Jap Shot Dead: 17
p. 79 · Read in the full issue
Years Afterwards
There was an odd echo of World War II in Guam recently when Joseph Cruz, 39, was charged with having shot to death a Japanese soldier who had successfully evaded capture on Guam for more than 17 years.
Cruz, a Guamanian, was given a suspended sentence of three years gaol on a manslaughter charge. Evi dence was that Cruz was looking for betel nuts about 12 miles from Agana when he came across the Japanese, whom he shot immediately.
Judge Paul D. Shriver explained why he did not send Cruz to prison.
It was conceivable, the judge said, that he would have done the same thing if he had, like Cruz, lived through the 31 months of occupation of the Japanese forces. The Japanese had committed numerous atrocities against the Guam people.
The straggler, the judge said, un doubtedly had had many oppor tunities to surrender during the last 17 years. He said that the Japanese died because of the "hatred em bedded in his heart which made it impossible for him to give up".