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Federated States of Micronesia. Public domain.

The rise of the Church in Guam and Micronesia is part of a complicated story involving the Pacific War. War in the Central Pacific broke out with the bombings of Hawai‘i, Wake Island, and Guam. The US military counterattack deployed waves of military personnel into the region, including many Latter-day Saints. If there was a silver lining to the dark clouds of war, it was that Church members began to share the story of the restored gospel in Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, and later many other Micronesian islands.

Like a typhoon, the Pacific War devastated all in its path. Micronesians were mostly neutral bystanders living in strategic Pacific battlefields. Islanders were thus in the cross fire of Japanese and American military contests while providing conscripted labor and also suffering from hunger as food shortages arose from blockades and trade disruptions. This chapter briefly recounts Japanese attacks in Hawai‘i, Guam, and Wake Island and resulting counterattacks by the US military as it moved east to west and then northward. US forces initially brought in a few scattered members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, followed by hundreds more in succeeding decades. We tell the story of early worship services on aircraft carriers, then in Saipan and Guam. After the war, Latter-day Saint personnel, both military and professional, helped the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to rebuild the infrastructure of Micronesia. The chapter concludes with a dramatic expansion of missionary work throughout Micronesia at the end of the twentieth century.

Key Micronesian Battlefields

Pacific historians Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci note that “in the 1930s, the Japanese military capitalized on the 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.”[1]

On 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). Four hours following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese bombed Wake Island, 1,500 miles east of Guam. American forces there surrendered sixteen days later, after brutal fighting. Most of the surrendering Americans were civilians. On Wake Island, Forrest Packard, a Latter-day Saint civilian construction worker and Idaho father of sixteen children, became a prisoner of war. “At home, the news of the fall of Wake Island brought Esther [his wife] the first of three nervous breakdowns she experienced during Forrest’s imprisonment.”[2] During his time as a prisoner, Forrest chose to minister to others and became known as “the little chaplain.” Forrest and about 1,300 other prisoners were placed in crowded holds on the converted luxury liner Nitta Maru and shipped to Japan, then to mainland China. Forrest recorded the names of the prisoners who died on a scrap of paper that he rolled up and hid inside a hollow bamboo stick; he guarded this record with the understanding that he might be killed if it were discovered. That record later proved extremely helpful for identifying missing prisoners of war.[3]

Latter-day Saint brothers Jack and William “Bill” Taylor were part of that same group of prisoners of war. They spent three and a half years in the Woo Sung and Kiang Whan prison camps in China, where they survived beatings, malnutrition, and dysentery. In May 1945 the prisoners were in the process of being transferred to Japan. Part of their journey was by train, and on the third night out of Shanghai bound for Beijing (Peking) in Northern China, the train was traveling about thirty-five to forty miles per hour when Bill Taylor and another prisoner of war leaped off into the darkness. Taylor was wounded and recaptured, but he was soon liberated by the forces of Mao Tse-tung, with whom he had a snapshot taken.[4]

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor launched a wave of anger and fear toward people of Japanese heritage. Latter-day Saint senator Elbert D. Thomas of Utah was a former mission president in Japan.[5] Because of his fluency in Japanese and his extensive knowledge of Japanese politics and culture, the Office of War Information invited him to broadcast monthly radio addresses across the United States and to Japan.[6] On the seventh of each month, from December 1941 until the end of the war, Thomas broadcast messages to Japan urging citizens to overthrow their imperialist leaders.[7] He appealed to Japanese nationals with clear, logical, and passionate arguments, urging them to overthrow their tyrannical military. His monthly messages prompted Japanese wartime leaders to identify Senator Thomas as a public enemy, but today’s Japanese scholars honor his role in promoting peace and understanding.[8]

Battles in Kiribati (Makin and Tarawa)

Aerial view of Betio, Tarawa Atoll, November, 1943. The view is to the nort toward "The Pocket," the last place of Japanese resistance. Wikimedia Commons.

Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci write that “as the Allies resisted the Japanese expansion and then turned to the defeat of Japan, Micronesia emerged as a key battleground.”[9] Kiribati (then known as the Gilbert Islands) represented the eastern limits of the territorial control of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). IJN bases were established at the Makin and Tarawa Atolls.

On February 1, 1942, the American aircraft carriers USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown conducted a surprise raid on these atolls, inflicting minimal damage but helping to boost American morale less than two months after the devastating losses at Pearl Harbor.[10]

Later, on August 17–18, 1942, Lt. Col. Evan Carlson’s Marine raiders invaded the primary IJN base in the Makin atoll, using rubber boats launched from submarines. They inflicted very heavy damage on the Japanese but lost 27 men out of 200.

