[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 176 (Wednesday, November 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2130-E2131]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING THE ISLAND

                                 ______


                        HON. ROBERT A. UNDERWOOD

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, November 8, 1995

  Mr. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
insert in the Record excerpts from a newspaper column written by Mr. 
Jim Comstock of Richmond, WV. This article about Father Jesus Baza 
Duenas, the Chamorro martyr/priest beheaded by the Japanese during 
their occupation of Guam in World War II, was part of Mr. Comstock's 
column, The Comstock Load, which appeared in the West Virginia 
Hillbilly on October 26, 1995. The biographical sketch was mainly based 
upon the recollections of Monsignor Oscar Calvo as related to Mr. 
Comstock back in the mid-1940's. The article, according to Mr. 
Comstock, originally appeared in a Communications Center newspaper back 
on Guam in the last few months after the war:

                         Remembering the Island

       One day recently I combed through the collection of 
     souvenirs and such which I brought home with me following my 
     days spent on the island of Guam, in the Marianas, during 
     World War II. All have been gone over for a last reminiscence 
     glance, and are packed up to be sent to the museum in the 
     Capital City of Agana. It was my delight in the last few 
     months after the war, and I was waiting my turn to leave for 
     home, to have edited a newspaper for the Communications 
     Center, and now I am going to fill my allotted Load space 
     with one of my stories. Take it away:
       On a rare sunny morning in the year 1940, the people of 
     Inarajan went to the St. Joseph's Church in great expectancy. 
     The first native priest of the island was going to say his 
     first mass . . . That was in 1940 and the priest had less 
     than two years to serve his flock and God, because at the end 
     of 1941, the Japanese came and made the sword the faith. But 
     those few months that Father Duenas was padre, he had won a 
     place in the hearts of the people of the Island.
       Father Duenas was taken out by a troop of Japanese soldiers 
     on Barrigada and, after digging his own grave, was beheaded. 
     I heard this story when I first went to the Island. I 
     wondered why the Japanese would kill a man who had won such a 
     place for himself in the hearts of the conquered people. I 
     learned the story of his death, which happened just three 
     weeks before our Marines landed at Blue Beach. The Reverend 
     Oscar Calvo was in his bamboo and reed church, just behind 
     the famous Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral, which the Spanish 
     built in 1903 and the Americans leveled forty years later to 
     get the Japanese occupiers out and off the island.
       Father Calvo was the kind of fellow you could believe. You 
     felt that his heart and his actions were as white as his 
     pearl-like teeth. He finds it hard to express himself in 
     English, but he is the man to tell you the story of Father 
     Duenas.
       ``Father Duenas was a good man. He was good to work with 
     and the people liked him very, very much. He was born March, 
     I think, in let me see, 1911, I believe. He attended the 
     elementary school here and when he was fifteen he went to the 
     Seminary San Jose in Manila and studied under the direction 
     of the Jesuit Fathers. I can say that he was greatly 
     respected and that he won a high place there, both in the 
     Minor and the Major Seminary.''
       I took out a cigarette and offered one to Father Calvo. He 
     lit it and continued:
       ``When Father Duenas was graduated from the seminary, he 
     asked to be returned to Guam, and on June 11, 1938, he was 
     ordained to the priesthood in the Dulce Nombre de Maria 
     Catherdal. He was assigned for some months to Inarajan.''
       He paused reflectively. I wondered when it would be proper 
     to ask him how so many of the Chamorros kept their teeth so 
     white. He started speaking again, with each sentence raising 
     at the end.
       ``I wish I could tell you why the Japanese took the life of 
     Father Duenas, but I can't. It is just hard to say. I knew 
     that he did not like the Japanese, and that he often said 
     things to people that I knew couldn't be trusted. You have 
     heard of Mr. Tweed?'' I nodded, for I well knew of Chief 
     Radioman Tweed who had hidden out in the jungles till the 
     Americans came. And I knew that contrary to the stories in 
     the American papers, the people of Guam had only disgust for 
     Mr. Tweed. ``The Japanese wanted very much to find Mr. Tweed 
     and very much they talked with Father Duenas but he would not 
     tell them where Mr. Tweed was hiding.'' The word hiding went 
     way up in the air. ``It wasn't anything that he did, that 
     caused the Japanese to kill Father Duenas, it was more what 
     he did not do that the Japanese killed him. The priests that 
     the Japanese sent from Tokyo, he did not try to get along 
     with and would not eat with them when they came to Inarajan 
     and did not stay when they said mass.''
       Here I had to stop Father Calvo. ``Do you mean that the 
     Japanese sent priests here to Guam?''
       ``Oh, yes. Did I not tell you? When the Japanese took out 
     all of the nationals to Tokyo, 

