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Reyes, Jose_Z40_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_public.mp3

Reyes, Jose_Z40_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_transcript.pdf. The interviewer describes how difficult life was in Guam during World War II. The Japanese attacked on December 8th, 1941. During three and a half years of occupation, the Chamorros were subjected to forced labor and eventually placed in concentration camps. Near the end of the occupation, Japanese behavior grew more violent. The Japanese command made a decision to kill all of the residents of the southern village of Merizo, and some of the worst mass executions of Chamorros took place there, in the caves of Tinta and Faha. Jose Soriano Reyes, whose wife had been executed, led an uprising against the Japanese.

On July 10th, 1944, Jose’s wife, Laurice [ph] Cruz Reyes, told him that she was to be executed. A fight with an airplane in the area stopped the execution. Jose was about 20 miles away in Agana, and he returned to Merizo on the 15th. The Japanese were gathering the villagers and he sent his wife ahead with the children. On his way to join them, he heard grenades being thrown into the cave at Tinta where 30 villagers were held. Fourteen survived and hid under dead bodies to avoid being bayoneted by the Japanese. After nightfall they escaped. The next day, the Japanese gathered 30 more villagers and asked for help delivering supplies to Japanese to the north. The villagers were taken to Faha cave and again executed with hand grenades. This time there were no survivors. Other villagers, including Jose, were forced to move supplies. They went to the concentration camp at Atate. Jose learned that the Japanese had the young women massage them and deduced that it was time for the bonsai [sp?]. The Japanese had the villagers dig a large hole, which Reyes thought was for the people of Merizo, and he decided it was time to act.

Reyes went with John Angulta [ph] and Pat Tidyron [ph] to fight the Japanese, and after they attacked the first guards, four other boys who had previously agreed to help Jose joined them. They killed four guards and took their weapons. About 50 or 60 people joined them, armed with sticks. They killed more Japanese and went to a supply depot. Two boys from Inarajan approached Jose with a note for the Japanese people in the Merizo cemetery. Jose asked the guards who were protecting the people from Merizo to keep the boys there. Then Jose and his people went to Agat and continued going after the Japanese. Jose sent his brother-in-law, Tony Leong Guerrero [ph], with five men on an outrigger canoe to go to an American ship and tell its commander that the Japanese were moving north. After reaching the ship they returned as scouts and guides leading the Marines through Agat and Merizo.

According to the interviewer, Merizo was the only village on Guam that was liberated by its own people. The Guam Legislature adopted resolutions in 1972 and 1989 expressing recognition and commendation of Jose Reyes and the band of Guamanians he led.

Reyes, Jose_Z40_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Audio_transcript.pdf