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.

MELCHERS AND GUAM

The 19th century saw a lot more contact between the Marianas and the rest of the world than had been previously seen.

The British and American whaling ships were a constant source of news, activity and opportunity for our little island for much of the 1800s. Businesses associated with the whaling enterprise then came into contact with Guam and the Marianas.

Case in point, the Melchers Company in Honolulu.

The Honolulu trading company was a branch of the original Melchers Company established in Bremen in modern-day Germany. The founder of that company had three sons and one of them, Gustav by name, founded the Hawaii branch in 1852 along with a partner named Gustav Reiners.

As many whaling ships either came from Honolulu or were on their way to Honolulu before or after touching at Guam, Honolulu became a conduit of merchandise and information for Guam. Thus, it's no surprise that the Melchers Company had some kind of relationship with the Spanish Governor of the Marianas. The Company urged whaling captains to call on the Company before they sailed for Guam. Perhaps the whaling captain could bring some supplies, merchandise or news to the Governor. One Spanish governor used the services of Melchers when the Governor wanted to return deposits made to the Spanish government in the Marianas to whaling captains based in Hawaii.

When a Hawaiian commercial ship, the Pfeil, was condemned at Guam because of serious damage, it was put up for sale and Melchers bought it.

Another Guam connection with Melchers was Richard Millinchamp, an Englishman who had previously settled in the Bonin Islands but who later definitively moved to Guam and stayed. He also had prior connections in Hawaii and legally appointed Melchers to represent Millinchamp's interests in Hawaii.

Richard Millinchamp's signature

The contact between Guam and Melchers did not last long. Melchers was bought out by someone else and, as the whaling business subsided, the connection between Guam and Hawaii cooled down as well.

The Melchers Building, built in 1854 on Merchant Street, is the oldest commercial building in Honolulu.

A CHAMORRO BOXER IN HAWAII

Chamorros in Hawaii were not as low-profile as one might imagine a hundred years ago.

For example, a Chamorro from Guam named Joe (born Jose) Castro was a bit of a boxing celebrity in Hawaii at one time.

We don't know who he was, other than that he was originally from Guam. In fact, he billed himself as the "Guam Wonder" in the ring. Castro didn't box just in Hawaii. In the early 1900s, he was in Stockton, California, and did so well he was able to come back to Hawaii with money in his pocket.

He had a bit of bad luck, though, in the Aloha State.

His wife sent a small boy to a Chinese eatery to buy ten cent's worth of poi. But the missus didn't give the boy the necessary dime, and the Chinese owner wouldn't part with his poi.

Mrs. Castro then went personally to see the Chinese owner, and a verbal exchange took place. That's when The Guam Wonder came in and used his boxer's fists to do the talking. He, and his wife, were arrested. Eventually, both the Chinese owner and Castro coughed up the money to pay the court fees and end the case.

Turned out to be very expensive poi.

POI

(made from taro)

A DIVORCE IN HAWAII

A most scandalous incident, leading to a bitter divorce, involved a Chamorro mestizo by the name of V. E. (Ben) Pangelinan and his wife Amy.

Ben was probably the son of Vicente Pangelinan, also known as Ben, who left Guam and settled in the Big Island. Ben senior died in 1903.

Ben junior worked for the inter-island transport the W. G. Hall.  This work took Ben away from his home, where his wife Amy was quite alone. Or so he thought.

Between 10 and 11 o'clock on the night of September 30, 1896, Ben came home, much to the surprise of Amy and her male friend, sleeping in the spot where Ben should have been.

Finding the door of the bedroom locked, Ben kicked it open. Ben had had his suspicions for some time, and planned this unexpected return for just this purpose.

Jumping out of bed, without a stitch of clothing on him, the man, later to be identified as one Arthur Jones, a clerk at a shoe store, tried to escape through the bedroom door. But Ben punched him hard enough to stun him into immobility. Ben then put Jones in a neck hold and proceeded to beat his head till it was bloody. Ben then forced Jones to sit, as naked as the day he was born, on a chair till the police came.

Jones was charged with unlawful entry onto private property. His hearing the next day had to be postponed, as he entered the court room with one eye covered with a leather patch.

