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Elliot, Hirian_Z29_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

Hiram W. Elliot was interviewed in 1992 to talk about his life in Guam in the early part of the 1940’s. He starts by talking about the early part of December 1941 in Guam and visiting his wife in the hospital, who had just given birth to their first child. On the morning of December 8th he noticed people were acting strange and ran into his father who told him he heard on the radio about Pearl Harbor being bombed. A sailor friend of his came up to him and told him that he had better get out of there because the Japs may be coming to Guam to hit it. Looking up in the sky, he saw some planes heading toward the direction of Sumay. At that point Hiram decided to get his wife out of the hospital, but found that her mother and sister had already gotten her and the baby and headed towards Barrigada. Bombing had started, but Hiram recalls very few bombs being dropped in Agana – mostly where the government buildings were located. They were also dropped in the smokestack of the power plant. Hiram headed up to Barrigada to be with his family, staying until the 9th. At that time he went back down to get some personal items out of their house in Agana. He returned to Barrigada and the next day heard that there was a call out for people to proceed down to Agana and meet up with the Japanese. Hiram was reluctant because he didn’t know whether it was a trap or a trick. He decided to go and found that at the plaza there was a long line of people getting passes that would permit you to roam around. They ran out of passes before Hiram reached the front of the line. They then proceeded to Plaza Despana where they were going to be introduced to the big wheels of the Japanese Navy, where they indoctrinated them and told them that they were now citizens of the Japanese Empire. After a couple days, they felt safe enough to return to their home in Agana, which they had to clean out from the mess of the bombings. One month after arriving, the Japanese Army left Guam, leaving only some Japanese Navy. Hiram was told to open his drug store up to the Japanese men to sell the merchandise. He almost sold everything. He was then told to give what was left to the Japanese Office of Civil Affairs. Food was becoming scarce since the early part of 1943. Hiram had a job working at the Naval Air Station at that time, the Japanese Air Base up at the Naval Air Station, one of the first ones they began building. The Japanese Army came back about February 1944 and that is when all the work started picking up for the building of the airports. One at Orote Peninsula out at Sumay and the other one up at where Naval Air Station is now, the International Airport. By then, Hiram and his family had moved up to Maite, a suburb of Agana. Agana was re-occupied again by the army. Soon after that, the city of Agana would be a target. A target from American ships who were a little over 30 miles outside of Guam. Maite became an unsafe place to live with all the shrapnel flying from the bombs hitting Agana. They moved to the swamps where it was far and there was plenty of food in coconut trees and water. Hiram would hike towards Yigo to forage sweet potatoes and whatever grows in the ground. He talks about seeing the Japanese soldier’s cremating their dead. The local Guamanian leader was directed to advise everyone around that area to proceed up towards Ordot. This was very difficult travel with the terrain. They finally got up to Yona, where they stopped for a while and waited for daylight and then proceeded down into Manenggon. At Manenggon, they crammed as many people as possible into pup tents. They stayed in Manenggon for a month where it was very rainy and muddy and the conditions were filthy and horrible. They left after an American soldier came to the camp. They went up toward Mt. Tenjo. Hiram hadn’t bathed in six weeks and was excited to take his first bath when he came down to a refugee camp in Anigua. He remembers going to the USO galley for a big plate of bread pudding. Hiram found his family down at the refugee camp in Anigua. He stayed with them until he got a job as sanitary inspector. Soon his wife and child and mother in law proceeded back up to Maite where his mother in law used to live. The roof was filled with holes and some Marines were living in the top floors for a couple weeks. Hiram’s family lived in the bottom floor which had a dirt floor. Hiram talks about having no change of clothes and running into a friend of his who was a steward in the Navy. This friend managed to get Hiram a suit for $5, which was much too big but Hiram was happy to have it. Hiram returned to the subject of the destruction of Agana. Talking about how the bombing started around about the later part of April – between April and May 1944. The bombs were dropped by dive bombers and they were coming incessantly, just about every day. As a result, Agana was burnt to a crisp. As the rains came during the night, they would mix in with the coals and everything and later on, during the day, the bombs would come back and re-light up those flames again. Hiram went back to Agana about two weeks after the Americans had come in. The streets were filled with mud about a foot thick and it was soft and all white like ashes. Hiram became a telephone lineman and had been given the job of crew boss. They went out to different US Army outfits to provide them with a crew to dig trenches for the island wide telephone system. There were still Japanese snipers. They had soldiers with them, guarding them. Hiram talks about having no objection to Japanese coming to Guam, but he can’t forget what their purpose was in the beginning. He feels that since Hawaii was inside that Southeast Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, they were not hit by accident. The Japanese were going for little islands and Guam was included there. Because Japan is over-populated right now and they are very prolithic, they want to go into other places. And Guam had been on their schedule for a long time.

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

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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 4176

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 12:34:42 PM

Tuesday, May 7, 2024 12:34:42 PM

Elliot, Hirian_Z29_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

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108.1 MB

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War In The Pacific National Historical Park and American Memorial Park