On November 20, 1943, the US Army’s 27th Infantry Division (New York National Guard) invaded Butaritari Island (on the Makin Atoll), defended by 800 Japanese, and captured the island in three days. Meanwhile, the 2nd Marine Division assaulted Betio Island (on the Tarawa Atoll), defended by 4,700 Japanese combat veterans and about 400 concrete pillboxes and bunkers. Rather than surrender, most Japanese soldiers fought to the death, and only about 100 Japanese survivors were captured. The US Marines suffered 985 killed and 2,193 wounded, one of their costliest World War II battles in terms of the ratio of casualties to the number of men engaged.[11]

Battles in the Marshall Islands

The Imperial Japanese Navy had established primary bases at Kwajalein, Wotje, Mili, and Jaluit Atolls in the Marshall Islands. On February 1, 1944, the US Army’s 7th Infantry Division assaulted Kwajalein Island, while the 4th Marine Division attacked Roi-Namur Island (also in Kwajalein Atoll), about fifty miles away, defended by about 8,000 Japanese troops. Resistance was subdued by February 7, with American forces suffering only about one-third the casualties seen at Tarawa.[12] The Japanese garrisons fought to the death, with only about 130 prisoners taken. Among the American troops was Private Leonard Brostrom, a Latter-day Saint from Preston, Idaho. He would later be killed in action in the Philippines and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

On February 17, 1944, the 22nd Marine Regiment and Army units landed on Eniwetok, Engebi, and Parry Islands, located in the Eniwetok Atoll, which was strongly defended by 2,200 veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s elite First Amphibious Brigade. The Americans lost 339 men, almost as many men as they lost in the entire Kwajalein operation (see above). The Japanese garrison at Eniwetok was annihilated.[13]

The Marines learned much from their mistakes at Tarawa and the Marshall Islands, choosing to bypass islands in their next campaigns. Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci write, “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.”[14]

Battles in Chuuk (Truk)

Japanese ships under air attack in Chuuk lagoon on the first day of raids, February 17, 1944. Tonoas is at left, with Weno in the background. Wikimedia Commons.

The Imperial Japanese Navy had established a formidable naval and air base at the Chuuk Atoll (then known as Truk). 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 Chuuk, 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.”[15]

The Americans chose to bomb Chuuk rather than invade, consistent with their island-hopping campaign strategy that often bypassed and isolated Japanese strongholds to reduce casualties and conserve resources. On February 17–18, 1944, hundreds of carrier-based American fighters and bombers conducted a surprise raid on the Chuuk Atoll in coordination with nine American aircraft carriers, six battleships, ten cruisers, and numerous destroyers and submarines. Together they sank at least six Japanese warships, nine auxiliary ships, and thirty cargo ships and destroyed about 275 (out of 365) Japanese aircraft. The damage was so extensive that the air raid has sometimes been referred to as Japan’s Pearl Harbor.

Thereafter, Admiral Mineichi Koga felt Chuuk was too vulnerable to bases being built by the Americans in the Marshall Islands. He abandoned the naval base at Chuuk, moving his entire fleet operations farther west to the Palau Islands. However, Koga left behind a large contingent of Japanese troops to defend the Chuuk Atoll against American military incursions. Ongoing US raids wreaked havoc for years.

Latter-day Saint Worship on Aircraft Carriers

Scattered Latter-day Saints arrived and sought each other for worship services. William W. Cannon, who was a US Navy trainee during World War II and later served as a mission president with responsibility for Micronesia, wrote, “Unplanned groups of Mormon military personnel naturally formed wherever two or more were stationed.”[16] 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 Littlefield 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. However, he made these plans before he asked the Catholic chaplain for permission to gather. When denied permission, Albiston asked the Protestant chaplain, who granted permission, providing he could supervise. The men 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.[17]

Sacrament cups made from silver-plated 20 mm gun casings. Courtesy of Church History Museum, Salt Lake City.

Battles in the Northern Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands housed Japanese military installations of great strategic significance because they were within fuel range for US long-range land-based bombers to reach the Japanese home islands. 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.[18] By June 1944, Saipan was defended by 26,000 troops and sailors of the Japanese Thirty-First Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Central Pacific Fleet, 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 and 12, 1944, 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, 1944, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions 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. The American casualties amounted to 3,126 killed and 13,160 wounded.[19]

American forces also took Tinian Island, where an air base was established for American B-29 bombers to conduct long-range bombing of mainland Japan. One such bomber later dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and then a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, which effectively sealed Japan’s fate and ended the war.

First Latter-day Saint Meetinghouse in Micronesia

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 remembered events this way:

There were a good number of [Latter-day Saint] men on the island from the Air Force, the Seabees, and of course, the Marines. We obtained permission from the island chaplain to erect a tent to hold our church services. It served us well until the infrequent air raids caused several holes to develop in the tent. . . .

