6a87f0d8-8acc-4330-b813-253994306698

Gabaldon, Guy_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Guy Gabaldon was born in Los Angeles on March 22nd, 1926. He is of Mexican decent; his family was originally from New Mexico. Guy was raised by a foster Japanese family in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, the Nakano family, from the age of ten. He had been hanging out in the streets of LA shining shoes for ten cents. Guy learned a lot of the customs and basic Japanese in this time. He reminisces about his days with his friends, all over Los Angeles. In 1942 his foster family was sent to relocation centers, some of them to Manzanar. When Guy was 16, he moved to Alaska to work in the canneries in Tyee, on Baranof Island and at Juneau and then onto Sitka and Japonski Island. Guy wanted to join the Navy, but because of a perforated ear drum, gotten from boxing, the Navy wouldn’t accept him. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on his 17th birthday, his sister signed for him. The Marine Corps only accepted him because he spoke Japanese. They believed Guy spoke Japanese fluently and he ended up with the 2nd Marine Division in Hawaii on the Big Island. Captain Boardman was one of the language officers and told him he didn’t know enough Japanese. At this point, Guy was sent to Regimental Intelligence, where he was a scout and observer. Guy loved boot camp, loved the discipline involved. After boot camp, Guy went to Camp Elliot, were he was assigned to a Japanese language school in Camp Elliot. He was there for a week or so, and Los Angeles was off limits then because of the Zoot Suit war in Los Angeles. Guy got into a fight with a “Zoot Suiter” and broke his jaw and spent two months in Long Beach hospital. He was kicked out of language school and from there was sent to Camp Pendleton, joined a replacement group and sent to Hawaii to the Big Island and joined the 2nd Marine division, which was then at Camp Tarawa. Hilo was next and then went to Maui for maneuvers and then from Maui to Pearl and they moved from Pearl to the Aloha Tower. From there came Saipan on June 15, 1944. Guy tells of going “over the hill” the first day on the island, into the Japanese territory by himself. He came back with a couple of prisoners and him commanding officer, Captain John Schwab said don’t ever do that again if you do I will court martial you – Guy continued and came back day after day with more Japanese prisoners. Never before had an 18 year old private worked on his own as Guy did. Guy talks about the putrid smell of rotting bodies on Saipan. Guy describes many cases of horrible deaths and torture, but what affected him most was the Japanese women throwing their babies and themselves off the cliffs. He describes his job as a scout and observer. Guy would take a Japanese prisoner and ask him in Japanese, “Any snipers in the area?” And they would tell him. He would say, what outfit are you in and so on and they would give him all this information. Guy was disappointed in the Japanese soldier was not living up to the Bushedo code, but he figures it saved a lot of Marine’s lives. Guy captured 800 in Marpi Point, right, where Bonzai Cliff is. And when he had the 800, he was milling around among the 800, feeling like the prisoner. Guy had a lot of close calls, many from friendly fire. At one point, Guy was shot in the hand and the ribs. He nearly lost his hand and also his life when he had a severe reaction to morphine during surgery. He was sent to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to teach Japanese and that is when his classification was changed from scout and observer of intelligence to interpreter. Guy is married to a Japanese woman who was born in Mexico. There was a movie made of Guy’s life, Hell to Eternity, starring Jeffery Hunter. He was featured on This is Your Life, and has been on quiz shows, national quiz shows. Guy was chosen to be Grand Marshall of the 50th anniversary celebration on Saipan. Guy expresses his distress over the fact that it took 50 years to put up monuments in honor of the 4,000 that were killed on Saipan, when the Japanese have beautiful, enormous big ornate monuments. Guy believes that there should be a big museum with many more artifacts donated, plus photographs of the campaign. He wants people to know what happened there. Guy was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor and with the Navy Cross, the highest medal in the Navy.

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 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

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

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:01:25 AM

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:01:25 AM

Gabaldon, Guy_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

2965.3 MB

Historic

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