BC Cook
WE finish the incredible story of Jorge Cristobal, a Chamorro from Guam who fought in the Pacific War. We pick up his account in the summer of 1944, just as he landed with the Marines on Guam, hoping to find his family:
“I went in on the third wave landing at Asan Beach and I was right there in the middle, looking like a Marine. We were getting shot at and two guys in my same amtrac [amphibious tractor] got killed right next to me. So I called to God, ‘Please spare me. I haven’t seen my family in all these years and I am finally at home now.’ I couldn’t explain my feelings as I went ashore but I went right in there with the rest of them. I was working as a native scout for the Marines, talking to the local people, and helping the Marines move through those areas I was familiar with.
“I was there for three weeks and hadn’t been able to find my family. I saw some Chamorros I knew and they’d say, ‘Jorge, we have seen your family but it was four or five days ago.’ That was a little bit too long and I was worried about them.
“You’re not going to believe this, and every time I talk about it my hair stands on end. I was with a Marine patrol up in the hills and we were slowly moving up looking for Jap stragglers. The master sergeant was up in front, and he was a real gung-ho happy Marine. He saw someone up ahead and I saw him too. He was ready to open fire and I said, ‘Hold it! Hold it!’ He said, ‘Why, I am going to kill that so-and-so Japanese.’ And I said, ‘No, wait a minute! That guy isn’t armed.’ I thought it was a Chamorro and I had to stop him from shooting.
“So, we walked up to this person slowly — you’re not going to believe this; it’s hard for me to even tell it now, but that was my father. I hollered out, ‘That’s my father!’ and I ran up and dropped down on my knees in front of him. And he looked at me and said, ‘Son, I thought you had joined the Navy!’ I was there in front of him dressed like one of the Marines, and I guess my face had changed a little bit too. So, I said, ‘Well, now I am fighting with the Marines.’ The rest of my family was nearby, and we had a big family reunion up there. I couldn’t believe I had found them.
“We arranged for some trucks to come up and get them because there were a lot of other Chamorros around there, too. They had been told to go to Agat, and to do this they were crossing over the center of the island, over the mountains.”
After the war, Jorge was sent to Japan where he worked as an interpreter at the Tokyo War Crimes trials. After that, he transferred from post to post until he retired from the navy in 1961. He later learned that a Japanese neighbor on Guam was actually a spy and reported him to the authorities in Japan, which placed his family under suspicion and constant surveillance.
Jorge Cristobal lived through the Pearl Harbor attack, the fierce fighting in the South Pacific, and the invasion of Guam. Along the way, he spent time with the likes of Admirals Ghormley and Halsey, and the participants of the Tokyo War Crimes trials, from both the United States and Japan. He had a front-row seat at some of the most historic events of the Twentieth Century, quite an experience for a humble Chamorro from Guam.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for over 30 years. He is a director and historian at Sealark Exploration.