Since the tent had several holes in it (the tropical rains were rather frequent), it was not the greatest place to hold religious service. So we decided that what we needed was a chapel to hold our meetings. We called a group together and proposed the idea that we build a . . . chapel on the island of Saipan. It was a pretty outlandish proposal. We had no experience, no tools, no materials, but we knew that a group of . . . priesthood holders working together with a common purpose and united could accomplish anything.

First Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Saipan, 1944. Courtesy of Lee Perry.

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.[20](For more about this story, see chapter 10 herein.)

Battles in Guam

Before the Japanese aggressions beginning in December 1941, Guam was a lone American-controlled island, surrounded by many Japanese-controlled islands in the Northern Marianas, the Caroline Islands, and the Palau Islands. The United States did not consider Guam to be of much military value, so only a few hundred American sailors and about 150 Marines were stationed in Guam to provide minimal security. By contrast, the Japanese military considered Guam to be a thorn in the side of their strategic plans. Accordingly, four hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Japan commenced the bombing of Guam.

The First Battle of Guam

More than 5,000 Japanese troops landed in Guam on December 10, 1941. Given the overwhelming numbers the Americans were facing, their resistance was short-lived and futile. Instead of sacrificing his men, the commander, navy captain George McMillin, decided to give them a choice: they could surrender or escape into the jungle and wait for the anticipated American counterattack (which many expected to come within weeks). The vast majority of Americans decided to surrender instead of risking death in the jungle by continuing to resist.

The Second Battle of Guam

After an eleven-day bombing and siege campaign by American naval ships, the 3rd Marine Division, 1st Marine Brigade, and 77th Infantry Division conducted a multipronged invasion of Guam on July 21, 1944. 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.[21] 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.

In August 1944, Lewis W. Gale and six or seven other Latter-day Saints held outdoor church services. Ralph Dean Gurr remembers meeting on Guam in a shell hole without even a tent overhead. He recalls that a soldier at the meeting said, “I’m not LDS, but I’m gonna be and I want to be. I want to be just like you guys are. I know that your gospel is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ. . . . I want you to pray for me. I want to be baptized, and I want to believe this. I want to be one of you.”[22] He was soon baptized in the Pacific Ocean.

Two US officers plant the American flag on Guam eight minutes after US Marines and Army assault toops landed on the Central Pacific island on July 20, 1944. Wikimedia Commons.

Battles in Palau (Peleliu and Anguar)

One of the last and bloodiest battles of World War II in the south-central Pacific was fought at Peleliu, in Palau. The Battle of Peleliu was controversial among military planners at the time and remains controversial today among historians. Admiral William “Bull” Halsey advocated bypassing the Palau Islands, Yap, and Mindanao to save time, men, and resources. Admiral Chester Nimitz agreed to bypass Yap and Mindanao but still wanted to take the airfields in Palau to protect American naval and land forces from enemy air attack while they invaded Leyte in the Philippine Islands. Given the high casualty rate at Peleliu, some historians today argue it was not worth the cost.

Marines of Major General Roy S. Geiger’s III Amphibious Corps invaded Peleliu on September 15, 1944, meeting very stiff resistance from 11,000 Japanese soldiers of General Sadal Inone’s 14th Infantry Division.[23] American battle planners expected the battle to last only three to four days, but it took well over a month because General Inone employed new, more effective defense tactics. Instead of directing massed banzai charges by thousands of troops (as was done on Saipan), he built an extensive array of connected tunnels in the island’s coral rock, which was ideal for sheltering thousands of troops from American air and sea bombardment.

These new tactics were further perfected at the later battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, to the detriment of American Marines and soldiers alike. The 1^st Marine Division was so badly mauled at Peleliu that it had to be rebuilt and refitted and did not see action again until the battle of Okinawa in 1945.

By the end of the battle on Peleliu, the Americans had suffered 1,544 fatalities and 6,843 wounded, while all the Japanese troops perished except for about 50 who surrendered. Seven miles away on the island of Anguar, 10,000 American troops of the 81^st Army Division suffered 260 killed in action and 1,354 wounded. Of the 1,400 Japanese defenders on Anguar, all but about 50 perished.

Gatherings and Groups

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). For example, the Church News reported, “190 servicemen gathered for a spiritual feast on Saipan in the Mariana islands, representing 115 wards, eighty-one stakes and four missions.”[24] Servicemen’s families began settling in Guam and Saipan as early as 1946. In about 1948, under the direction of the Far East Mission, the groups were consolidated into the Guam Servicemen’s Group. The members organized a “Women’s Group” for servicemen’s wives, a Mutual Improvement Association, and a Primary, which met in military buildings.

