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Rios, Alfred_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Alfred Rios was born on February 27, 1924 in Agana, Guam. He had 7 brothers and sisters. His mother and father were prominent citizens in Guam; his father worked for the government and his mother sold baked goods. His family owned several plots of land in Guam. They had a ranch and a store. He spoke fondly of his childhood where he would go and peddle the pastries in the town that his mother would prepare in the large brick oven in her back yard. Mr. Rios finished the 12th grade in Guam. Later he traveled on a Stratocruiser airplane from Honolulu to San Francisco and then to New York where he visited various relatives who were attending universities, and also visited Newport, Rhode Island where another family member was stationed. Mr. Rios was attending church when he heard that the war had broke out on Guam. He described the chaos in the streets after the announcement and that people were running all over. Because they had a house in the city and a ranch outside the city, the family stayed at the ranch during the Japanese occupation, and Mr. Rios would travel to Barrigada to check on his family’s home frequently. The Chamorro people would disseminate information to one another to keep them informed regarding announcements, etc., and Mr. Rios and his family were ordered by the Japanese to travel to Agana to register. The people were told to surrender all their weapons and machetes so they would have no weapons to use against the Japanese. In October of 1942 Mr. Rios’s father informed him that officials in Agana were seeking well bodied people to start working at the base, clearing out the naval air station and he volunteered to substitute for his father and went down to Agana and began working at the manganese mine at Mount Tenjou. He and others dug tunnels to locate the manganese and others would haul it out. He was later transferred to another mine where was hauling and pushing carts full of manganese. It was during this time that he witnessed the torpedoing of the Aratama Maru Mr. Rios was also forced to work at the air field on Orote Peninsula. The civilians were hauling rocks and dirt from one end of the base to the other, which he did for a while, and then was monitoring a compressor site. One day the men were corralled and taken by truck to a ship out in the harbor to unload cement and war supplies. The men worked all day and were allowed to sleep for a few hours aboard a barge tied to the ship. They received a bowl of rice and some tea for food. When Mr. Rios first saw the American planes flying over Guam he was digging trenches at the air strip and the Japanese had stolen the bell from the church and were ringing it loudly to alarm the Japanese soldiers that the Americans had arrived. He stated that there was a lot of chaos. Although he had tried to protect his family’s possessions by digging a tunnel under their home and putting their valuables in it, when the American planes bombed the city they destroyed his home in their attempt to destroy the Japanese machine gun nests that were set up near his house. He and his family, at that point, were then told that they had to leave for the concentration camp at Manenggon. When the Japanese were marching the people from Mount Tagua to Manenggon they prodded and pushed the Chamorro people because they were moving too slow. When his family finally arrived at the camp the Japanese were looking again for men to work and he was chosen and sent to work on a project in Chelon Pago digging trenches for the Japanese. Mr. Rios told how difficult it was since most of the people had to leave 90 percent of their belongings behind so they had no food or provisions. They were eating unripened breadfruit and coconuts and would spend their days hunting for whatever food they could find. They would make piles of wood and cook corn, dry it and boil it and make soup out of it. When the Americans liberated the Chamorro people from the camp they were told to get ready to go to Mount Tenjou and then to Agat. Mr. Rios and his family stayed in Barrigada as they had relatives living there. So the Marines asked Mr. Rios if he’d work for the galley and he and his family set up a tent and Mr. Rios worked in the galley making food for the Marines there. Mr. Rios’s family owned a great deal of land on Guam. Some of this land was confiscated by the U.S. government and although the people allowed the U.S. government to come in and set up their facilities on the land no mention was ever made that the land would be confiscated and they would not have access to it any more. Mr. Rios’s family had been compensated $2,000 for the house they occupied but not for the large ranch they owned in Barrigada. He belongs to the Land Owner’s Association of Guam. He is in charge of his late mother’s estate and has begun a suit to reclaim the land that belonged to her. In conclusion of his interview, Mr. Rios stated that war is horrible and that he sincerely hopes the younger generation of people living on Guam will never have to experience what he did during the Japanese occupation and the American liberation of Guam. He praised the Guamanian people for their unity during the invasion and that they were committed to helping one another.

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 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

Friday, April 4, 2025 9:25:17 PM

Friday, April 4, 2025 9:25:17 PM

Rios, Alfred_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

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3049.6 MB

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