Stop what you are doing. Clear your mind. Concentrate on your

breathing. Focus your thoughts. For the next 10 seconds I want you to

just pause and listen for the sound of a heart beat. With no

distractions I just want you to listen.

What you are hearing are the voices of the silent Holocaust.(1) You

are hearing the voices of innocent men, women and children whose

only crime was that they were born in a war zone.:

You are hearing the voices of a people who have had all their

property taken from them leaving them with the clothes on their back.

You are seeing the face of a beautiful lady who was made an example

of to others for not submitting to the sexual advances of an enemy

officer. She was sliced from ear to ear with a bayonet and buried alive up to her neck for days while maggots feasted on her wounds.

You are hearing the screams of mothers, sisters and daughters being raped by foreign soldiers.

You are visualizing how these women felt as they stood there

helpless and watched their husbands, brothers and sons being executed

one at a time in front of them not sure weather or not they were

next.

You are seeing the faces of battle hardened US Troops as they come

upon a mass grave of decapitated bodies so unbelievable that for the

next 60 years they are traumatized to the point that they can't

even talk about it.

Now imagine that this happened not in a European Nazi concentration

camp but in the United States in an area the size of New York City .

All of this did happen during World War 2 in Guam . What most

Americans don't realize is that Guam is not a foreign country nor is it a mere colonial possession of the United States . Guamanians are United States Citizens and if CNN & NBC were in existence at the time and covered these events as much as they did the World trade Center Disaster then the topic of War reparations for the victims would be a mute point.

As far as 911 goes there is no dollar amount high enough to

compensate seeing your loved ones choose between

burning or jumping to their death on live television. But, the powers that be saw fit to give the families in excess of a million dollars each.

Furthermore, " The families of the victims and the injured will

receive help from the Department of Justice in preparing their

claims, and pro- bono legal assistance... There are no caps

or limits on the total amount family can receive in compensation, and

the legislation requires the claims to be processed and paid out

within five months of when the application is initially filed. Claims

must be processed within 120 days and paid within another 20 days.(2)

Now compare this to what happened on Guam . Sixty years after these horrific events have occurred there still is no settlement and many of the Guamanians who were victimized and permanently scarred have died from old age and they never received a cent. They weren't even asking for much. Twenty five thousand dollars if you had a loved one killed which is 40 times less than what was paid to the families of 911. (3)

To add further insult to injury not only did the Japanese Government not pay back it's war debt to the Guamanian people it brutalized but the US Government took it upon itself to tell Japan that it was ok for them not to pay. Then the US Government took from the Guamanian people over one third of Guam's best lands including seaports, hill top vistas and other assorted waterfront properties that have been in Chamorro families for millennia. Using millions of US tax dollars they turned these properties into luxury dwellings for the military, luxury golf courses and also fenced off beach front property. And they took Guam's only fresh water lake. This is on an island that is only 211 square miles. If a similar land grab occurred in Texas this would amount to 89,527 square miles and would include the entire port of Galveston/Texas City.(4)

How did the Chamorro people respond to this new invasion? They did

just the opposite of what one would expect after being shafted in a

subterfuge style land grab. They all started proving their

unquestioning loyalty to the United States by joining the military in

droves and dying in every major conflict since World War 2.

Guamanians don't just join the military to get money for college.

They join it as a way of life and they always try for the hardest

occupations.

It is not uncommon to see them as Nuclear Operators, Navy Seals,

Army Green Berets, Rangers, Air force Spec Ops and in the Marine

Corp. Guamanians are loyal to the United States and they are not

asking for much.

Just please tell us that the lives of Guam's older generation that

suffered so much in World War II are just as valuable as that

businessperson who died at the World Trade Center on 911.

NOTES:

(1) The idea for this format came from a speech given in 1983 by Sharla Torre of the Academy of our Lady of Guam at the Guam Legislature.

(2) Press release Senator Charles E. Schumer September 22 2001.

(3) http://www.guampdn.com

(4) Calculation based on one third of Texas Square miles.

http://www.texasalmanac.com/environment/

Dr of Chiropractic, Former Navy. From Guam.