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Remembering Our People: Commemorating War in the Pacific

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 19 July 2021

 

Within the entire Mariana Islands archipelago, July is the month where liberation from enemy occupation by the U.S. forces is hailed.  For the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, it’s the 4^th of July. For Guam, it’s the 21^st of July.

As a practicing CHamoru genealogist, it has become an inherent part my nature to study not only tracing and examining the lines of families, but also the impact of events that affected them and their personal experiences and stories.

In my quest to research more of the CHamoru people that left to places outside of the Mariana Islands, I came across this 2015 article that touched my heart. It touches my heart because I am descendant of survivors of the war in the Pacific.  Through my journey in the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project I can also point out other places where I have discovered people of CHamoru ancestry that have also experienced a degree of trauma and devastations of war: all of Micronesia, Bonin/Ogasawara Islands, Papua New Guinea, and St. Paul Island Alaska. I am sure there will be other places that will surface in the future.

Remember them and our other elder brothers and sisters of the Pacific! They are not are invisible. They are native islanders of the Pacific, where war was brought to them and without a voice.

https://theconversation.com/remember-the-pacifics-people-when-we-remember-the-war-in-the-pacific-46130

CHamoru Population Under the League of Nations Mandate

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 13 July 2021

(Photo Source: Annual Report to the League of Nations on the Administration
of the South Sea Islands Under Japanese Mandate for the Year 1924)

 

The recent genealogy update of Tan Nicolasa Lujan Asang has pulled my research interests in so many directions. Can you say vertigo? Lol. I’m trying to narrow it down in slices to try get a better historical understanding of why or how some CHamoru people were sent mostly to Yap and Palau. From there, some returned and some moved on to different locations in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Some stayed in PNG and while others left for Australia.

 

As I sift through historical documents or literature referencing some of the name places it has added to my learning frustrations. For instance, in some cases the term Micronesian would be broadly used and there are no specifics as to which ethnic group or person was tied to the event. Same as when the term Caroline Islands is used, a reader is not able to ascertain a specific island of reference.

 

Initially, I generalized my statement  that many of these CHamoru people were used for farming. However, another primary reason why some CHamoru people were recruited for work in Anguar, Palau was for phosphate ore mining, beginning with the German administration in 1909.  Some literature suggests that the reason why CHamoru people were sought after by the German (1899 - purchased most of Micronesia, except Guam from Spain) and Japanese (1914 – seized Japan from Germans and later given a League of Nations Mandate)  administrations for labor was because, the CHamoru people had already been exposed, accustomed, and understood the “money economy,” system after being colonized and assimilated from the 200 plus years of Spanish occupation. 

 

I am learning the term “indentured labor or servant,” which refers to some type of contract between the employee and employer. In some cases, there may be coercion, coaxing or free will towards engaging in the labor arrangement. Some may have been in debt or assumed the debt of another family member and the only way to repay that debt was through the contract.

 

I must admit though another one my naiveties. Before, I only thought that it was the CHamoro people under the German and Japanese administration that left to other islands and PNG for farming.  However, there were CHamoru people from Guam that left too. I was remissed, because even though the Spanish-American War resulted in the partition of the Mariana Islands (Guam being separated from the rest of the Northern Mariana Islands), the CHamoru people remain one ethnic group and equally important have the same genealogical ties. Therefore, during the U.S., German and Japanese occupations, CHamoru families were still keeping in contact and visiting each other across the islands until the beginning of World War II. 

 

The impact of the League of Nations Mandate and World War II seems to have deeply divided the CHamoru people.  In fact, some of the trauma and hate caused by a few CHamoru people under the Japanese occupation during World War II, sadly exists to this very day. But that’s another story in itself.

 

Through some of the annual reports by the Japanese government, I have extracted some CHamoru population data under their administration.  It is interesting to note that the Japanese government, within the “Micronesian stock,” labeled the CHamoru people as “Chamorro,” while all other ethnic Micronesian groups were referred to as “Kanaka.”

 

CHamoru Population Under Japan Administration

District	1924[1]	1925[2]	1930[3]	1931[4]
Saipan	2526	2577	2846	3040
Palau	168	222	215	206
Yap	160	151	157	159
Truk	0	2	9	7
Ponape	0	0	74	60
Total	2854	2952	3301	3472

*The population for Saipan (district) includes all of the Northern Mariana Islands (not Guam). 