Amy was also arrested, back in the day when one could get arrested for something called adultery.

PICK UP YOUR MONEY!

Two guys, possibly brothers, had $1,116 in an account on Guam in 1864.  They were suspected to be living in Hawaii, though, at the time, and I suspect the Spanish government on Guam asked Mr. Wyllie, the Hawaiian Foreign Affairs Minister, to get in contact with the two.

We have no idea who they were and why they had that amount of money stashed at the government treasury on Guam.

They had Spanish first names, Jose and Doroteo (misspelled Dorateo in the notice).

But their last name, Baranas, is a mystery.

Baranas is not a known Spanish surname.  Perhaps it was also misspelled?

The name doesn't appear, as far as we know, in any Guam document.

Is it Filipino? There is a place called Barana in the Philippines. There may be some people with that last name.

Baranas doesn't sound Chamorro.

BARCINAS?

It's just a hunch, but try, if you will, to have the ears of a 19th century American or British clerk (they were often the clerks in Hawaii at the time), trying to spell the unfamiliar name Barcinas.  Remember, these guys are not well-acquainted with Spanish, or Chamorro, sounds. Chances are some Chamorros couldn't even spell their own names, and clerks often didn't even ask you to spell it. The clerk decided how to spell it.

We know, for example, that, in the Hawaiian records, there was a man identified as a native of Guam living in Hawaii since the 1860s. In the Hawaiian records, he is named Jose Bassinus. BAH - SEEN - US. And, one of the 2 Baranas guys in the notice is Jose.

Sounds very suspiciously close to Barcinas. Look at the way our younger, Americanized Chamorros try to spell Chamorro....using their Americanized ears. Månnge' become mungy to some of them.

Here's another reason why I suspect Baranas could really be Barcinas. Remember that initial documents were done by hand, not printed, as in a newspaper. In the penmanship they had in those days, Barcinas would have been written something like the above. You can see how someone unfamiliar with the name Barcinas, depending on just how clear or unclear the writer was, with the C and I close together, could think it was an A. Did the typesetter or newspaper clerk look at something handwritten and misread it? It looks very suspicious to me.

So I wouldn't be surprised is Baranas was some guy's spelling of Barcinas. But all I am willing to say is it's one possibility among many.

One clue : there were, in fact, two brothers named Jose and Doroteo Barcinas. And they seem to have been away from Guam in the 1860s, the time of this notice.

In the end, we have to just admit it's a mystery who they were.

I wonder if they ever did get a hold of their money.  In today's values, their stash was worth around $15,000.

THE AFLAGUE SISTERS

In the early 1900s, several sisters, descendants of a Chamorro settler, enjoyed great success entertaining Hawaiians with song and dance.

Ignacio Aflague left Guam in the 1870s and eventually set up home in Hawaii, on the Big Island. In 1885, he married a Portuguese settler, Maria (or Mary) de Rego Souza. The couple had eight children together.

One son Joseph, had Enos for a middle name. Pronounced by an American, Enos would sound like ee-nos, which is close to the pronunciation of the Chamorro nickname for Ignacio, which is Inas. Is there a connection between Enos and Ignacio in Joseph's case? Joseph worked for the Oahu Railway and Land Company and eventually opened a business of his own, Aflague's Machine Works in Honolulu.

But far more prominent in Hawaii's social scene in the early 1900s were Ignacio's youngest daughter, who formed a singing group called the Aflague Sisters, sometimes called the Little Aflague Sisters.

And they certainly were little when they performed before the audience. Lucille, who played the ukulele, was but 11 years old when she and her younger sister Adeline began entertaining as a duo in 1910. Adeline was only 9 years old. They continued to perform frequently throughout the 1910s, right through the First World War until 1919. The sisters were now young adults with an eye towards marriage and family life and future careers. But while they performed, they were very popular with the crowds. They did it all; Spanish dances, Hawaiian songs and current hits.

They sang and danced not only at concert halls and theaters, but also for benefits, once for the Sacred Heart Church at Punahou.