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Recognizing the need to rebuild Micronesia’s infrastructure, on April 12, 1947, the United Nations formed the strategic Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which was to be administered by the United States. Article 6 of the US Trusteeship Agreement, presented on July 7, 1947, outlined several clear objectives:

1. foster the development of political institutions as are suited to the trust territory. . . .
2. promote economic advancement and self-sufficiency of the inhabitants. . . .
3. promote the social advancement of the inhabitants, and to this end shall protect the rights and fundamental freedoms of all elements of the population without discrimination. . . .
4. promote the educational advancement of the inhabitants.[25]

“The war-devastated terrain of Micronesia became . . . the de facto starting point of American planning for the region,” wrote Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, with the initial focus on “restoration, reconstruction, rebuilding.”[26] Providing leadership to the US Trust Territory during a key transition to independence from 1947 to 1986 were four US politicians who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Elbert D. Thomas, high commissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; Stewart L. Udall, Secretary of the Interior; John A. Carver Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Interior; and Senator Morris K. Udall.[27]

A destructive legacy of that time was the atomic testing that occurred in the Marshall Islands. The US military machine kept churning out and testing weapons of mass destruction, and nuclear testing began in 1946 on Bikini and Eniwetok Atolls in the Marshall Islands. Until 1958 some sixty-seven tests were conducted, causing severe health risks for the people of the Marshall Islands and Kiribati.[28]

Guam soon became a hub for economic and commercial development. The United States established a local civilian government, making Guam an unincorporated US territory and one of the hubs in Micronesia where people could attend school, find jobs, and pursue economic interests.

Missionaries and Members in Micronesia

After resolving tense and difficult relations with the Japanese, the Church reopened the Japan Mission in March 1948.[29] Vinal Grant Mauss, the mission president, organized the Guam Branch on October 9, 1951, with Victor A. Olsen as the first branch president. The first Relief Society was organized with Gwendolyn Olsen as president. That year, the members invited people from all over the island to attend a fundraising luau to purchase land for meetinghouses in the town of Anigua. President Barrett, who was an early branch president, received a Quonset hut as a donation from a friend.[30] The branch obtained another Quonset hut and moved them both to Anigua to be used as meetinghouses—one as a chapel and one for classrooms. In 1953 President Barrett offered a dedicatory prayer for this new “Quonset” chapel, and it served well until a typhoon tore off the roof. The Guam Dependent Branch became part of the Oahu Hawaii Stake (some 3,300 miles away),[31] and the Barretts, Batemans, and McKays were among the early families who served in the branch.[32]

Local members warmly welcomed the visit of Elder Harold B. Lee and Sister Freda Lee on September 27–28, 1954. Then, within a year, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Guam for missionary work on August 25, 1955. Danny Gallego and Paul Ray, the first full-time missionaries, arrived in January 1957, followed soon by Alfredo Requillman and John Udarbe.[33] 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.

On June 18, 1959, Elder Mark E. Petersen met with members to dedicate this Quonset hut as a meetinghouse. Courtesy of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated Anigua’s new Guam Branch meetinghouse on June 18, 1959. The Guam Branch became part of the Honolulu Stake on October 15, 1959,[34] and branch members called as stake missionaries began missionary work. Because of the difficulties of supervising full-time missionaries from Hawai‘i, missionaries stopped being sent to Guam in 1959. Still, converts continued to be baptized, largely among Latter-day Saint military personnel. Under the direction of branch presidents Clinton Gillmore in 1963 and Ronald Farr in 1964, the Church purchased land for a future chapel in Barrigada.[35]

The following story shows the impact of local Latter-day Saints on David and Eula Ebbert, who became members in 1966:

While serving in the U.S. Air Force, Eula and I were stationed in Guam in August of 1965. We were not religious at all, although we identified as Christian. I was a really heavy smoker and did quite a bit of drinking because the water on Guam was pretty bad (good excuse). My wife, Eula, smoked but not as much, and she drank more socially.

Our neighbor Harold Thompson had been a semiactive member of the Church until his father died in the US, and he brought his mother, Rosie, to Guam to live with them. She was a strong member, and the family became really active.

One day Eula noticed that Rosie had left the car lights on and called to tell her. In the conversation, Eula said, “I understand you are Mormon. What do Mormons believe?”

Eula has always been an avid reader, and Rosie proceeded to loan Eula books about the Church. The branch (about ninety members) had placed their books in the Thompson home because of termites in the Church building, which consisted of a Quonset hut. . . . As she read, she became convinced that the Church was true. . . .

One Sunday, we asked the branch president how we could become members. At the time there were not missionaries on the island. There had been in the 1950s, but through pressure from the Catholic Church they had been removed. The branch assigned a young man who had been on a mission and another who planned to go to teach us. We planned to become baptized on New Year’s Day, which has become a special anniversary for us. The young men told us in early November that they were being transferred and if they were to baptize us, it would have to be soon. I stopped smoking immediately, and Eula followed suit and we were baptized on November 26, 1966, at Nimitz Beach and confirmed at the same time. The branch was very supportive and really fellowshipped us. . . .