[[Page E 2131]]
     they took with them our Bishop the Most Reverend Michael Angel do 
     Olano, and they took two lay brothers, and ten American 
     Capuchin Fathers, and two secular priests and made them all 
     prisoners. Father Duenas was left here and so was I because 
     we're of these people. They did not take any natives to 
     Japan, but only those who were not born on this island. They 
     took Mr. Butler and Mr. Underwood and Mr. Hudson, and many 
     more who were in the trade here but were not of the people.''
       Father Calvo went on: ``The Japanese do not observe the 
     Catholic faith but they saw that in the Pacific the Catholic 
     faith was strong, and they brought Japanese Catholic priests 
     to all of their conquered islands. To our island came a 
     bishop and two priests, and they brought a note to Father 
     Duenas making him Pro-Vicar Apostolic. I think this was 
     because the government has heard that Father Duenas might 
     cause trouble and that a high rank might stop him. But it did 
     not win over Father Duenas. When the military set up 
     districts for the priests to serve in and posted signs saying 
     they were not to go out of an assigned district, Father 
     Duenas, if there was a funeral or a wedding or a christening, 
     would go out. He was warned many times but he always went out 
     of his territory.''
       Father Calvo hesitated, then went on. ``The Japanese did 
     not think that he went out for funerals and weddings, but to 
     take things to eat and wear to Mr. Tweed. But I know that he 
     went out as a good priest and would go, because another zone 
     might be near him but far from a zone in which another priest 
     might be assigned.''
       ``Last week we went out to Barrigada and dug up the body of 
     Father Duenas and buried him.'' To me the Father was getting 
     ahead of the story. Could he, I wanted to know, tell me 
     something of how Father Duenas died?
       ``There is only one man who can tell you that. He is a 
     native--but I knew he will not talk of it. He told me, but I 
     don't think he will talk to anybody else. I will tell you 
     what he told me.
       ``Father Duenas was taken prisoner by the Japanese and put 
     into their stockade, but since he would not answer their 
     questions they told him he could go home. They did not beat 
     him; I am sure they did not beat Father Duenas. He was so 
     young but weak. I don't think he could have stood that. Not 
     like others. But his torture was of his mind. He was turned 
     from prison and came to Inarajan when some of the officers 
     came up and arrested him and took him to another jail. I 
     think the jail was near Barrigada. They asked him more 
     questions, and the Japanese acted as if they were satisfied. 
     They said he could come home. He started out with a guard.
       ``Father Dueanas did not get to his home. He was taken into 
     a deserted field. He saw some of his friends there. There was 
     his nephew, Edward Duenas, the island attorney, and there was 
     a young boy, maybe eighteen. I don't remember his name. And 
     there was an old Navy man named Juan Pangelinan, whom the 
     Japanese said was helping Mr. Tweed.
       ``The rest I will tell, you too. There were four open 
     graves in the clearing and I think it was then that Father 
     Duenas knew for the first time that he was not going to go 
     home. The prisoners' hands were tied behind them and they 
     were told to kneel by their graves. Father Duenas was first 
     in the line. I have been told by my informant that the other 
     three asked Father Duenas to pray for them. He did and they 
     repeated the prayer after him. My informant tells me that 
     Father Duenas did not seem scared. I know that was true. The 
     others were calmed by his prayer. He was a man of God.''
       I wondered if Father Calvo would tell the rest. He closed 
     his eyes and said: ``The guard, my informant tells me, was a 
     very, very big fellow. One blow was all that was needed.''
       Beneath the altar of the church at Inarajan lies a true 
     patriot of Guam, Father Duenas.
       This fellow Tweed became quite a celebrity when he left 
     Guam and returned to America. I wonder if anybody knows the 
     rest of the story. He certainly has, or perhaps had an 
     interesting story to tell.

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