FOREIGN CLAIMS SETTLEMENT COMMISSION OF THE UNITED STATES UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20579 In the Matter of the Claim of } } } } 5 U.S.C. §552(b)(6) } Claim No. GUAM-0232 } } Decision No. GUAM-0001 } Under the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition } Act, Title XVII, Public Law 114-328 } } PROPOSED DECISION Claimant brings this claim under Sections 1704 and 1705 of the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act1 based on injuries that she suffered as a result of the attack and occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II. Because she has established that she went into hiding to evade internment by Imperial Japanese military forces, and was thereafter subjected to forced march and internment, she is entitled to a payment of $10,000. BACKGROUND AND BASIS OF THE PRESENT CLAIM Claimant alleges that she was a resident of Guam in December 1941 when the Imperial Japanese army attacked and occupied the island. She asserts that immediately after the occupation, she and her family left their home in Sumay and were forced to hide in the jungle near Tenjovista and other places to avoid being captured by Imperial Japanese military forces. Claimant further alleges that in 1944, Japanese soldiers forced her and her 1 Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, Pub. L. 114-328, tit. XVII, 130 Stat. 2642 (2016) (“GLRA” or “Act”). GUAM-0232 -2- family to march from Tenjovista to a camp at Manenggon, where she was subsequently interned. Although Claimant was not among them, several Guam residents received compensation from land and claims commissions established under the Guam Meritorious Claims Act (“GMCA”),2 which was enacted on November 15, 1945, and provided compensation to residents of Guam for personal injury, death, and property loss sustained in Guam as a result of or incident to hostilities or hostile occupation, and/or the noncombat activities of the U.S. armed forces. The implementation and administration of the GMCA was the subject of a review conducted by the Guam War Claims Review Commission (“GWCRC”), which was established by a 2002 act3 with the same title and was tasked with assessing the “effectiveness of [the GMCA] in addressing the war claims of American nationals residing on Guam between December 8, 1941, and July 21, 1944” and “[advising] on any additional compensation . necessary to compensate the people of Guam for death, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, and internment.”4 In June 2004, the GWCRC issued a report concluding that, in some respects, there was a lack of parity of war claims paid to the residents of Guam under the GMCA compared with awards that claimants who suffered similar injuries received under the War Claims Act and other laws providing compensation for U.S. nationals who were killed or injured as a result of an invasion or occupation by the Japanese Imperial forces during World War II.5 The GWCRC thus recommended that Congress authorize additional funding to provide compensation to 2 An Act: For the relief of the residents of Guam through the settlement of meritorious claims, ch. 483, Pub. L. 79-224, 59 Stat. 582 (1945). 3 Guam War Claims Review Commission Act, Pub. L. 107-333, 116 Stat. 2873 (2002). 4 Id. § 5(1), (5). 5 See Guam War Claims Rev. Comm’n, Rep. on the Implementation of the Guam Meritorious Claims Act of 1945, at 77-78 (2004). GUAM-0232 -3- residents of Guam for claims for death, rape, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, and internment (including hiding to avoid capture).6 On December 23, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, which established a supplemental war claims compensation program for claims arising from the attack and occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II. The Act recognizes two categories of eligible claimants: “compensable Guam decedent” and “compensable Guam victim.”7 The Act defines a “compensable Guam victim,” which is the category that applies to this claim, as an individual who is not deceased as of the date of the enactment of this Act and who is determined . to have suffered, as a result of the attack and occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II, or incident to the liberation of Guam by United States military forces, any of the following: (A) Rape or severe personal injury (such as loss of a limb, dismemberment, or paralysis). (B) Forced labor or a personal injury not under subparagraph (A) (such as disfigurement, scarring, or burns). (C) Forced march, internment, or hiding to evade internment.8 On June 20, 2017, the Commission published notice in the Federal Register announcing the commencement of a program to adjudicate claims for compensation under the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act.9 6 See id. at 80. 