EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Right this moment marks 81 years because the finish of the second battle of Guam, a tipping level within the Pacific throughout World Battle II when U.S. forces overtook Imperial Japan and recaptured the island. And the second that American troops got here ashore, July 21, is understood in Guam as Liberation Day, commemorated yearly with a parade…
(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMS)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh, go, go, go, go (ph).
KWONG: …Crammed with floats, a Liberation Day queen and residents marching alongside members of the U.S. navy, which has maintained a presence on the island all of those years. All of this has given Leialani Wihongi-Santos pause. I spoke to her in an episode of “Inheriting,” the podcast I host from LAist Studios and distributed by the NPR Community. Leialani is from Guam, and she or he needs to know the deeper historical past of the island. We began off our dialog along with her telling me about her deep connection to the land.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “INHERITING”)
LEIALANI WIHONGI-SANTOS: The sand again on Guam, it is like powder. It is so very comfortable, so it feels good to stroll on.
KWONG: These are her ancestral lambs. Leialani is Chamorro. Chamorros are the indigenous individuals of the Mariana Islands, that are these volcanic and uplifted coral formations, curving alongside the Philippine Sea like a crescent moon. Guam is on the tip of the moon, the island furthest south, the place she grew up.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: In, like, Chamorro observe, earlier than you go into the jungle or something, you must ask the Taotaomo’na. Taotaomo’na are the spirits of our ancestors.
KWONG: Leialani deeply respects her ancestors. As a toddler, she was taught to face on the fringe of the jungle and await permission from the spirits to go via.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: I used to be like, if the wind blows, which means I can go. And to date, like, I’ve by no means been harmed or something, so I am like, they like me (laughter). And in case you do not do this, you may get very sick.
KWONG: And her recollections there are anchored in a stress between the indigenous tradition and outdoors affect. Guam is without doubt one of the most closely militarized islands on this planet, because the U.S. territory that is closest to Asia. So the island’s nickname in protection circles is the tip of America’s spear, a staging floor for navy motion everywhere in the Pacific. As a toddler, in all places Leialani appeared – alongside the ocean, within the bushes – there have been traces of World Battle II. Large coastal protection weapons lined the shores of her dwelling village of Piti, and the elders have been always telling her to watch out.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Rising up, you hear, like, do not contact one thing that you do not know what it’s ‘trigger it may very well be, like, ammunition that by no means detonated.
KWONG: Lecturers talked about World Battle II in class. Her elders lived via it.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: If you’re on a land that has skilled lots of trauma, particularly if, like, you’re the individuals of that land, have you ever realized that land’s historical past?
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KWONG: Have you ever realized that land’s historical past? As an grownup, that’s the central driving query of Leialani’s life. For 500 years, Guam has been managed by overseas powers. The Chamorro homeland was taken over repeatedly, first by the Spanish, then by the Individuals, then by the Empire of Japan throughout World Battle II. Leialani was taught concerning the 1941 invasion in class, how within the days following the assault on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japan troopers occupied Guam in a matter of hours and imposed a brutal three-year occupation that got down to erase the tradition of Guam. Talking the Chamorro language was forbidden. And in direction of the tip of occupation, when U.S. forces have been near successful the conflict, Japan troopers carried out a marketing campaign of enslavement, torture and homicide. This was a painful historical past that Leialani realized about on subject journeys. And he or she was taught they have been rescued when U.S. forces overpowered the Japanese navy.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: The emphasis is America saved us.
KWONG: Proper.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Like, we love America. America saved us, and in order that was sort of, like, the primary message.
KWONG: To this present day, the U.S. navy controls about one-third of the land on Guam. The Air Drive has a base, the Navy and Marine Corps, too. There’s nuclear submarines within the ocean. The Pentagon has plans for what they name a 360-degree missile protection system. If China, North Korea or one other nation have been to assault Guam, the entire financial system is tipped within the protection path. So out of all U.S. states and territories, Guam has one of many highest charges of navy service.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Should you do not be part of the navy, you are sort of screwed. Like, there’s not lots of job alternatives on Guam.
