NEVER SENT TO JAPAN

 

On January 10, 1942, the Japanese shipped off to Prisoner of War camps in Japan all the Americans they found on Guam after they invaded the island on December 10, 1941. Around 500 people, military and civilian.

Except for TWO people.

These two Americans stayed on Guam for the entire Japanese Occupation. They were never sent, like the other Americans, to prisoner of war camps in Japan.

Who were they? And why were they exempted?

They were LOUIS FURTADO and MARY MAGDALENE CRUZ, and they had two things in common. First, they were born in Hawaii. Second, they were both of Portuguese ancestry.

Why should those two things matter?

First, Furtado claimed that the Japanese told him that he would not be imprisoned because the Japanese considered Hawaii "conquered territory." Sure, the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, but they never conquered Hawaii. Who knows why they would have said so.

Second, both Furtado and Cruz, whose maiden name was Vinhaça (sometimes spelled Vinhasa), were of Portuguese ancestry. Portugal was neutral in World War II, neither an enemy nor an ally of Japan. Still, Furtado and Cruz were both born in Hawaii and had American citizenship, even though their families had come over from Portugal. So it remains a mystery why the Japanese would have let these two go free, while all other Americans were shipped off to Japan.

FURTADO

FURTADO AND PÅLE' OSCAR CALVO

Meeting again in Hawaii in 1946

Furtado, a married man with children, was sent to Guam in 1941 to work for the US Navy. When the Japanese bombed Guam on December 8, 1941, Furtado was asked by Governor McMillin to supervise the destruction of fuel on Cabras Island so as not to fall into enemy hands. He then fled into the jungle trying to avoid the Japanese. But he finally turned himself in when the island was firmly in Japanese hands. When they found out he was from Hawaii, the Japanese demanded he tell them what he knew about Pearl Harbor and American defenses in Hawaii. When he refused to, they beat him up.

He was told by the Japanese that they'd let him stay on Guam, but they kept an eye on him and punished him now and then for singing God Bless America, teaching Chamorro children to sing it and for other minor infractions. He also kept a radio, illegal under the Japanese, but got away with it till the very end. Generally, he was left unmolested, and he tried to be invisible as much as he could, farming on borrowed land. He is also credited for composing the Uncle Sam song, along with Pedro "Seboyas" Rosario.

He was ordered by the Japanese to work on the defense projects of the Japanese. He hated the idea. First, he did not want to aid the Japanese war effort. Second, he had heard that the Japanese had killed entire work crews after the job was done. So he had someone pour boiling water on him so he could claim injury and be unfit to work. He was supposed to scald only his hand, but the water scalded much of his upper body, leaving scars. He was hospitalized for ten days.

When he was caught with the radio, he fled into the jungle. That was hard on him, due to the lack of food. Luckily this was right before the American return and he finally met up with some Marines and he was brought inside American lines.

Word was sent to his wife and children, father and siblings that he had made it through the Japanese Occupation with his life intact. In due time he returned to Hawaii, and lived to the ripe old age of 96, dying in 2002 in Hawaii. Too bad I didn't know about him back then. Imagine the stories I could've heard from him.

MARY MAGDALENE CRUZ

The next Hawaii-born person left alone by the Japanese on Guam lead a quieter life than Furtado's, being the wife of Antonio Ignacio Cruz, familian Fånggo, a school teacher in Piti in 1940.

Mary Magdalene Vinhaça (sometimes spelled Vinhasa) was born in Kona, Hawaii. Her parents were of Portuguese background. 

Antonio Cruz was a teacher and somehow was in Hawaii in the late 1920s. He and Mary met and got married. Their oldest child was born in Hawaii, but they soon moved to Guam, where the rest of the children were born.

Antonio died in 1970 and Mary lived the remainder of her life in Hawaii. All of her children also moved away from Guam. Mary died in 1980 in Hawaii.

May they rest in peace.