An older daughter was Constance, who was a teacher (at one time in Waipahu) and who eventually married Louis Vivien in 1911 at Saint Augustine Catholic Church in Waikiki.

Another daughter was Gloria Aflague, who was a pianist and who married as early as 1902, to one J.E. Lewis.

Caroline, just a bit older than the two performing little sisters, married Henry Hanberg, Sr, and moved to California.

I don't know much about the oldest daughter Maria. Another son, Manuel, was a mechanic, and later an engineer, who lived on the Big Island for a time. He married Mae (May) Hurst and moved to the US mainland, passing away in Philadelphia, PA in 1969.

Though being Aflagues, the performing, little sisters were called by Hawaii newspapers "well-known members" of Hawaii's Portuguese community. This is understandable. Hawaii had a large Portuguese community while the Chamorros were just a handful. It was easier for the Aflague sisters to mix with their mother's Portuguese side, as her mother's family were in Hawaii while Ignacio did not have his siblings in Hawaii. Hawaii's Portuguese formed clubs and associations, while Hawaii's small Chamorro population were too scattered and few in number to do so at the time.

PICK UP YOUR MAIL, VICENTE!

Chamorros have been moving to Hawaii since the whaling days of the early 1800s. Unfortunately, many of them did not go by the usual names they had but had their names modified so that Americans in Hawaii could more easily pronounce them. Some were even called by their nicknames.

Many Chamorros have Spanish names, so at times it is impossible to tell from a list in Hawaii if the Cruz or the Santos is a Chamorro or someone else, a Puerto Rican or Portuguese, for example.

But Pangelinan is a good bet. It's a Pampanga (Filipino) name but with a branch that had been planted on Guam since the 1700s, intermarried with Chamorros and became Chamorros. Filipinos also spell it Pangilinan while Chamorros spell it Pangelinan.

In an 1871 list of people in Honolulu who still hadn't picked up their mail, we find the name of one Vicente Pangelinan.  There is, in fact, documentation that a Ben Pangelinan from Guam moved to Hawaii around the year 1860.  Ben lived in the Big Island some years. Maybe that's why he hadn't picked up his mail at the Honolulu Post Office for a while.

DON'T MESS WITH ZABLAN

Joaquin Pangelinan Zablan, a Chamorro from Guam, left his island home for another, Hawaii.

Usually young Chamorro men left Guam in those days aboard the whaling ships, with hardly a peso to their name.

It seems life was eventually good to Joaquin because by 1880 he was able to buy a cattle ranch on the Big Island.  Cattle rustling may have been a problem, as he thought it necessary to take out an ad in a Hawaii newspaper to warn people and their animals to stay off his property.

CHAMORRO WHALERS ON THE BIG ISLAND

Born in Hawaii in 1899, this Joaquin Zablan is the son of a Chamorro whaler also named Joaquin Zablan

Doing some research recently with Hawaii records, I came across some Chamorro settlers in Hawaii long before the islands became American territory.  These Chamorros arrived in Hawaii as crew members of the whaling ships.  Some of these Chamorros I already knew about; some I didn't.

Many of these Chamorro whalers, or bayinero as we say in Chamorro, settled in the Kohala district of the Big Island.

The Kohala area was an active center of sugar plantations.  There, Chamorro settlers met and married local women, either born in Hawaii or settlers as they were.  Some were Hawaiian, others Portuguese or Puerto Rican.

I came across records on Joaquin Zablan and Sylvester (Silvestre) Zablan, whom I have written about it an earlier post on this blog.

Also on a Ben Pangelinan, who died on the Big Island in 1903 at the assumed age of 68 years old.  I say "assumed" because Chamorros, as well as many other people who didn't come from a very literary culture, were quite casual about such details as birth dates and ages.  Some didn't even bother informing church or government who their parents were.  They had left home for good.

There was a new name for me among the records : Luis Guzman, who died in the Kohala area as early as 1884. He is described as a "Spaniard from the Mariana Islands." But naturally this just meant he fell under Spanish jurisdiction, since Guam was part of Spain at the time. He was believed to be 45 years old when he died, so perhaps born in 1839. 