In April of 1967 the branch received word that President Hugh B. Brown and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley would stop in Guam for refueling on the way to Japan. A few of us gathered at the airport in the early morning to see real Apostles. When they came through the gate, Elder Hinckley looked at me and said, “Well, Brother Ebbert, how are you?” I was totally amazed and thought this really was a prophet. It wasn’t until later that I realized that I had a name tag on. . . .

In May of 1968, on our way home from Guam, we received temple recommends at 2:00 a.m. at the Honolulu Airport in a car belonging to a member of the stake presidency. We were sealed in the Hawaii Temple and also received our patriarchal blessings.[36]

Alan Willburn was a Latter-day Saint lieutenant in the US Navy who served as executive officer of a salvage ship, the USS Molala ATF 106. His experiences offer a snapshot of Micronesia and members after the Pacific War:

I first visited Guam in 1966. This was a very short fuel stop as the navy destroyer I was assigned to transited stateside. Although it had been twenty years since the fighting of WWII had ceased, there were still ruins of war readily visible. Most notably the coastal gun emplacements overlooking the Agaña harbor. Ten years later, in the fall of 1977, I returned with the navy for a three-week stay at the shipyards in Agaña. While there I had the opportunity to travel across the island of Guam, visiting once again the rusting relics, reminders of the conflict that held sway. The Chamorro villages on the northwest of the island were so very friendly. I attended Sunday Church services in the local branch. This is now the site of the Yigo Guam Temple. I also met a local restaurateur who, additionally, was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was originally from Austria, having immigrated to Guam in the mid-1950s. His restaurant was called the Saltzburg Chalet. For three weeks we enjoyed pepper stakes, cream puffs, ice cream, and fruit-stuffed crepes. The desserts were on the house Mondays (because of family home evening).

In 1977 I visited a number of island atolls in the Marshall Island group. I was executive officer on the US Navy ship Molala, a salvage ship, conducting a Trust Territories patrol in the Marshall and Caroline Islands. The most memorable was our stop at Maloelap Atoll, in the Marshall Island group. The atoll had been a major advanced Japanese base during WWII. There were countless signs of that conflict still very prevalent, particularly the rusted and corroded remains of numerous aircraft and large naval guns and their emplacements.[37]

Expansion of Missionary Outreach

Christian historian David Bosch has argued that Christianity itself is “intrinsically missionary,”[38] but in the 1970s mainstream evangelism efforts worldwide retreated as secularism and cultural pluralism advanced. This signaled, for some, the end of “organized efforts to evangelize the world in the name of Jesus Christ.”[39] For example, Max Warren, who once served as general secretary of a Christian organization, the Church Missionary Society, complained of “a terrible failure of nerve about the missionary enterprise.”[40] While the Catholic and Protestant churches on the islands continued to serve their members, missionary outreach slackened a bit. In the 1970s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints significantly increased its missionary outreach worldwide, particularly in the Pacific. Early branches in Micronesia included military service personnel along with CHamoru, I-Kiribati, Marshallese, Pingelapese, Pohnpeian, and Chuukese members.

On March 3, 1970, Church leaders formed the Guam Ward within the Honolulu Stake, with Charles Hurst as bishop.[41] In Barrigada on March 10, Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated a new meetinghouse. On July 7, after an eleven-year hiatus, full-time missionary work resumed with the calls of Elders Michael D. Corrigan and Vern H. Liljenquist. With the increased missionary work came new converts. Newton (Buzz) Passauer and Janette Passauer were residents of Guam who attended an open house at the chapel and later met with the missionaries. The Passauers were initially resistant to the idea that there might be a true church, but then Buzz dreamed the same dream three nights in a row and felt that this was a sign to him, so they joined the Church. Tamio “Tom” Clark and Arthur Clark started attending Church meetings and invited their mother, Kiyoko (from Okinawa), to learn more about the Church, and the three converted. Businessman Scotty Moylan and his wife, Yuk Lan Ho, also joined the Church. They would later have four children, including Guam’s future lieutenant governor Kurt Moylan.[42]

When the Kaneohe Hawaii Stake was formed on November 21, 1971, Guam was placed under its supervision. Robert Finlayson, who lived in Hawai‘i, was called as stake president. Fortunately, counselors Robert Schutte and Don Austin both traveled to Guam regularly with their work.[43] The Church in Guam continued to gain converts, such as James Cruz, who grew up in Guam and moved to California while in the US Marines. He was impressed with the example of a fellow Marine, a Latter-day Saint, who was teased because he didn’t smoke or drink. Rose Marie Cruz had been raised as a devout Methodist, but she and her husband independently decided in the early 1970s to attend meetings with their daughters, and they felt this was the church for them.[44]

Robert Crandall, president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission, sent missionaries to Saipan on February 11, 1975. Those missionaries were Jeff Frame and Callis Carleton. They gathered with local members in the home of Darrel Hale, who was working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The missionaries soon contacted a substantial number of the 11,000 inhabitants of Saipan and experienced persecution such as having rocks thrown at them and having their bike tires slashed.[45]

Brad and Jean Nago, who chose to be baptized in Saipan in 1976. Courtesy of Mark H. Butler.

