Fena Cave Massacre Site - World War II Sites on Waymarking.com

The Fena Caves Massacre occurred on July 23, 1944, shortly after American troops invaded the island on July 21, when Japanese soldiers killed more than thirty young men and women from Agat and Sumay with grenades and bayonets in the caves near Fena Lake, raping many of the women before killing them. In some accounts, it is reported that sixty-six others barely survived the massacre.

The massacre at Fena was one of several such atrocities that took place in the final days of the Japanese occupation of Guam during World War II. The Japanese forces became increasingly pressured by the American air attacks on the island, and by a dwindling food supply, and as the American forces landed on Guam, the Chamorros were rounded up and forced into long marches, mostly to the Manenggon concentration camp in Yona.

In the case of the southern villages of Agat and Sumay, a group of about fifty young women and about the same number of young men were selected to serve as a basic work force and stay behind in the Fena area. Japanese soldiers were sent out to each family, ordering them to go to an area known as Manenggon, which is in the interior of the island where a concentration camp was set up, and ordering the sons and daughters to stay behind as part of the work force. Parents who refused to send a son or daughter were threatened with beheading.

The young men and women in the work force were to assist the Japanese soldiers in various tasks, including clearing jungle paths for the movement of heavy war vehicles, the construction of temporary wooden bridges over rivers and streams, and cooking and furnishing other needs for the enemy soldiers.

Later in July, as the American bombings became more intense, Japanese officials began to order dozens of Agat and Sumay residents into caves located in Fena area in the village of Sumay. Most of the men and women were between the ages of sixteen and nineteen. Many of the men were given whiskey and Japanese sake (a liquor distilled from rice) to drink and were told it was a celebration for all their hard work. Many of the men got drunk, and they celebrated by eating rice and salmon with their alcohol.

But then, suddenly, the Japanese soldiers used machine guns and grenades on the Chamorros in the caves, and then went in to bayonet those who were still alive. Many of the Chamorros survived, after being buried under dead bodies and pretending to be dead. A number were wounded by bullets and bayonets and couldn’t move. A few were able to go deeper into the caves and hide or escape.

The timeline of events at Fena are not clear, as it is pieced together from numerous survivor recollections, but during this time further atrocities were done to many of the young women. One group of about dozen women were ordered alone into a cave, and were then repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers. When it was over, a few escaped. Others waited in the cave until morning, and some of them ended up being beheaded by the Japanese.

On another night, the Japanese taicho (commander) of the Fena area, an officer named Takebana, ordered seven girls sent into a cave. They were hungry after several days without food. Takebana and his soldiers arrived with food and sake, and the girls ate and drank. Takebana then told the women they were to give themselves freely to the soldiers, or face death. Throughout the night, the women were raped by soldiers. Nearby, in another cave eighteen other women suffered the same atrocities.

The next morning, some of the girls escaped into the jungle as the U.S. Marines approached the area and killed some of the Japanese guards. Some of the girls fell victim to Japanese grenades.

I am by no means a historian. The related website is word-for-word from someone else. What I will tell you is being present during the annual remembrance was a very sad day. To hear some of the folks crying and wailing of lost loved ones or crimes committed against them is heart wrenching.

Related Website: [Web Link] Admission Fee: Off-Limits Opening Days/Times: Requires Military personnel escort with access onto Naval Magazine Supplementary Related Website: Not listed

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