Community Events: Fena Cave visit

As part of Liberation Day events, a memorial Mass and site visit will be held

on U.S. Naval Base Guam.

A Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m., July 18 at Sumai Cemetery on NBG main base

and a visit is scheduled for 8:25 a.m., July 19 at Fena Cave located at the NBG Ordnance Annex.

Sumai village was once known as the “Pearl of the Island” before World War

II. Evolving from a small fishing village to the agricultural and commercial

hub for ships in the mid-1800s, it became an economically rich village by

the 1930s.

The cave site visit, coordinated between NBG, the Hågat Mayor’s Office, and

Navy Munitions Command Pacific East Asia Division Unit Guam, will be held

prior to a memorial at Hågat Memorial and Veterans Park. Access to the cave

site is for guests who have made arrangements through the Hågat Mayor’s

Office.

On July 19, 1944, the Fena Cave Massacre occurred, when Japanese soldiers

killed more than 30 young men and women from Hågat and Sumai with grenades and bayonets in the caves near Fena Lake. During the past several years, the NBG commanding officer has invited the victims’ families to visit the cave as part of Liberation Day ceremonies.