 

CHamoru Workers at the Mining Station, Palau

Mining in Palau	1924	1925	1930	1931
Male	25	25	25	27
Female	1	1	0	0

*The woman was an office worker for the mining station. 

 

Because I have the 1920 and 1930 Census transcription data for Guam, I have the data of those born in other places of Micronesia that may later serve as another slice for a research project.

1920 US Census - Guam[5]

• 10 people were recorded with a birthplace of either Caroline Islands, Yap, Yap Island, Yap, Car Is.
• Surnames: Blas (6), Camacho (1), Alufaq (1) and Tejada (2)

1930 US Census - Guam[6]

• Five (5) people were recorded with a birthplace of Caroline Islands
• Surnames: Leon Guerrero (1), Aldan (1), Sacramento (1), Aflague (1), Aguon (1)

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Footnotes:

[1] Japanese Government. 1925. Annual Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the South Sea Islands Under Japanese Mandate for the Year 1924. Geneva

[2] Japanese Government. 1926. Annual Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the South Sea Islands Under Japanese Mandate for the Year 1925. Geneva

[3] Japanese Government. 1931. Annual Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the South Sea Islands Under Japanese Mandate for the Year 1930. Geneva

[4] Japanese Government. 1932. Annual Report to the League of Nations on the Administration of the South Sea Islands Under Japanese Mandate for the Year 1931. Geneva

[5] Bernard Punzalan. 2021. CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project. http://www.chamorroroots.com

[6] Ibid.

 

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Nicolasa Lujan Asang: Research Progress Report

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 11 July 2021

 

Thanks to Adam Liu, family genealogist, who has been researching the CHamoru roots of Nicolasa Lujan Asang/Asan, on behalf of his uncle Raymond Chin, one of Tan Nicolasa’s grandsons. Adam (with the additional permission of the Chin Clan) and David Muna Borja have given me permission to share this recent correspondence between the two. This type of communication is a great example of bridging family connections (networking) and opening up other potential doors of information. It is precisely one of the reasons why the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project exists!

Both David and my wife Fina have DNA connections with Tan Nicolasa’s family.  However, although I have not been able to establish the lineal genealogy relationship between Fina, David and Tan Nicolasa. David has been able to make a connection between his family and Tan Nicolasa’s.

If you can imagine, the early part of Tan Nicolasa’s life and the events that occurred in the Asia-Pacific region were influenced by countries building their empires through colonization and conquest: Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan and the United States.  As a result…enter World War I and World War II.  Some CHamoru people and their families like Tan Nicolasa were sent abroad throughout Micronesia, and more so specific to this case what is known today as Papua New Guinea to farm lands. It is currently unknown, if Tan Nicolasa’s initial journey to Papua New Guinea was via coercion, coaxing or free will.

Here is an excerpt of the email exchange from Adam to David:

“Dear David,

I was very happy to receive you message on ancestry!

Thank you for explaining your connection to Leonardo Camacho and Nicolasa Castro. I'll go into some more detail now so you are aware of the context I am doing this research in. Raymond Chin's grandmother, Nicolasa Asan was born in 1903 in Garapan, Saipan. In about 1915 she was sent to what was then German New Guinea and married at the age of 13 to a Chinese hotelier by the name of Chin Yau Yee. They had one son, Chin Hoi Meen, Raymond's father, in 1917, and a daughter in 1920 who died at the age of 6 days old. Thereafter, Nicolasa apparently 'disappeared' from the record.

I commenced searching for Nicolasa almost three years ago as a project for Raymond, and also because I have always been fascinating and genealogical research. In took best part of two years to finally discover what happened. Through some fortuitous connections and detailed research I was able to make contact with living descendants of Nicolasa through her subsequent relationship.

