EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Right now marks 81 years because the finish of the second battle of Guam, a tipping level within the Pacific throughout World Conflict 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 he or she desires to know the deeper historical past of the island. We began off our dialog together 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 smooth, so it feels good to stroll on.
KWONG: These are her ancestral lambs. Leialani is Chamorro. Chamorros are the indigenous folks 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 follow, earlier than you go into the jungle or something, you need to ask the Taotaomo’na. Taotaomo’na are the spirits of our ancestors.
KWONG: Leialani deeply respects her ancestors. As a baby, 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 this point, like, I’ve by no means been harmed or something, so I am like, they like me (laughter). And when you do not try this, you may get very sick.
KWONG: And her reminiscences there are anchored in a rigidity between the indigenous tradition and out of doors affect. Guam is among the most closely militarized islands on the earth, 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 baby, all over the place Leialani regarded – alongside the ocean, within the bushes – there have been traces of World Conflict II. Large coastal protection weapons lined the shores of her residence 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 could possibly be, like, ammunition that by no means detonated.
KWONG: Academics talked about World Conflict II at school. Her elders lived via it.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: If you’re on a land that has skilled loads of trauma, particularly if, like, you’re the folks 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 many times, first by the Spanish, then by the People, then by the Empire of Japan throughout World Conflict II. Leialani was taught in regards to the 1941 invasion at school, 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 profitable the warfare, Japan troopers carried out a marketing campaign of enslavement, torture and homicide. This was a painful historical past that Leialani realized about on discipline journeys. And she or he 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 principle message.
KWONG: To this present day, the U.S. navy controls about one-third of the land on Guam. The Air Power 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 economic system is tipped within the protection course. So out of all U.S. states and territories, Guam has one of many highest charges of navy service.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: If you happen to do not be part of the navy, you are sort of screwed. Like, there’s not loads of job alternatives on Guam.
KWONG: So some folks depart to search out work. The vast majority of the Chamorro inhabitants truly lives in america. When Leialani was 9 years outdated, her mother moved her to the U.S. to be nearer to her aspect of the household. And that is when Leialani actually obtained to know her paternal grandfather, Joseph Santos, who she calls Papa.
JOSEPH SANTOS: Each morning, like, I’d rise up and stroll her to high school. I’d miss her when class began ‘trigger I used to be simply ready for her to return residence.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: My papa would sneak me off to buffets after college.
SANTOS: After which later within the night, we might trip bikes across the neighborhood and stuff.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: We went bike using at some point in Vegas, and he thinks he may do all these cool methods.
(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 varsity at Soka College of America in Southern California. Her freshman yr, 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 ladies. And, you recognize, my first yr, I used to be like, oh, like, that is cute. Like, I need to – particularly ‘trigger my mates, I used to be like, I would like 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 method that basically bothered her.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: The ladies have been very fetishized on their hip-shaking talents, not simply by, like, onlookers, however, like, of us 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 assume 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’re feeling that method, 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 earn money and offered 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 evening on campus. She spoke overtly in regards to the historical past of Japan’s occupation of Guam. This obtained her loads 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 consider you?
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Yeah, they’re like, individuals are making an attempt 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 informed her papa all about it.
SANTOS: I used to be actually pleased with her. Like, yeah, all proper, you recognize? Like, rise up to your rights.
(LAUGHTER)
KWONG: A number of years later, the membership disbanded with a Fb put up that learn – for years, our membership has been appropriating cultures that we don’t absolutely 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 all the time 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 at school, we could not converse Chamorro. We needed to converse 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 onerous as a result of, like, they did not actually care to grasp the Chamorros, you recognize? It was simply, like, People are ruling now, and that is how it should be.
KWONG: The ban on talking Chamorro wasn’t lifted till 1970. Now, Joseph is on no account saying that life beneath the U.S. navy was similar to life beneath Imperial Japan. However he desires to be trustworthy in regards to 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 warfare. This led to a category motion lawsuit within the Nineteen Eighties for a settlement of $40 million, which many nonetheless consider just isn’t sufficient compensation.
SANTOS: They confiscated loads of my grandparents’ land. Like, the navy cemetery on the island the place the flagpole was was once my nice grandma’s home. They really employed a trailer, they usually moved the entire home.
KWONG: Now that you simply’re, you recognize, 73…
SANTOS: Yeah.
KWONG: …What do you consider the U.S. navy now and what it is executed in Guam?
SANTOS: I believe they took benefit of the Chamorros. They actually did, you recognize, like, as a result of we did not have an excessive amount of to say about what was occurring. In order 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 selection. That is the way in which it was. However did you ever have a second the place you began to really feel, like, offended?
SANTOS: Perhaps generally – disgusted I believe can be greater than offended as a result of being offended does nothing, you recognize? Folks in politics enable this to hold on and never do something. However then, when you actually give it some thought, it is like, how a lot voice have they got to start with?
KWONG: Joseph is speaking in regards to the political scenario on Guam at this time, how little say the folks have and the way about half of the residents have been born elsewhere. Just one-third determine 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 she or he desires steerage on navigate that diasporic identification. Her papa, her closest household connection to the land, will not all the time 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 assume my technology must do with the intention to go on, like, Chamorro tradition and heritage?
SANTOS: Apply it, you recognize? Like, truly dwell in that method. 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 believe would make it easier 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 data sciences. She desires to work in a museum sometime or be part of repatriation efforts to get well Pacific Islander objects and stays. She’s not completely positive what she desires to do exactly but. Leialani simply is aware of that there is not that many Pacific Islanders within the discipline.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: There’s a lot that our neighborhood wants and that, like, is not going to be achieved with out us particularly spearheading it ‘trigger as of proper now, the library info science discipline and archival research basically, as properly, are very white.
KWONG: She’s searching for position fashions, students and writers and archivists who can present her how to do that work in an indigenous method.
WIHONGI-SANTOS: Ideally, hopefully, like, within the nearish (ph) future, I need to go to Aotearoa, New Zealand, and work with the Maori info professionals there. They’re spearheading loads of these actions within the discipline for indigenous peoples and really particularly for Pacific Islanders as properly. It is having indigenous methods of information be acknowledged as information.
KWONG: Leialani is listening, identical to she did when she was somewhat 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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