The Pacific War and Rise of the Church in Guam and Micronesia
From a presentation at the Mormon History Association conference at Rochester, New York, on June 10, 2023.
Today let’s talk about war—and peace, the transition from Pacific battlefields to sacred temple grounds.
The Great Depression triggered terrible hardships in Japan that led the Japanese to seek military solutions, aggressively colonizing northern China and Micronesia. “In the 1930s, the Japanese military capitalized on the [Micronesian] islands’ strategic location, with plans to make them a springboard for expansion into the Central and Southwest Pacific.” Indeed, “the Japanese launched the early air and sea attacks of their Pacific campaign from Micronesia.”
The morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed the US military in Hawai‘i and Guam (in Guam it was December 8 because of the international date line). Shown here is the USS Arizona ablaze with 1,000 crewmen trapped below deck, including my second cousin Ensign Howard Merrill. Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed the Gilbert Islands, Wake Island, the Philippines, and many more locations. It was a devastating, coordinated attack.
“As the Allies resisted the Japanese expansion and then turned to the defeat of Japan, Micronesia emerged as a key battleground.” The Gilbert Islands represented the eastern limits of the territorial control of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Their bases were established at the Makin and Tarawa Atolls. The US and Japanese forces fought terribly destructive battles in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands from 1942 to early 1944. The Marines learned much from their mistakes at Tarawa and the Marshall Islands, choosing to bypass islands in their next campaigns. “Americans invaded only a few islands to be used as bases from which to launch the next stage of attacks, with the goal of reaching the Japanese home islands as soon as possible. Bypassed islands—the largest number of Micronesian islands—were isolated by Allied control of sea lanes, rendered ineffective by continual bombing, and left to endure and starve until surrender.” Like a typhoon, the Pacific War devastated all in its path. Micronesians were mostly neutral bystanders living in strategic battlefields. Islanders were thus in the cross fire of Japanese and American military contests while providing conscripted labor and suffering from hunger as food shortages arose from blockades and trade disruptions.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had established a formidable naval and air base at the Truk Lagoon (now known as Chuuk). It was informally known as the Gibraltar of the Pacific because of its large lagoon, protected by outer barrier islands, five airfields, and extensive anti-aircraft and naval armaments and fortifications. In Truk, Japanese “military rule became harsher as the war continued and food shortages became dangerous. Micronesian affection and admiration to the Japanese turned to distress, doubt, apathy, resentment, and resistance.” The Americans chose to bomb Truk rather than invade. On February 17–18, 1944, hundreds of carrier-based American fighters and bombers conducted a surprise raid there. Together they sank at least six Japanese warships, nine auxiliary ships, and thirty cargo ships and destroyed about 275 (of 365) Japanese aircraft. The damage was so extensive that the air raid has sometimes been referred to as Japan’s Pearl Harbor. Ongoing US raids wreaked havoc for years.
In the spring of 1944, the Northern Mariana Islands housed Japanese military installations of great strategic significance because they were within fuel range of US long-range land-based bombers to reach Japan. Accordingly, the Japanese reinforced the garrison there and were fiercely determined to defend the Northern Marianas from the westward advance of Admiral Chester Nimitz’s naval and land forces.
Japan sought to make Saipan an “impregnable fortress” and was prepared to sacrifice many lives to protect the homeland. By June 1944, Saipan was defended by 26,000 troops and sailors under the overall command of IJN Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, who a few years earlier had led the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On June 11–12, Vice Admiral Mark Mitscher’s Task Force 58 softened up Saipan’s defenses by conducting fighter and bombing sweeps that destroyed about 200 Japanese combat planes and a dozen or so cargo ships. On June 15, Marines invaded Saipan on eight beaches, supported by the Army’s 27th Infantry Division. The Japanese resisted energetically, and the battle lasted almost a month, ending with a suicidal charge of 3,000 Japanese survivors. Several hundred Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths from Saipan’s cliffs, despite American attempts to convince them otherwise. About 2,000 Japanese eventually surrendered, with Admiral Nagumo taking his own life.
US and Japanese forces fought on Guam and Tinian from July to August. After an eleven-day bombing and siege campaign, the US conducted a multipronged invasion of Guam on July 21. They were opposed by about 18,000 Japanese troops. After three weeks of heavy fighting, about 450 Japanese surrendered, while the remainder had died or gone into hiding in the jungle. More than 1,400 Americans had been killed and 5,600 wounded. Guam was declared secure on August 10, and thousands of CHamoru people, who had been left to starve in concentration camps on the island, were finally freed.
If there was a silver lining to the dark clouds of war, it was that Latter-day Saints began to share the story of the restored gospel in Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and later many other Micronesian islands. Scattered Latter-day Saints arrived and sought each other for worship services. For example, members sought to gather for worship on aircraft carriers and other vessels. While serving aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid with Torpedo Squadron Number 10, sailor Ralph Albiston wanted to find fellow Saints, so he researched the records of more than 4,000 crewmen and found twenty-three other members of the Church. He located all of them and asked if they would join in church services. They gathered to sing, study scriptures, and partake of the sacrament. At first they took the bread and water using plates and paper cups, but then Albiston made cups for the water from empty 20 mm gun casings that were cleaned and polished and eventually silver plated. Another Latter-day Saint sailor made a beautiful wooden tray.