It turns out that around 1922 Nicolasa left her Chinese husband and married a German who was a planter in New Guinea. Thereafter, the couple left and travelled back to Germany. Nicolasa lived an extraordinary life as her husband found work in West Africa in the 1920s and 1930s and took Nicolasa with him. During these years she had two daughters (Raymond Chin's father's half sisters). At one stage her German husband sent her back to Saipan for a holiday were Nicolasa was reunited with her own mother and grandmother. When WWII broke out, the family, being German citizens, were placed in a civilian internment camp in Nigeria. Shortly after, they were shipped to Jamaica, of all places, where they spent the rest of the war in internment. After the war ended Nicolasa's husband died. One daughter, Anita, married a Venezuelan man and migrated to Venezuela where she has descendants today, and amazingly, is still alive at the age of 99. The other daughter, Victoria, migrated to the USA, had no children and died several years back. Nicolasa herself died in 1999 at the age of 96 in Carson City, Nevada.

What is most amazing is that this 13 year old who left Saipan to married a Chinese may 20 years her senior, went on travel the world and live in far flung places such as New Guinea, Germany, West Africa, Jamaica, Venezuela and the USA. What's more, she only recently died in 1999, well into the lifetime of her Chinese son Chin Hoi Meen (who died in 1982) and the lifetimes of her grandchildren (one of whom is Raymond).

Just last month we arranged an international zoom linkup where the Chinese descendants of Nicolasa (now living in Brisbane, Australia and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea), and the Venezuelan-German descendants of Nicolasa (now living in Caracas), finally got to meet.

As you can see this research and the amazing reunion have generated a lot of interest in Nicolasa's life and her home of Saipan. That is why we are interested to see if we can make connections in Saipan to living relative of Nicolasa and see if we can learn more of her life and times.

I will follow your suggestion and try contact Linda [full name intentionally withheld] through facebook. Hopefully she might know more information, or otherwise, be able to point us in the right direction on who to speak to.

In the meantime David, I have also attached two documents to this email. One is a basic family tree constructed from Herman's data, showing that Nicolasa Asan is a great great granddaughter of Leonardo Camacho and Nicolasa Castro through the maternal line. The second document is Herman's data and his sources. I will also attach a photograph of when Nicolasa and her daughter Anita returned back to Saipan to reunited with her mother (Josepha Santos Luhan) and grandmother (Nicolasa Camacho Santos), for your interest. This photo originally belonged Nicolasa Asan and is now in the possession of her Venezuelan descendants.” ~Adam Liu, July 9/10, 2021 (Adam currently resides in Austrailia)

 

Sidebar….David Muna Borja and I are also 4^th cousins through the dela Cruz-Anderson Clan stemming from the early 1800’s. For David, primarily from Don Francisco Tudela, a high ranking Spanish soldier, who married Doña Josefa Engracia dela Cruz Anderson, after his retirement in 1848. The Tudela Clan throughout the Mariana Islands archipelago remains one distinct family.  For quite some time, David has also been a contributing collaborator for thie CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project.

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Nicolasa Lujan Asan: Bridging Her Descendant’s CHamoru Roots

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Written by: Bernard Punzalan

Published: 10 July 2021

 

Since the beginning of time, we know that there are countless stories of CHamoru people who left the Mariana Islands and never returned.  In the past, I have specifically tracked the history and descendants of Maria Castro delos Santos (historically: Maria de los Santos y Castro). She is the CHamoru matriarch of her descendants from the Bonin Islands since 1843, now known as the Ogasarawa Islands. Since then, I have found my DNA connection with them, but still have yet to make the family genealogical connections.

Later, I have tracked the history and descendants of John “Kuk” Fratis, since 1867, the CHamoru patriarch of his descendants in Saint Paul Island, Alaska.  I have not been in direct contact with many of his descendants, but remains a work in progress. 

The current story here is about Nicolasa Lujan Asan/Asang.  The journey for me in this story is different from the other two above. This special story entails a relative of a relative (we know how that goes) reaching out to others and me by referral. This quest looped back to me about four times already: first by Carlos Madrid; secondly, the originator (name withheld for now); thirdly by a DNA connection thru my wife Fina; and now my primo David Tudela Borja.

Unfortunately, this is one story where I have had very little historical information in the CHamoru Roots Genealogy Project archives to draw upon and provide much help.  However, we were fortunate that Herman “Jun Pan” Guerrero, fellow CHamoru historian and genealogist from Saipan had some key information to help kickstart bridging some gaps. 

Once I receive permission from a particular person who has been researching and developing the genealogy of Nicolasa Lujan Asang to share his findings I will publish it here.  Until then, I'm going to let this chart try and convey part of her family's story.