In January 1976, less than a year from the time missionaries first arrived on Saipan, Brad and Jean Nago and their family joined the Church. They were likely the first Latter-day Saint baptisms in Micronesia outside Guam. Brad first heard the message of the restored gospel from two members who were working on the construction of a new airport in Saipan. The Nagos led the Saipan Branch for many years.

The year 1976 was a dynamic time to discuss freedom, particularly in light of the US bicentennial of independence from Great Britain. Micronesians were actively seeking greater freedom from US supervision, having experienced some success with their Congress of Micronesia.[46] As Phillip McArthur writes, “Culturally, the islands were in a lull, as the islanders were adjusting to the changes precipitous of these imperial incursions and were just beginning to assert themselves politically. Without the American presence and administrative controls, however, the easy entrance into the islands by the missionaries and Church may have proven less seamless.”[47]

During that year of political debate about Micronesian independence, 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 W. Cannon, president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. In the meeting, he asked President Cannon to send missionaries throughout Micronesia and to establish local branches, or congregations. (Although Elder Groberg was understandably concerned, Micronesia governments voted to continue to safeguard religious freedom.) President Cannon reported feeling daunted by the challenge of sending out missionaries:

2.8. William and Margery Cannon supervised missionaries throughout Micronesia. Courtesy of Mark H. Butler.

Prior to Elder Groberg’s direction, the restored gospel had arrived but hadn’t thrived. The Church was healthy on the island of Guam, but it was embraced by very few local people. A military-connected group was functioning on Kwajalein Island. Two missionaries had been assigned to Saipan by my predecessor; however, they were struggling.

I felt weak as I began to sense the magnitude of my charge from Elder Groberg: the size of the area, the heavy travel expense, the problem of scanty air passenger service, the many languages, the need for special personnel. These and other barriers stood in the way of a successful missionary program. Yet, as I attempted to fulfill this charge, I witnessed events and changes in circumstances so dramatic that they left no doubt in my mind that the time for action had arrived. The Lord was at the helm![48]

On August 24, Elder Groberg and President Cannon met to decide where to send missionaries first. That question of where to send missionaries was answered three days later, on August 27, when Elders Todd Hansen and Tim Bean 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 the Church would send missionaries to Pohnpei. When President Cannon agreed, Ohry was baptized. In quick succession, Elder Groberg and President Cannon sent missionaries to Pohnpei (October 23, 1976), to the Marshall Islands (February 3, 1977), to Chuuk (July 7, 1977), to Yap (November 14, 1977), and to Palau (July 5, 1978).

Developments in Guam and Micronesia

In May 1977 Don and Maria Calvo became the first CHamoru couple to be baptized in Guam. The Church also purchased land in Yigo (to the north) for a chapel (where the temple would later be built).[49] In 1978 Guam was rededicated for the preaching of the gospel by a prayer held atop one of the western mountains. The mission began to create formal branches and branch presidencies, including a branch for military personnel in Kwajalein. Heber Butler, first counselor in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission presidency, and his wife, Martena, traveled throughout Micronesia to train and strengthen the local members.[50] Heber Butler felt prepared for his experiences in Micronesia because of his extensive travels through the Pacific as a member of the US military.

Memnet P. Lopez about the time she joined the Church in 1978. Courtesy of Memnet P. Lopez.

On July 12, 1978, the people of four former Trust Territory districts—Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Yap—met in a constitutional convention and voted in a referendum to create a body later known as the Federated States of Micronesia.[51] Creation of this sovereign nation reestablished rule by the indigenous peoples of Micronesia. Perhaps as a confirmation of such trends toward indigenous leaders, in 1978 Sandy Cruz, the first missionary from Guam, returned from her mission in the Washington Seattle Mission and began to strengthen the Church in Guam. In 1979 Tamio “Tom” Clark, the first male missionary from Guam, was serving in the Japan Tokyo North Mission.[52] Those local missionaries would continue to serve and become future leaders in Guam.

