WATER BOY FOR JAPANESE BUNKER

 

THE BOKKONGO' AT ASAN POINT

shortly after the American return in 1944

By 1943, the Japanese were quite sure that the Americans were on their way to Guam. The US wouldn't arrive tomorrow, but the American advance westward and up the Pacific was unmistakable. 

As one can see from this map, the Americans were already in Melanesia by late 1942/early 1943 and were in Micronesia (Tarawa, Kiribati) by November of 1943. The Japanese could see where the Americans were heading, and the Marianas was going to be a star prize in a string of American victories, bringing them closer to the Japanese mainland.

So, the Japanese began fortifying Guam and put many Chamorro men, even in their teens, to work. Women, also, were forced to work clearing land for airfields and digging defensive holes.

In Asan, the Japanese anticipated an ideal break in the reef where the Americans might land. People from Asan were forced to work building Japanese defenses in the Asan area.

Danny Santos, then a 9-year-old boy, remembers.

His grandfather and uncle were forced by the Japanese to join other Asan people in building a bokkongo', or cave, in the Akalaye Fanihi area next to Asan Point.

DANNY SANTOS WITH THE BOKKONGO' BEHIND HIM

in the distance

Young as he was, Danny also had a role in it. Twice a day, he and his older relatives had to bring drinking water to his grandfather, uncle and the other Asan men digging the bokkongo' or cave.

"We got the water from the bo'bo', or natural springs, in the Asan area. There are many bo'bo' in Asan.

We'd fill up the tanks then cover it with a mesh of coconut fiber and cloth to keep the water clean. My job was to make sure the water didn't spill. We took the water to the men on a karetan karabao (karabao cart).

When we got to the bokkongo', we were instructed by the Japanese not to look at the bokkongo' or the surrounding areas too much. And there definitely was to be no conversation between us and the men working on the bokkongo'. It took a while, maybe half an hour, for all the men working on the job to get their share of the water to drink. Then we left."

KARETAN KARABAO

KÅNTA : MÅTTO UN GÅ'GA'

 

Here's a song that, I believe, is not that old. At least I've never heard it before, and in my 62 years I have been around.

The song is sung on this recording by Kun Ka'ainoa and Nolas Kaliga.

LYRICS

Måtto un gå'ga' ni gumugupu tumohge gi hilo' apagå-ho;

(An animal came which flew, and stood on top of my shoulder;)

mañuñule' un kåtta gi piku-ña ginen as nåna i bendision.

(it was bringing a letter in its beak, a blessing from mother.)

Ai sumen chågo' tano'-ho, sumen chågo' yo' na gaige;

(Oh my place is far away, I am in a distant place;)

ya ni nåna yo' ni tåta sikiera un che'lo ni mamaisa.

(and I am neither a mother nor a father not even a sibling who is alone.)

Here is the video from MicroSongs

HINENGGEN MAN ÅMKO' : CLINGY BABY

 

YANGGEN MAPOTGE' TA'LO I NANA, MÅS CHETTON I PATGON-ÑA GIYA GUIYA.

If a mother gets pregnant again, her child becomes more attached to her.

I was walking to a woman who was holding her baby daughter who was maybe a year-and-a-half old. The daughter is old enough to walk and frequently does so; she even runs a few steps now and then.

But the baby girl would not get down from her mother while I was talking to her.

Our chat was getting longer and the baby was getting heavier, so the mom tried to put the girl down more than once. But, each time she tried, the girl would grab onto her mother even more and make a fuss.

And it wasn't that the girl was afraid of me either. For a while the girl has been talking to me and has even come up to me while I'm sitting down and slaps my knees with her hands in a playful way.

Some of our mañaina (elders) believed that even a baby can sense when the mother is carrying a new child inside her womb.

There is no way a toddler aged 15 months can understand what pregnancy is, or that an unborn baby is inside the mother's womb. But the elders say the baby can feel it somehow. And thus the baby becomes clingy towards the mom.

Is it fear that the baby is being threatened by a sibling? It's hard to tell, isn't it, since babies cannot talk and explain their feelings.

And yes. The mother I was talking to, with the clingy baby, is actually expecting another child on the way.

PEACE CORPS ACCULTURATION

 

The Peace Corps is an independent agency of the US Government which enlists volunteers who go out to developing countries to assist in their progress in many areas of life.

Since all of Micronesia, except Guam, was considered "foreign" in the sense that none of those islands were formally part of the United States at the time, Peace Corps volunteers could be found all over Micronesia. In the late 1960s and early 70s, that volunteerism often blended with the cultural revolution going on in the US. Many young people in those days wanted to break out of "old fashioned" cultural norms.

A number of Peace Corps volunteers, then, sought to adopt the various Micronesian cultures in which they worked. They wanted to live like the people they were working with, and even dress, or undress, like them.

Renowned Saipan singer Candy Taman told me the story of one such Peace Corps volunteer.

It was the early 1970s, when one could still watch passengers descend from the airplanes when they landed. Security was very lax in those days. There were no jetways. The airplane door opened and passengers went down the stairs onto the tarmac. Friends and family members coming to pick up arriving passengers got up very close to the plane, separated from the runway by a chain-link fence or sometimes just a concrete or wooden barrier.

Candy related to me,

"Påle', katna måtai yo' annai hu li'e' un palao'an Peace Corps annai humuyong gi batkonaire ya tåya' ni håfafa chininå-ña! Annok todo i sisu-ña. Ya blondie na Amerikåna! Sus te guåtde!"

"Father, I almost died when I saw a Peace Corps woman exit the plane and she had no blouse on at all! All her breasts were exposed. And she was a blonde American! Oh my gosh!"

It was one thing to see a Yapese, Ulithian or Outer Islander woman topless, but a blonde, blue-eyed American lady from Wisconsin or where-have-you? It was too much.

I don't think this thing happened much, but it did happen.

Usually the Peace Corps taught in schools or helped in community projects, among other things.

A Peace Corps volunteer assisting in a water supply project in Chuuk