The Faha Massacre Site is located just behind the Pigua cemetery in the village of Merizo on the United States island of

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

. The site is demarcated by four concrete pillars, connected by metal cables, with several crosses placed inside that area. A metal plaque mounted on a concrete block commemorates the thirty native

Chamorro Chamorro may refer to: * Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific * Chamorro language, an Austronesian language indigenous to The Marianas * Chamorro Time Zone, the time zone of Guam and the Northern Mari ...

men who were slaughtered here on July 16, 1944, by members of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

(IJA) during the Japanese occupation of the island during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The IJA routinely forced Guam's native population to work on its construction projects. The men who were killed here were rounded up for a work crew; why they were killed is unclear, as there were no survivors. The massacre took place one day after the Tinta Massacre (in which 46 were killed), and about one week before the liberation of the island began. The site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1991.

References

World War II on the National Register of Historic Places in Guam Buildings and structures completed in 1944 Japanese war crimes {{Guam-struct-stub

See also

References