My dear late mother, Jane Doris Aflague Moylan, was born in a cave on Guam just before the shelling by battleships of the U.S. Navy, as a precursor for Guam’s liberation from the Imperial Japanese military on July 21, 1944.
She and my late grandparents with their other children remained in the cave as my late grandparents shielded their family against the ensuing battle.
My devoted late father, Richard Edwin Moylan, lived across from a house in Honolulu as a toddler with his parents and family, that the Imperial Japanese Navy planes bombed during the attack upon Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
These are the types of stories each one of you may have grown up with in this part of the world, and on the mainland. Little does history record that before Pearl Harbor was bombed, Guam was invaded and the occupation of American soil began on Guam in December 1941. The Philippines endured a similar plight. The invasion protected the flank of the Imperial Japanese Navy as they steamed towards Hawaii to start the War in the Pacific, during WWII.
Saturday, June 28, 2025 is Guam’s War Survivor Remembrance Day. The Greatest Generation was forged by the suffering, bravery and sacrifice that our American, and Filipino, grandparents, parents and other family members endured, in what is now becoming one generation ago.
These great people saw what we can only fear to see, and endured what we now can only visualize in historical pictures and films, and in movies glorifying and re-enacting the horrors of the last, World at War.
For those who were alive during this time, we thank and honor you for preserving our lives, culture and island. To those who now remain in our memories as our dearly beloved ancestors, we honor them among those of us still living.
June 28 is a day set aside for all of us to reflect upon the lives we have today, that might not have been, had they not sacrificed during a period where being an American, especially living on Guam, meant the difference between life and death.
(3) comments
What was the point of the liberation when Americans are now being enslaved by MAGA Confederates? You have soiled the liberation.
Had an inkling you ‘d be here, and yep…. still way out there. Praying for President Trump may just ease your burden.
forLife you are funny regarding Mathew P, LOL
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