KWONG: So some individuals depart to seek out work. The vast majority of the Chamorro inhabitants really lives in the USA. When Leialani was 9 years previous, her mother moved her to the U.S. to be nearer to her aspect of the household. And that is when Leialani actually acquired to know her paternal grandfather, Joseph Santos, who she calls Papa.
JOSEPH SANTOS: Each morning, like, I might stand up and stroll her to high school. I might miss her when class began ‘trigger I used to be simply ready for her to come back dwelling.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: My papa would sneak me off to buffets after faculty.
SANTOS: After which later within the night, we’d trip bikes across the neighborhood and stuff.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: We went bike using in the future in Vegas, and he thinks he might do all these cool tips.
(LAUGHTER)
KWONG: Oh, God.
SANTOS: She’s like, no, Papa, do not do it (ph).
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Do not do it (laughter).
SANTOS: I would be like, yeah, watch this (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
SANTOS: Oh, man, did I eat it.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: (Laughter).
KWONG: She spent most of her teenage years in Vegas and in 2018 went off to school at Soka College of America in Southern California. Her freshman 12 months, she joined the college’s Polynesian dance membership, which was referred to as Ka Pilina Ho’olokahi.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: That was run by, like, all these Japanese women. And, you already know, my first 12 months, I used to be like, oh, like, that is cute. Like, I need to – particularly ‘trigger my mates, I used to be like, I need you guys to, like, expertise my tradition.
KWONG: However Leialani was the one Pacific Islander. The membership would carry out dances, the hula from Hawaii or otea from Tahiti, in a manner that actually bothered her.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: The ladies have been very fetishized on their hip-shaking skills, not simply by, like, onlookers, however, like, people collaborating in it. After which when it got here to haka, there was simply a lot, like, clearly racist rhetoric round there, like, let me see your savage, like, efficiency.
KWONG: The haka is a Maori dance, and Leialani is Maori. She confronted the membership leaders and stated…
WIHONGI-SANTOS: It is simply bizarre. Like, there is not any islanders right here.
KWONG: Yeah.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Not – an Islander’s not even instructing it. And I used to be like, I do not suppose you guys are, like, doing the tradition justice ‘trigger you are simply instructing the strikes. And they didn’t take it that – they have been simply sort of very impartial. Like, oh, I am sorry you are feeling that manner, however, like, that is not our intention. Which is like – I really feel like that is simply worse than being like, I do not care. So then I used to be like, OK, like, let me join the dots for you, like, why this isn’t cool and, like…
KWONG: Proper.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: …Given historical past, like…
KWONG: Proper.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: …Even worse.
KWONG: The membership carried out to generate profits and introduced the dances with out explaining a lot of their historical past to the viewers. Leialani identified how offensive that was to Pacific Islanders. She shared her grievances in non-public conferences with the membership leaders and in an open mic night time on campus. She spoke brazenly concerning the historical past of Japan’s occupation of Guam. This acquired her lots of hate from college students of Japanese descent. Leialani began getting bizarre emails.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: They’re like, you are mendacity.
KWONG: They did not imagine you?
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Yeah, they’re like, persons are attempting to, like, smear Japan. You are a liar. Do not belief her. Like, it was horrible. It was, like, the worst years of my life.
KWONG: Leialani advised her papa all about it.
SANTOS: I used to be actually happy with her. Like, yeah, all proper, you already know? Like, rise up on your rights.
(LAUGHTER)
KWONG: A couple of years later, the membership disbanded with a Fb publish that learn – for years, our membership has been appropriating cultures that we don’t totally perceive.
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KWONG: The depth of her friends’ ignorance about Guam and Pacific Islander histories was alarming to Leialani, and it marked the start of this journey she’s been on ever since to query historical past because it’s at all times been taught, together with what occurred as soon as the U.S. navy took over the island. Her grandfather even calls this era American occupation.