Soon after American forces took Saipan, Latter-day Saint Marines built their first meetinghouse in Micronesia. Marine (and future Apostle) L. Tom Perry was stationed for a year on Saipan. He said they wanted to replace their leaky tent with a building:
From the different branches of service, we set about to gather materials. We were surprised at the response we received. The Seabees supplied us with all the tools we needed. The Marines and the Air Force contributed most of the building materials. Now the problem was, who will design the chapel? We checked all of the servicemen. None of them had built anything, except we found a farmer from the state of Idaho that had helped his father build a barn. We made him the design and construction supervisor, and we started about the process of building our chapel. Each evening after our day’s duty was over, we would go to the construction site and begin our work. . . .We were only able to hold one church service in our building. The next morning, Monday morning, we loaded our sea bags, boarded ship, and headed to Japan.
On the nearby island of Tinian, an airbase was established for American B-29 bombers to conduct long-range bombing of mainland Japan. Seabee Alma Lawrence told the story of the Enola Gay leaving with an atomic bomb:
[In August 1945] about a week or ten days after our battalion had received notice to prepare for the invasion of the Japanese mainland, I was at the north airfield when a new squadron of B-29s came in.
It was a very small squadron of only seven B-29s or so, and only five men to each crew, plus ground support people. I talked for several minutes with one of the pilots from this squadron, and he showed me how their B-29s had been modified. He drew my attention to the fact that these special bombers had only one large bomb bay rather than the conventional two. He explained that each of the planes carried only a five-man crew instead of the standard eleven-man crew. There was no tail-gun on the planes, he said, and many of the other standard positions were also unmanned. Then he said something that made no sense to me at the time. It did cause me to wonder, but I truly figured that he couldn’t know what he was talking about. I had casually mentioned that our battalion had received orders to prepare to invade Japan, and that deployment was now less than two weeks away. The pilot looked me in the face and said we wouldn’t need to worry about the invasion, declaring, “The war’s going to be over before that.”
I didn’t quiz the pilot. I thought he might be bragging, but (if I remember things honestly) I had a feeling he knew something I didn’t. I don’t think he would have told me, had I asked him. I remember that I was at the north airfield again, a few days later, when one of the planes from this squadron took off, towards evening. (We were about 1500 miles from Japan, so it was a long flight. Still, the B-29s were fully capable of making a round trip there from Tinian, though they were usually pretty low on fuel when they returned.)
I don’t think that I ever saw this pilot again, but the following day, the radio was loaded with the news of an atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. We heard the news first over the radio, and then over the loudspeaker near the battalion headquarters. The first news was simply that an atomic bomb had been dropped. The explosive power was noted, plus the damage done. I remember being amazed by the power the bomb had. Later, we learned that the world at large was abuzz with the news that much of the great city had been destroyed. A few days later came the reports that Nagasaki had been destroyed by a second atomic bomb. And then in short order came the wonderful news that Japan had surrendered to the United States, and that the second World War was officially over.
I have mixed feelings today about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. The bombs were enormously destructive, and thousands of innocent people died. At that time, however, I could see nothing but blessings because of them. Two bombs brought an end to an ugly and terrible war. Had the bombs not been effectively used, the all-out invasion of Japan almost certainly would have resulted in widespread damage to property—and in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives on each side.
On V-J Day, the island was opened up for celebrating. All military personnel were invited over the loudspeakers to come to headquarters for free beer. That didn’t seem very appropriate to me—to celebrate the ending of the war in that way. I just went into my tent alone and wrote letters and offered my prayers of thanks that the war was over.
Guam soon became an important naval and air base for American forces during the Cold War at the expense of the CHamoru people, many of whom were forced to sell their land at cheap prices to the American military. Notwithstanding these injustices, the CHamoru remain loyal to America and are grateful for their liberation during World War II. After securing the island, US and CHamoru troops spent many months hunting down the hundreds of Japanese troops who had not surrendered. Most of the remaining Japanese were captured or killed within a short time after the battle. However, several of them evaded capture for decades, including Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi and several of his companions.
The United States soon established four military bases in Guam, and Church members formed several servicemen’s groups (smaller than branches). The first full-time missionaries arrived in January 1957. That same year, the Church purchased land in Anigua to build another chapel to accommodate the growth in membership. An old navy chapel, again consisting of two Quonset huts, was made available to the Latter-day Saints by a contractor who was removing it from the naval station. The foundation and slab were prepared, and the buildings were moved to Anigua later that year. The first meeting held in the new chapel was on February 9, 1958. Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated Anigua’s new Guam Branch meetinghouse on June 18, 1959 (shown here).
