4a01732e-247e-4a24-8e3f-d42e877d8276

Reyes, Rafael_Z35_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

Ralph Reges was fifteen, the youngest child and an errand boy at his home in 1941. His errand on December 8th was to take his niece to church for the lady of the Immaculate Conception day. About halfway through the mass they heard planes and then an explosion, and the priest ended the mass and told them to go home because Sumay was just bombed by the Japanese. Everybody went berserk, running and screaming. Ralph got his niece to his sister in Agana and ran back to his home in Agana Heights where his family was gathered. They loaded household items, provisions, and clothing onto the bull carts and prepared to go to the boonies. Ralph’s father sent him to help his aunt, a widower, who he stayed with throughout the war. When he and his aunt walked down San Ramon Hill to secure their surrender badges, it was like a different world with soldiers all over the place. Ralph was known as a hardworking boy and was selected for forced work details. He replaced his brother-in-law on the manganese mining crew for a couple of days. Toward the end of the war Ralph’s civilian group dug tunnels and foxholes. They hustled and had little rest. The only way to escape being hit, slapped, poked or struck with a bayonet was through good behavior. The experience reminded him of slavery in the South. Ralph was also chosen to lay mines on the shores as tank barriers. While on this detail it began to rain very hard and the American bombardment began, and he and four friends took cover under a raised hut. A shell hit the hut and one friend died immediately, another later that day. Ralph told his detail supervisor that he was not well and would be burying his friends, and he was told to be at home because soon people would be sent to the concentration camps. Ralph’s area was sent to the camp called Mata, in Talafofo, where they built shelters and were able to hunt and forage for food. He was climbing a coconut tree when he saw Americans. They did not realize he spoke English and at first tried to communicate with him like Tarzan, saying “You Guam, me American.” Marines worked to secure the area and led people out, and then Ralph learned that his brother had been brutally beheaded and his father was in a concentration camp elsewhere cooking for Japanese officers. From then on they knew they were in safe positions and started picking up where they left off. After the war Ralph served as a superintendent at the park in Asan where the emplacements [sp?] he built were located. At the tenth anniversary in August 1988 he made a statement about being the only superintendent in the National Park Service helping to protect and preserve what he unwillingly helped construct. The structures are deteriorating fast because they were meant for temporary protection from invading troops. When he was superintendent he was asked how he felt about the Japanese, and while he hated the one who beheaded his brother, he knows the Japanese were working under strict orders.

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U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

This digital asset is in the public domain. This digital version was made possible through the National Park Service by a grant from the National Park Foundation through generous support from the Mellon Foundation. When using this asset for any purpose, including online, credit 'Courtesy U.S. National Parks'.

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4182

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2023/12/14

Sourced File: Video File (S:/WAPA_OralHist_0001_master.wav, 361,768 KB)

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:34:28 PM

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:34:28 PM

Reyes, Rafael_Z35_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

mp3

70.1 MB

Historic

War In The Pacific National Historical Park and American Memorial Park