Heart of the island: Hagåtña fell victim to ravages of war
By Lacee A.C. Martinez
Pacific Sunday News
lcmartinez@guampdn.com
Before the island became captive to enemy forces in World War II, the city of Hagåtña was modern for its time -- home to more than half of the island's population.
Although led by an American naval government, recent Spanish colonial rule was still evident in the village's architecture and infrastructure. Villagers still practiced many traditions passed on to them from their colonial rulers, including regular Mass and fiestas at the neighborhood church. That all would change, however, as the onset of war would disrupt the lives of Guamanians, forever changing the island's capital.
Hagåtña, once the heart of the island, is now a ghost town, says author and Guam historian Tony Palomo.
Hagåtña's transformation began just as the Japanese Imperial Army made its way to Guam's shores, overthrowing the American government.
Dec. 8, 1941, was a day that Nimitz Hills resident Olivia Siguenza Guerrero, who is originally from Hagåtña, would never forget.
"The Japanese planes were flying over the island and there was a car going all over with a loud speaker saying, "leave your homes and go to the jungle because the Japanese were bombing Sumay," she recalls. "My first thought that this was the end -- this is the end. I pleaded with my brothers and sisters to repent because they all were going to die."
Just as Guerrero had prayed for her soul, village residents too, were praying, as it was the same day as the annual Santa Marian Kamalen fiesta, the island's patron saint. Most of the villagers were gathered together for Mass and procession as the invasion began.
"We had to pack our clothing because we were going to go to the ranch," Guerrero says. "I don't remember whether we walked there or rode there -- there were very few transportation. We had an uncle and auntie that had a big ranch and we hid there for a few days."
The story was the same for many of Hagåtña residents as the Japanese took over the island's capital city, Palomo says. More than half of Hagåtña's robust population of 10,000 abandoned their family homes and fled inland to their family ranches in fear of their lives.
Over the next two years Guamanians would revert to a traditional lifestyle, growing their own food while enduring forced labor and oppressive Japanese rule. The suffering escalated with beatings, massacres and murders against the Chamorros as the American invasion loomed near. Chamorros were herded into the valleys to several concentration camps, just as the U.S. forces began a bombing campaign to reclaim the island.
While many Chamorro lives were spared with the American liberation, the village of Hagåtña was not.
The village was pulverized, with homes and buildings flattened from days of bombing and heavy artillery. Even the Spanish palace, which had housed each colonial leadership through the years, and the village church wasn't spared. Only a handful of homes and buildings were spared from complete devastation.
Palomo says the village was cleared and reworked for plans to rebuild it into a modern U.S. city layout, like Santa Monica, Calif. "But because there was no money" that didn't happen, he says. "The reason why there was no rehabilitation in Hagåtña was because of the lack of money."
The Navy had requested $23 million to rebuild Hagåtña but was given a mere $6 million, he says. Housing standards also kept residents from rebuilding because their lots were too small, while others had their land condemned for public use.
"That whole area was public property so the government decided to condemn them," Palomo says of Skinner Plaza today, where his grandmother once lived. "That's why there are no more homes there."
After spending so much time living outside the village, many residents also decided to settle where they had remained during the Japanese occupation. The city's population dipped to a negative 92 percent, according to "A Study of Eight Post-World War II Resettlement villages of Guam" by Roslind Hunter-Anderson and Darlene Moore of the Micronesian Archaeological Research Services.
Current Hagåtña Mayor John Cruz belongs to a handful of families that returned to the village after the war. Although he was born after the war, Cruz's family, along with other remaining families, lived along the Anigua coastline. His family moved closer to the cliff side where his grandfather still had land.
Today, Hagåtña remains the island's capital despite the dramatic changes it has undergone in the last 67 years. While it was the most densely populated village before the war, it has the fewest residents now, with about 1,100 registered voters. Cruz credits apartment buildings for boosting his population numbers since Hagåtña is practically a business district.
"(People) always make fun of my village that Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., we have 30,000 people here," he says. "But after 5 p.m. -- to be honest with you -- there are probably really only 300 residents here."
Despite the devastation left from the bombing campaign, there are still signs of Guam's rich history throughout the island's capital. The Spanish-era Tolai Acho, also known as the San Antonio bridge, remains, although it no longer has water running beneath it since the Agana River was diverted.
The Lujan House, known as the Guam Institute, was one of the few surviving homes left in Hagåtña, kept through organizations like the Guam Preservation Trust.
"Through its mandates and five-year plan, the Guam Preservation Trust has taken some bold steps in preserving not only historic sites, but the most important part -- the stories behind these sites," says Chief Program Officer Joe Quinata.
The nonprofit group has funded oral history projects on Hagåtña, is working on restoration and rehabilitation projects on other historic Hagåtña locations such as the Spanish Palace, and has just completed the draft of its historic tour program. "We want to be able to relive the pre-war Hagåtña through things like curriculum development of these sites and what they used to be," Quinata says, "so when kids come around, they have the perspective of what it used to be before the war."
Pacific Sunday News file photo
Bustling: Pre-war Hagåtña was bustling with a population that was almost half the island's total.
Pacific Sunday News file photo
Destruction: This Marine Corps photo shows soldiers "moving through the shattered buildings of Agana."
Courtesy of the Guam Humanities Council
Pre-war Hagåtña.
Pacific Sunday News file photo
The Agana River meanders through the town during the 1930s. Note the men standing and sitting on a wooden bridge. After World War II, the river was rerouted and runs only from the Agana swamp area to the east side of the Paseo de Susana.
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Heart of the island: Hagåtña fell victim to ravages of war
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman. 