On March 3, 1970, Church leaders formed the Guam Ward within the Honolulu Stake (3,800 miles away)! Shown here is the chapel in Barrigada, Guam. So the Saints had meetinghouses. But they still lacked access to temples to receive the endowment and sealing ordinances. For decades, access to temples would be a significant problem.
In 1973 students from Kiribati (formerly known as the Gilbert Islands) attended church-owned Liahona High School in Tonga. They converted, and in 1975 they returned and served as missionaries. The church later bought a school in Kiribati.
Missionary work began in Saipan in February 1975. Mustang Gonzalez, a Latter-day Saint construction contractor, was the branch president and told his cigar-smoking foreman, Brad Nago, that he wanted him to be the next branch president. Brad and Jeannie Nago converted and led the branch for many years.
In Honolulu on July 1, 1975, William and Margery Cannon were asked to spend three years supervising missionaries in Hawai‘i. They were responsible for members and missionaries on Saipan, Guam, and Kwajalein. They felt that the restored gospel should be shared in all of Micronesia, but they faced challenges: travel expenses, travel visas, missionary housing, languages, establishing local church buildings, strengthening local leaders, health challenges, etc.
In 1976 Micronesians were actively seeking greater freedom from US supervision, having experienced some success with their Congress of Micronesia. Elder John H. Groberg of the Seventy arrived in Honolulu on July 28 as an “area supervisor” for the Hawaii–Pacific Isles Area. Anticipating that Micronesian nations might end the guarantee of religious freedom in the islands, he requested a meeting with William Cannon. On August 24, Elder Groberg and President Cannon met to decide where to send missionaries first. Three days later, on August 27, the missionaries brought into the mission office Ohren Ohry, a Pingelapese schoolteacher from Pohnpei who was studying at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. Ohry said he would be baptized if a branch could be made on his islands. They agreed, and he was baptized the next day. In quick succession, Elder Groberg and President Cannon sent missionaries to Pohnpei, the Marshall Islands, Chuuk, Yap, and Palau.
In 1977 Don and Maria Calvo were the first CHamoru couple to be baptized in southern Guam. In 1978 Guam was rededicated for the preaching of the gospel by a prayer held atop one of the western mountains. Leaders opened a dependent branch in Merizo in the southern part of the island; the branch eventually moved to Agat. The founding of the Agat Branch resulted in more people joining the Church in that area. A family in Agat, Sal and Purificacion Panes and children, were baptized in 1978. The oldest daughter Memnet said, “I suppose that my family and I were probably the first local Filipino family in Guam to be baptized in 1978. And probably I was also the first Filipina convert who joined the Church in Guam to serve a mission, though I sent in my mission papers from BYU–Hawaii.” Memnet graduated from BYU–Hawaii with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She married Marlo O. Lopez in the Laie Hawaii Temple. They later served as mission leaders of the Philippines Bacolod Mission. The Lopezes then moved to Salt Lake City. She was called to the Relief Society general advisory council. Caring and sharing are vital parts of the Relief Society. She also served as a member of the seminary and institute research committee, nurturing young people.
In March 2020 the Lopezes were called to serve as the first temple president and matron of the Yigo Guam Temple. Memnet recalled, “When we left Guam [years ago], we thought that was it—we would never be coming back to the island. But the Lord sent us back to serve the people. . . . It was very humbling to know that I would be returning back to the island as a temple matron and that my husband and I were called to this sacred assignment.”
Now a temple in Guam has been dedicated. Another in Kiribati has been announced. In percentages of population who are Latter-day Saint, three Micronesian nations are in the top ten in the world. Membership reached about 18 percent of the population in Kiribati. Membership reached just over 9 percent in the Marshall Islands. And membership reached about 6 percent in the Federated States of Micronesia.
Temples in the Pacific will help many members receive the endowment and sealing ordinances. Many lack the resources to travel, so temples are essential!
In closing, I thank my dear friend Rosalind Meno Ram, one of the first CHamoru sister missionaries and now an associate academic vice president at BYU–Hawaii. We joked that we assembled a team like the Avengers to tell stories of war and peace in our book Battlefields to Temple Grounds: Latter-day Saints in Guam and Micronesia. Our team is particularly grateful that war has transformed to peace and that so many Pacific battlefields are becoming peaceful temple grounds. May peace prevail!
Notes
Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 7.
Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 7.
Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 9.
Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 10.
Hideyoshi Obata, as quoted in Peattie, Nan’yō, 282.
Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1285.
Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1286.
Freeman, Saints at War, 156–57.
L. Tom Perry (untitled commencement address at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, December 17, 2010), https://speeches.byuh.edu/commencement/commencement-elder-perry.
Alma C. Lawrence, interview by Don Norton, Orem, Utah, June 4, 1999.
Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 1.
Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 17.
Nufer, Micronesia under American Rule, 61–85. See also Willens and Siemer, National Security and Self-Determination.
Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 17–18.
Memnet Lopez, email to Christina Hicks and R. Devan Jensen, August 4, 2021.
Marlo Oliveros Lopez and Memnet Panes Lopez, interview.
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