Page 8 - MidWeek Central - March 17, 2021

8 MARCH 17, 2021
Wahiawā Woman Recalls Her Time As WWII POW In Guam
BY DON ROBBINS
during the war that she and others faced included having to search for their own food, “but we had to hide it or else we would get punished.”
explosion. I have a picture of the American soldier who took care of me and also a picture of the American flag that my cousin JuAna Kam- minga hid in a tin can under the house.
wanted it,” Kamminga-Ke- koʻolani says.
Pointing out the scars of shrapnel wounds inflicted as a result of her time as a World War II-era prisoner in Guam, 87-year-old Wahiawā resident Nancy Kammin- ga-Kekoʻolani wants to tell her story so future genera- tions learn about war’s harsh lessons.
This history of Kammin- ga-Kekoʻolani and her fam- ily during the time she was wounded is also detailed in the book titled Biography of Arthur W. Jackson, 1880- 1961, An American Pioneer in Guam by Arthur Jackson Sr.
“At the time when we had the flag out, there were six of us women, (and) if the Japa- nese found out about the flag during their house raids, we would have been killed in- stantly. I don’t know where the flag is now, but I know it is in a safe place where my cousin JuAna would have
Kamminga-Kekoʻola- ni now notes, “This is not about me. That’s where we were sheltered until libera- tion. It came about because we honored that flag. It kept us alive and I am the only survivor. People are dying to reach this country.”
Now a great-grandmother, she recalls that she was a young girl living on Guam in 1941 when Japanese planes started bombing the Marine barracks in Orote Point and other buildings.
It explains that after the recapture of Guam by Amer- ican forces in 1944, Kam- minga-Kekoʻolani and her cousins were playing near an ammunition storage site. One of her cousins, Carmen, hit a live round and it ex- ploded, killing her instantly and injuring others, includ- ing Kamminga-Kekoʻolani.
She adds, “I want our grandchildren to appreciate what America is. It’s a free country. I’m not from here. I was born and raised in Guam.”
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After the air raid, she and others hiked in the hills for miles past rice fields as the planes continued their bombing, and eventually they were told they were now prisoners of Japan.
“I don’t know the date but my cousin and I were in the back, where she found what looked like a pipe that was left there by the Japanese or Americans during a battle,” she shares.
Wahiawā resident Nancy Kamminga-Keko‘olani shows a scrapbook containing her memories of war and her life. DON ROBBINS PHOTO
“As I woke up, I saw my mom tending to my wounds. I started to cry because I had been separated from her for four years. She was taken by the Japanese to be their nurse since she had experi- ence being a nurse at the lo-
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“The Japanese soldier made it clear that we were not allowed back into our home, cook food or burn anything, so we stayed out- side because they believed we were American spies,” she remembers.
cal hospital.” Kamminga-Kekoʻolani
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Kamminga-Kekoʻolani adds that the many hardships
“It was long after, when an American soldier carried me and took me to a dispen- sary in Asan,” she adds.
adds, “I don’t remember how long I stayed in the hospital, but I remember the pain I felt from the bullet wound and fragment rem- nants left in my arm from the
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