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Capra04 - World War II Artefacts and Wartime Use of Caves in Guam, Mariana Islands
Capra04 - World War II Artefacts and Wartime Use of Caves in Guam, Mariana Islands
Taboroši , D. & Jenson, J.W. 2002 .World War II artefacts and wartime use of caves
in Guam, Mariana Islands Capra 4 available at –
http://capra.group.shef.ac.uk/4/danko.html
Introduction
News reports from Afghanistan during 2001-2002 have highlighted the role
caves can play in warfare. The wartime use of caves, however, is not
peculiar to this conflict. It has been suggested that caves were used as
fortifications at least since the Neolithic times, and that some of the earliest
evidence of emerging military command structure and tactics comes from
Neolithic cave paintings (Ferrill, 1990). Man-made cave systems were used
as bases for Jewish guerrillas fighting against the Romans in Palestine
(Watson, 1996), and the Vikings used lava caves as hideouts (Ólafsson,
1993). In medieval Europe, limestone caves were incorporated into castles,
such as Pembroke and Carreg Cennen in Wales, and were used for water
supply, storage, and defensive purposes (Fry & Lyons, 1997). During the
American Civil War, caves were the foremost source of potassium nitrate for
the production of gunpowder (Whisonant, 2001). Perhaps the most
extensive use of natural caves in warfare in recent times occurred in World
War II, when caves on islands throughout the Pacific were involved in many
aspects of the war. This article is a summary of the wartime use and
associated artefacts in the caves of Guam and the neighbouring Rota, Tinian,
and Saipan, part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
(CNMI), in the western Pacific.
Geology of Guam
Guam, the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands, is an elongate
island, 550 km 2in area, 48 km long, 6-19 km wide (Fig. 1). It is divided
into two major physiographic provinces: southern Guam, a rugged volcanic
highland with some limestone outliers, and northern Guam, an undulating
limestone plateau with two volcanic inliers.
History of Guam
The Mariana Islands are thought to have been first inhabited between 5000
and 4000 BP. Spain colonised the islands after Magellan’s landing in 1521.
The Spanish rule ended on Guam when the United States took possession in
1898, following the Spanish-American War. The island was administered by
the US Navy until the Japanese invasion forces captured it on December 8,
1941. Liberated by the US on July 21, 1944, Guam was a restricted military
area until 1962 (Rogers, 1996). Since the war, it has remained a territory of
the US.
Coastal caves that intersect the freshwater lens were commonly used as
water sources. Marbo Cave, on the Pacific side of northern Guam, for
example, was used by the Japanese Army from 1942 to 1944, and by the
U.S. Army from 1947 to 1950 (Randall and Holloman, 1974). It contains a
large concrete platform, which provided a base for an electrical water pump.
Another example is the Tarague Natural Well #4, a vertical-walled collapsed
cenote located on Andersen Air Force Base, in northern Guam. It was used
by the U.S. military following the war, and contains a concrete platform and
housing for the now defunct water pump.
Caves were also used as places of refuge and as living quarters for the
civilian population (Fig. 3) and some exhibit remarkable modifications. A
large, 40-m deep cave in Tinian known to have been used by Okinawan
civilians during the American bombardment of the island in 1944, contains
105 constructed features, including walls, enclosures, overhangs, cupboards,
walkways and stairs, all made of rock (OEESC Inc., 2001).
Fig. 4: Japanese helmet left Fig. 5: Japanese ricebowls bearing the Imperial Navy seal on
on a stalagmite in Kettle the bottom, Kettle Cave, Saipan
Cave.
Fig. 6: Travertine-encrusted Fig. 7: Machine gun bullets on belt (probably US .30 cal),
kettle in Kettle Cave, Japanese glass bottles, and a human bone in Awesome Cave,
Saipan. Mt. Santa Rosa, Guam
Ordnance found in caves is
generally limited to small,
portable items that could be
transported to a firing position
nearby or were a part of
personal armaments (Fig. 7).
Finally, human remains are now rarely found in caves. In the three decades
following the war, formal bone-collecting missions were organized by
Japanese veteran groups and the Governments of Guam and the CNMI, and
most human remains were repatriated to Japan. Since then, bones that are
still found may be turned over to the Japanese Consulate.
Discussion
Caves in Guam and the Mariana Islands, having seen extensive use in World
War II, exhibit a range of modifications for wartime use and contain
important artefacts. Common in the decades following the war, World War II
artefacts are being actively removed from caves by amateurs. So far, there
have been no island-wide comprehensive archaeological surveys, and
published materials focusing on the World War II archaeology of caves on
Guam are rare. Archaeological work on the island is typically carried out by
contracted companies as part of environmental impact investigations.
Unpublished reports resulting from such work and pertaining to specific sites
can be found at the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of
Guam, the Historic Preservation Office at the Environmental Department of
COMNAVMARIANAS (U.S. Navy on Guam), and the Historic Resources
Division of the Government of Guam’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
Acknowledgements
We wish to express our appreciation to Brett Wallace, a military trained
explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technician, for identifying bullets and
ordnance and reviewing the manuscript. Jennings Bunn, historic preservation
officer and staff archaeologist for the Environmental Department of
COMNAVMARIANAS, has been an active source of information regarding
archaeological studies and reports. David Lotz of Guam Department of Parks
and Recreation generously shared his knowledge on wartime use of caves.
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