Most of these Chamorro settlers remained attached to the Catholic Church, which in Hawaii at the time meant contact with the Sacred Hearts Fathers, the same group as that of Saint Damien of Molokai.  Many of these priests were French and Belgian; indeed, some notes in the church records are written in French.  We see in the records that many of the Chamorros were married in the Church and acted as godparents.  One Joaquin Pangelinan was a godfather to a good number of baptisms in the Kohala area for Portuguese and Spanish families.

Half-Chamorro Ben Zablan, born and raised in Hawaii, is standing on the far left.

These Chamorro and their half-caste descendants were very mobile, moving here and there in Hawaii.  The children of these Chamorro identified very much with the local culture, and the Chamorro language was probably not passed down even to the second generation.  Today, the descendants of these Chamorro whalers from over 100 years ago are a diverse group of people of many different racial mixtures and religions.  Some of them know their roots are in Guam, but some don't know much at all about Guam.  Quite understandably, their first identity is as Hawaiians.

CHAMORROS IN HAWAII IN THE 1800s

mocfa.org

Anthony Zablan playing the ukulele in 1901

The Zablans (Sablans) of Hawaii are descendants of two Chamorros named Sablan who moved to Hawaii in the 1800s.  Usually, Chamorros went to Hawaii (and other places) as crew members of the whaling ships that stopped by Guam.  So many young Chamorro men were joining the whaling ships that the government tried to prevent them from leaving the island.  Most never came back to Guam, but some did, bringing with them a little proficiency in English, experiences of the wider world and sometimes ideas that did not jive with the Spanish Catholic environment of the island.

For Spaniards living in the south of Spain, and for Spanish-speakers in all of Latin America and the Philippines and Marianas, Z and S have the same sound : S.  Zablan and Sablan sound the same, so much so that at times the same person would spell his name Zablan or Sablan depending on the mood of the day.

JOAQUIN PANGELINAN ZABLAN was born around 1843 on Guam and died in Hawaii in 1932.  Arriving in Hawaii in 1869 aboard the Daniel Webster, he married twice during his lifetime.  His first wife was Hawaiian, Ane Keaweamahi, who died in 1887.  With her, he had five children.  He had ten more with his second wife, a Portuguese woman named Maria Botelho.

Joaquin was a rancher on the Big Island, in Halawa (Kolawa district). He also ran a store for a time there.

In 1892, Joaquin is listed as an auctioneer in Lahaina on the island of Maui.

SILVESTRE CASTRO ZABLAN.  He was in Hawaii by 1873, where he appears in some documents. He was involved in business and was a member of the Good Templars, a fraternal organization which Catholics, at the time, were forbidden to join.

JOSE PEREZ.  Took the name Joseph when he moved to Hawaii, which he did in 1870.  Became a carpenter in Hamakua on the Big Island and married a Hawaiian named Leleo.

NICOLAS PEREZ.  Arrived from Guam in 1876.

BEN PANGELINAN.  Arrived in Hawaii in 1860.  Became a storekeeper in North Kohala on the Big Island.  He married a Portuguese named Margarita.

IGNACIO AFLAGUE.  He worked as a clerk and salesman for various enterprises and may have been Deputy Registrar General in North Kohala (Big Island).  His wife was Portuguese, Mary de Rego Souza.

BASILIO GUERRERO.  Born around 1840 on Guam.  Married in Hawaii to a woman from Singapore named Nicolasa.

Two brothers, JOSE and LUIS CASTRO (Kaban) changed their last name to Custino.  They became Protestant, perhaps the first Chamorro Protestants, and returned to Guam right after the Americans took possession, in order to establish a Protestant congregation in their birthplace.  Eventually they returned to Hawaii, where the Custino family survives in its several branches.

findagrave.com

NICHOLAS K. ZABLAN'S GRAVE

His father Joaquin was a Chamorro from Guam who moved to Hawaii in 1869.

Chamorros were often listed in the Hawaiian records as being Spaniards and even Caucasians!  One very early Chamorro settler in Hawaii was simply known as John Paniolo, paniolo meaning "cowboy" but coming from the word español, which the Hawaiians pronounced paniolo.