7 Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, Pub. L. 114-328, § 1704(c)(1)-(2), 130 Stat. 2645 (2016). 8 Id. § 1704(c)(2). 9 Notice of Commencement of Claims Adjudication Program and of Deadline for Filing of Claims, 82 Fed. Reg. 28,093 (June 20, 2017). GUAM-0232 -4- DISCUSSION As noted above, the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act authorizes the Commission to award compensation to “compensable Guam victims” which the Act defines as limited to individuals who (1) were alive on December 23, 2016, and (2) are determined to have suffered any of the following: rape, severe personal injury, personal injury, forced labor, forced march, internment, and hiding to evade internment.10 1. Claimant Living on December 23, 2016 Claimant has submitted sufficient evidence to establish that she was living on December 23, 2016. She has provided a sworn and notarized claim form that she signed after the Commission published notice of the program’s commencement on June 20, 2017. Further, our review of death records from the Social Security Administration and other databases has yielded no evidence that Claimant was not living on December 23, 2016. Therefore, Claimant meets this element of her claim. 2. Claimant Suffered an Injury Compensable Under the GLRA Claimant asserts that she sustained three injuries recognized under the Act: forced march, internment, and hiding to evade internment. Her claim is based upon events that took place during the invasion and occupation of the island of Guam by Imperial Japanese military forces during World War II. Factual Backdrop to Claimant’s Allegations Japan invades Guam: In December 1941, Guam was an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States, having been ceded by Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898 in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War.11 The invasion of 10 See Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act §§ 1704(a), 1704(c)(2), 1705(a)(1). 11 See Robert Rogers, Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam 112-13 (1995). GUAM-0232 -5- Guam by the Imperial Japanese army began hours after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941, with air strikes in the vicinity of Sumay, Piti, and Hagåtña (formerly 12 known as Agana). The air strikes hit a number of strategic targets and buildings, 13 including the Pan American Hotel kitchen, and killed several Guamanians. The Japanese military continued this air offensive on December 9, 1941, causing more damage to several of the targets that it had bombed the previous day and striking several new targets, 14 including the villages of Dededo, Inarajan, Merizo, and Umatac. Not all of the attacks, however, produced civilian casualties, because many Guamanians had gone into hiding by 15 that time. On December 10, 1941, a Japanese force made up of several hundred naval troops 16 landed at Dungas Beach, northeast of Hagåtña. The landing force quickly made its way towards the center of the city, killing and injuring several Guamanians along the way. Among the casualties were passengers of a jitney who were shot and bayoneted on the Agana-Tamuning road and a group of men who suffered the same fate when they 17 encountered Japanese soldiers in the San Antonio district. At the Plaza de España in central Hagåtña, the Japanese forces were met by members of the Insular Guard, a group of Guamanians that had been organized in early 1941 to augment the island’s naval 18 militia. During the brief firefight that ensued, the Guard members drove back the 12 See Memorandum from Captain G.J. McMillin to Sec’y of the Navy (Sept. 11, 1945) in GUAM RECORDER, Apr.-Sept. 1972, at 9, 10, ¶ 8. 13 See id. 14 See McMillin, supra note 12, at 11, ¶ 10; Russell Apple, Two Invasions and Three Military Occupations 26 (1980); Rogers, supra note 11, at 165. 15 See Apple, supra note 14, at 26; Rogers, supra note 11, at 165; Tony Palomo, An Island in Agony 17 (1984). 16 See McMillin, supra note 12, at 11, ¶ 12; Apple, supra note 14, at 25. 17 See Palomo, supra note 15, at 23-25; Rogers supra note 11, at 167-168. 18 See McMillin, supra note 12, at ¶¶ 7, 12. GUAM-0232 -6- Japanese forces twice before they were overwhelmed.19 Some Guardsmen were killed, as was a teenage civilian and photographer who assisted them.20 At approximately 6:00 a.m., shortly after this battle had ended, then Governor of Guam, U.S. Navy captain George McMillin, surrendered the island to the commander of the Japanese force.21 Japan’s occupation of Guam: Japan’s occupation of Guam began with the Governor’s surrender on December 10, 1941. That same day, Japanese forces began to arrest and detain Guamanians.