Barcinas had been digging trenches and had run past the area when the American air raid began. De la Cruz was around 70 years old, and some Japanese witnesses stated that the second man killed the same day as Timoner was an older man.

The last civilian to be executed was an unidentified Chamorro male, shot by two Japanese soldiers in the Tatgua area on or around July 8.

WAR CRIMES

Scene from the Guam War Crimes Trials

The Americans never invaded Luta, as they did Saipan, Tinian and Guam. The war was actually over when the Americans simply showed up on Luta and the Japanese surrendered, in September of 1945. In time, all the Japanese military on Luta, including the killers of the five civilians, were sent back to Japan. It can be assumed that the Americans had not learned yet, about the killings.

But, in time, they did and the Japanese involved in these killings were arrested in Japan and brought to Guam in 1949 for trial as war criminals. Tokunaga, the commander on whose orders everyone else acted, Takahashi the doctor who mixed the poison with the coffee, and Koyama, the guard who bayoneted Timoner, were all found guilty and given sentences, the longest being Tokunaga's seven years. But these sentences were shortened due to the time these three already had already spent in jail before trial. They did their time at Japan's famous Sugamo prison, used by the Americans for Japanese war criminals.

The main argument of the prosecutors was that the accused executed the five men without the benefit of a trial, which violated the rights of espionage suspects as stated in the Hague Conventions.

ACCURACY

What little you can find in books, news articles and the internet about Timoner and the others sometimes state that he was shot or beheaded. The records from the war crimes trial show that Timoner was neither shot nor beheaded. He was poisoned then stabbed with a bayonet.

Some sources also state that he, and the others, were sent to Saipan first for questioning by the Japanese. This is never mentioned in the testimony of the Japanese arrested for their executions. Until I find documentation on this, I'll leave it alone for now.

POTASSIUM CYANIDE

This poison prevents cells from "breathing," using oxygen absorbed by the blood. In short time, the brain just shuts down and dies. If taken in sufficient amount, death can occur immediately. This was the poison of choice for such famous Nazi suicides as Eva Braun (Hitler's wife), Hermann Goering, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Erwin Rommel.

Based on the war crimes trial records and early biographical notes in old Spanish press and some missionary letters.


* The documents state his name as Ramon B. Blanco, but this error is due to the fact that Northern Marianas Chamorros were still using the Spanish naming system where the father's surname comes first, followed by the mother's surname. There was no Ramon B. Blanco in Luta in 1944, but there was a Ramon Blanco Barcinas (American style naming), in Spanish style naming Ramon Barcinas Blanco.