A dependent branch was opened in Merizo in the southern part of the island; the branch eventually moved to Agat and became the Agat Branch under the direction of local branch president Ricardo T. Jesus.[53] The founding of the Agat Branch resulted in more people joining the Church in that area. Sal Panes and Purificacion Patriarca, who lived in Agat, began studying Latter-day Saint teachings in 1978. Their daughter Memnet Patriarca Panes (later Lopez) tells the story of the family’s conversion:

My family and I emigrated from the Philippines to Guam when I was nine years old. We resided in Agat where I spent my teenage years. I am the oldest of five children. My family were nonpracticing Catholics, but I went to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church sporadically in Agat. At the Lord’s timetable he sent his missionaries Elder Spencer and Elder Brown to find me at the age of nineteen back in 1978. They knocked on our door one day, and they managed to get a few return visits, but they were not effective. My parents were not about to change religion easily. But one day a senior couple, missionaries Elder and Sister Andrew Kamaouha, visited my parents, and that was where it all started. The Kamaouhas’ small and simple yet patient ministering efforts led to our whole family’s baptism on June 24, 1978. But over the years, I was the only one left to cleave unto my covenants with God. It was a choice on my part when everyone else in my family drifted away to choose Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father so much and his Son Jesus Christ, and I love their divine work of salvation. 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. But documented history might prove me wrong, and I shall stand corrected. Today I am humbled to return to Guam as the first temple matron of the new Yigo Guam Temple.[54]

Integrating Church Patterns into Micronesian Cultures

In those early decades, missionaries and members tried to navigate the crosscurrents of culture. Missionaries tried to learn languages and respect the various island cultures. Ideally, missionaries learned from island cultures, but usually missionary culture predominated. “On those occasions when the American missionaries and leaders disentangled their own culture from the core principles and practices of the Church, the integration proved inspiring and productive,” writes Phillip McArthur. “On the other hand, when they have insisted upon their own cultural frameworks as concomitant with gospel teachings and Church governance, there has been slippage, misunderstanding, confusion, and sometimes resistance.”[55]

Happyness Ichin, the first Chuukese missionary to serve in Chuuk, emphasized the importance of language acquisition, cultural respect, and deference to elderly islanders:

The first missionaries of that time, they worked hard. What I mean is, every day they are going out, every day they studied the language. . . .

Number one, you have to know to respect the elderly people, and you can learn from them, and you have to know what to lead all the people and what their culture, especially how to respect the people, especially how to meet the people. It’s not enough to say, “Okay, let’s do this.” “Okay, you find my way.” You have to learn how these people live, their culture, you know. And then you start [to] meet the people and introduce yourself, like the missionaries. One thing I like about the missionaries before—because they first meet the people and [are] respectful. They are like elderly people. They introduce themselves. “We have this very important message. If you would like to know about this very important message, this will bring happiness to you.”[56]

Missionaries promoted a standard (largely American and even Utah) administrative culture of the Church. They taught both administrative procedures and doctrines from English handbooks and scriptures, which were eventually translated into local languages. Missionaries coached male members to wear white shirts and ties, and women were to wear dresses that cover their top halves. Local leaders learned cultural patterns such as holding ward councils, planning speakers ahead of time, starting and ending meetings on time, and using standard accounting procedures to record and deposit donations in banks. Such cultural and doctrinal patterns took time to inculcate.[57]

Mission president Lewis Nord described challenges in teaching Micronesians and retaining converts, particularly where English was not the primary language (namely, most islands except Guam and Saipan):

• Few Church materials have been translated into the native languages; many Micronesians do not read English.
• Strong extended-family ties: family relationships keep many from baptism. (In some cases, these relationships bring entire families into the Church.)
• Isolation: many investigators have no way to get to church unless transported by the missionaries.[58]

Local district and branch administrators dealt with other very practical obstacles:

• Some of the branch presidents and clerks are unable to speak or to read English; all the Church materials they receive, including handbooks, instructions, and report forms are printed in English.
• Isolation of many branches from banks presents consequent problems in making regular bank deposits of donations.
• Many standard LDS concepts (e.g., the functioning of a presidency, planning ahead for meetings, delegation of responsibility and authority) have no counterparts in Micronesian culture.
• Transportation to a meetinghouse is required for members in many branches (no bus system, can’t afford taxis).[59]

He noted that once Micronesians were baptized, they continued to deal with cultural and socioeconomic challenges such as the following:

• Strong family pressures that pull converts away.
• 95 percent unemployment exists among the islander members; the Church is not equipped to accept tithing in kind.
• Illiteracy of many Micronesians makes them unable to study the scriptures and lesson manuals.[60]

He said that effective missionaries must recognize several islander traits:

• The caste system is deeply entrenched.
• High-caste people who join the Church feel that they are entitled to positions of authority.
• The islanders do not understand or have the language to describe the delegation of authority.
• A chief serves for life; the people feel that an LDS branch president should also serve for life (or until he is promoted) and be paid for his services.[61]

These observations proved prescient. Missionaries were motivated to learn languages quickly and to show respect for local cultural structures and power structures such as the chiefs and the families. Many of these missionaries, the more successful ones, sought to balance encouragement of standard administrative patterns with local cultural adaptations. And new converts tried to navigate the demands of Church patterns with the equally powerful community and family hierarchies that surrounded them.

