HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — A 98-year-old World War II veteran who was sent to Guam after American forces recaptured the island from Japan recalled the island’s condition following the devastation of war.
On Thursday, the Guam Visitors Bureau invited local media to interview Irvin Ward, who originally arrived on island as a 20-year-old soldier in April 1945, after Guam’s liberation.
Ward, who turns 99 in September, explained to The Guam Daily Post he remembered being a teenager playing bridge in his college dorm when he got the news the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
While he was just 17 and still too young to enlist in the military, Ward joined as soon as he turned 18. He chose to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the time and trained in the states for a couple of years before going overseas to Guam in April 1945 when he was 20.
Ward recalled, after arriving in Hågatña, making his way to what is now Northwest Field on Andersen Air Force Base, when the military started constructing the air field.
“The people that were there on the ground, crew and all, had to keep us busy. So they had us cutting the jungle out with a machete, and we slept in pup tents,” Ward said.
While the first incursion of American forces to retake the island occurred months before he landed on Guam, Japanese troops still were surrendering when he arrived.
“It was in an area that had a lot of enemies in there. … They lived in caves, and they were sniping, and they were coming out,” said Ward, who added some were even jumping off cliffs rather than submit to capture.
Ward remained on island as he was part of a “tremendous” program that involved flying B-29 planes to drop bombs on Japan. Ward was assigned to one of the aircraft, and he was part of a ground crew whose responsibility was to keep the bombers safe.
After the dropping of the atomic bombs, which took off from Tinian and ultimately ended the war, Ward remained on Guam until February 1946.
‘Blown away’ by return to Guam
A month after Ward left Guam, he was discharged from the military and went on to finish school and earn his degree in business. He worked for several companies in Southern California before starting his own business.
He retired at the age of 58 and explained he still keeps himself “pretty busy” playing bridge and writing poetry.
Ward spoke with The Guam Daily Post a day after he arrived, which was his first time on island since the war. He described being “blown away” when his plane landed.
“This is not the Guam I remember. I remember jungle. … This is unbelievable. I came in the airport, and I was blown away,” said Ward, who described postwar Guam as being in a “primitive” state.
“There were 20,000 CHamorus. … Everything was primitive. … I didn’t get to drive around much, but every once in a while I’d go to the beach. … I’d go to Tumon Bay, … Talo’fo’fo’ Bay, … and the landscape was all primitive little huts with palm tree tops on it. If you saw a store, it was a little general store. … (There was) debris all over the beaches, with pillboxes left over from the Japanese,” Ward said.
The veteran will be on island for four days and already has had the chance to meet Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero. His son, Adam, who accompanied his father for the trip, said they were going to tour the island.
“We’re going to continue to tour and go to places that (my father) remembers he was at, and see what it looks like (today),” Adam Ward said.
World War II veteran Irvin Ward, 98, recalls his time in Guam after American forces recaptured the island from the Japanese, during an interview with The Guam Daily Post on Thursday, July 20, 2023.