SANTOS: Even in class, we could not communicate Chamorro. We needed to communicate English. We needed to adjust to whoever was ruling. Like, the governor in Guam, throughout, like, the American occupation was the commanding officer of the bottom. And that was sort of exhausting as a result of, like, they did not actually care to grasp the Chamorros, you already know? It was simply, like, Individuals are ruling now, and that is how it’ll be.
KWONG: The ban on talking Chamorro wasn’t lifted till 1970. Now, Joseph is under no circumstances saying that life underneath the U.S. navy was corresponding to life underneath Imperial Japan. However he needs to be trustworthy concerning the ways in which Chamorros have been exploited, particularly, the quantity of land that was confiscated to construct bases across the island. Practically 11,000 Chamorros, half the inhabitants at the moment, misplaced their property to the U.S. navy within the aftermath of the conflict. This led to a category motion lawsuit within the Nineteen Eighties for a settlement of $40 million, which many nonetheless imagine is just not sufficient compensation.
SANTOS: They confiscated lots of my grandparents’ land. Like, the navy cemetery on the island the place the flagpole was was my nice grandma’s home. They really employed a trailer, and so they moved the entire home.
KWONG: Now that you simply’re, you already know, 73…
SANTOS: Yeah.
KWONG: …What do you consider the U.S. navy now and what it is finished in Guam?
SANTOS: I feel they took benefit of the Chamorros. They actually did, you already know, like, as a result of we did not have an excessive amount of to say about what was happening. So that they took benefit of us. Like, to this very day, we’re not allowed to vote for the president.
KWONG: Did you ever have a second the place – like, you noticed all this, proper? And also you knew that you did not have a alternative. That is the best way it was. However did you ever have a second the place you began to really feel, like, indignant?
SANTOS: Perhaps typically – disgusted I feel could be greater than indignant as a result of being indignant does nothing, you already know? Individuals in politics enable this to hold on and never do something. However then, in case you actually give it some thought, it is like, how a lot voice have they got to start with?
KWONG: Joseph is speaking concerning the political state of affairs on Guam in the present day, how little say the individuals have and the way about half of the residents have been born elsewhere. Just one-third establish as Chamorro.
SANTOS: It is sort of unhappy, actually. Chamorros are actually a minority on Guam now.
KWONG: However Joseph and Leialani do not dwell on Guam anymore. And he or she needs steerage on the best way to navigate that diasporic identification. Her papa, her closest household connection to the land, will not at all times be right here to indicate her how.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: So I am the final of the youngsters in our household to be raised on the household land. So what do you suppose my technology must do with a view to go on, like, Chamorro tradition and heritage?
SANTOS: Apply it, you already know? Like, really dwell in that manner. Like, you going towards, like, the college coverage to alter issues since you did not really feel it was proper, these are issues that I feel would show you how to retain, like, no matter Chamorro lifestyle you are uncovered to.
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KWONG: Quickly after graduating school, Leialani began a grasp’s diploma program in library and knowledge sciences. She needs to work in a museum sometime or be part of repatriation efforts to recuperate Pacific Islander objects and stays. She’s not completely certain what she needs to do exactly but. Leialani simply is aware of that there is not that many Pacific Islanders within the subject.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: There’s a lot that our group wants and that, like, is not going to be achieved with out us particularly spearheading it ‘trigger as of proper now, the library data science subject and archival research on the whole, as properly, are very white.
KWONG: She’s searching for function fashions, students and writers and archivists who can present her how to do that work in an indigenous manner.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Ideally, hopefully, like, within the nearish (ph) future, I need to go to Aotearoa, New Zealand, and work with the Maori data professionals there. They’re spearheading lots of these actions within the subject for indigenous peoples and really particularly for Pacific Islanders as properly. It is having indigenous methods of data be acknowledged as data.
KWONG: Leialani is listening, identical to she did when she was a little bit child saying herself to the Taotaomo’na, standing on the fringe of the jungle ready for an indication.
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KWONG: “Inheriting” is an AANHPI household historical past present, the place the previous is private. For extra episodes, search for “Inheriting” wherever you get your podcasts.
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