Book review : Sacred men : law torture, and retribution in Guam

Abstract

In Sacred men, Keith Camacho mines the trial transcripts of the US Navy War Crimes Tribunal Program that took place on Guam between 1945 and 1949. The trials have generally been celebrated for the efficiency and impartiality with which they dispensed justice on Japanese war criminals, but Camacho’s work stands out as the first to focus attention on indigenous Chamorros who were also put on trial for crimes committed during wartime. Often, these men had been employees of the Japanese imperial government that had ruled the Northern Marianas since 1914. Others were Guam Chamorros and Japanese settlers who had lived on Guam under the pre-WWII American government until Japan successfully conquered the island in 1941. Chamorros also entered these courtrooms as witnesses, providing testimony against the accused. This exploration of internal tensions among the indigenous people of the islands complicates the simple colonizer/colonized dichotomies that proliferate in many recent historical writings about the Marianas. Nevertheless, the larger thesis of this book emphasizes the power disparity between Chamorros and both the Japanese and American colonial governments. [excerpt]