Conclusion

The Pacific War brought in its wake scattered members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After the war, Latter-day Saint personnel, both military and professional, helped the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to rebuild the infrastructure of Micronesia. As missionaries expanded their outreach throughout Micronesia, they had to grapple with perennial challenges of communication and culture, compounded by language barriers and vast distances. This book shares dozens of stories showing how first-generation converts tried to navigate crosscurrents of their own cultures along with strong currents of Christian and American Latter-day Saint culture. Missionaries, too, sought to develop Church culture in considerate, pragmatic ways in the growing branches and in their own family trees. Sometimes those seeds and branches took root and stabilized quickly. Sometimes branches took longer to take root and converts returned to previous cultural identities. Together let’s embark on an island-hopping journey of Micronesia from east to west and then north to the Northern Marianas.

Notes

[1] Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 7.

[2] Hulet, “Packard Family,” 33.

[3] Hulet, “Packard Family,” 34.

[4] Taylor, Rescued by Mao, 228, 291.

[5] Jensen and Javadi-Evans, “Senator Elbert D. Thomas,” 224, 231–34.

[6] Elbert D. Thomas to Frank H. Jonas, September 13, 1943, Elbert D. Thomas Papers, Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.

[7] Thomas, “Elbert D. Thomas,” 135–36.

[8] See, for example, Iguchi, “Elbert D. Thomas,” 115–23; and Iguchi, “Senator Elbert D. Thomas and Japan,” 75–104.

[9] Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 7.

[10] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1251.

[11] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1270–71.

[12] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1284.

[13] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1284.

[14] Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 9.

[15] Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 10.

[16] Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 2.

[17] Freeman, Saints at War, 156–57.

[18] Hideyoshi Obata, as quoted in Peattie, ������’yō, 282.

[19] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1285.

[20] L. Tom Perry (untitled commencement address at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, December 17, 2010), https://speeches.byuh.edu/commencement/commencement-elder-perry.

[21] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1286.

[22] Freeman, Saints at War, 172–73.

[23] Dupuy and Dupuy, Encyclopedia of Military History, 1287.

[24] Church News, January 20, 1945.

[25] United States, Trusteeship Agreement for the United States Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Approved by the Security Council of the United Nations 2 April 1947, and by the President of the United States 18 July 1947, Article 6, 148–49,

https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2169&context=ils.

[26] Poyer, Falgout, and Carucci, Typhoon of War, 315.

[27] See Jensen, “Micronesia’s Coming of Age,” 46–47; and Jensen, “Mormons Who Guided Micronesia’s Return to Self-Rule,” 195–216.

[28] Skoog, “U.S. Nuclear Testing on the Marshall Islands: 1946 to 1958,” 67–81.

[29] Neilson and Gessel, eds., Taking the Gospel to the Japanese.

[30] “Church Members in Guam Group Interview,” Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (hereafter CHL).

[31] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 1, CHL.

[32] “Church Members in Guam Group Interview.”

[33] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 1.

[34] “Guam 1st Ward Manuscript History and Historical Reports,” CHL.

[35] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 16.

[36] David Ebbert, “How We Found the Gospel in a Remodeled Quonset Hut in Guam,” Keepapitchinin (blog), February 11, 2016, http://www.keepapitchinin.org/2016/02/11/guest-post-how-we-found-the-gospel-in-a-remodeled-quonset-hut-in-guam/.

[37] Alan Willburn, email to R. Devan Jensen, May 8, 2022.

[38] Bosch, Transforming Mission, 9.

[39] Skreslet, Comprehending Mission, 1.

[40] Bosch, Transforming Mission, 6–7.

[41] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 17.

[42] “Church Members in Guam Group Interview.”

[43] Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 9.

[44] “Church Members in Guam Group Interview.”

[45] Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 10.

[46] Nufer, Micronesia under American Rule, 61–85. See also Willens and Siemer, National Security and Self-Determination.

[47] McArthur, “The Church in the Marshall Islands,” in this volume.

[48] Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 3.

[49] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 17.

[50] Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 68, 78, 107.

[51] Lupant, “From the Trust Territory of Pacific to the Federated States of Micronesia,” 694.

[52] “Church Members in Guam Group Interview.”

[53] Passauer, “Church History on Guam,” 17–18.

[54] Memnet Lopez, email to Christina Hicks and R. Devan Jensen, August 4, 2021.

[55] McArthur, “The Church in the Marshall Islands,” chapter 4 herein.

[56] Happyness Ichin, interview, CHL.

[57] For an insightful list of senior missionary training ideas for local leaders, see appendix B, “SMTC Handout: Training in Branches and Districts,” in Burton, Missionaries Two, 440–50.

[58] Lewis Nord, letter, June 22, 1995, in Cannon, Beachheads in Micronesia, 143.

[59] Lewis Nord, letter, June 22, 1995.

[60] Lewis Nord, letter, June 22, 1995.

[61] Lewis Nord, letter, June 22, 1995.