Yuri Okubo is a research fellow a research fellow (Japan Society for the Promotion of

 Science) at University of Tokyo. She has been on Guam examining the pages of historic resources at the Richard Taitano Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam on the Japanese occupation in Guam during WWII. Her specific interest is in individuals, and at this point particularly her mother's (Hiroko Tanaka Okubo) brother, Chiaki Tanaka who died in Guam in 1944. He was a member of the Kaikontai (Agricultural Development Party); however the untimely advent of WWII forced the young man to abandon his dreams of cultivating the southern isle of Guam to enhance his family's fortune. Instead, he arrived on the island as part of a team from the agricultural training center whose main purpose it was to assist the Japanese soldiers here at the time cultivate food stuff since supplies to the troops was non-existent towards the end of the Japanese occupation. Their success was limited to the clearing of fields in preparation of planting badly needed crops because they arrived just two months before US Military Forces reoccupied Guam in July of 1944.

Another unfortunate timing plagued his chances of success. In just a few short months after his arrival Japanese forces on the island withdrew to the north and many soldiers of the Imperial Army with little or no defense remaining, were crushed by the powerful Marine Division. Those who weren't killed by the Marines took their own lives by jumping off the northeastern cliffs. It is understood that Tanaka was killed in the Matagua area during the reoccupation. He was a mere 19-years-old.

Okubo said that his friends told her about his death and that he died on August 4, 1944 in the Managua area in Yigo. He was part of a group of men who had graduated from the agricultural training center in Japan. Their main purpose was to assist the Japanese soldiers who were on Guam to cultivate food stuff since supplies to the troops was non-existent towards the end of the Japanese occupation.

Okubo said that his friends told her grandfather about Tanaka's death and that he died on August 4, 1944, in the Matagua area in Yigo.

Josephine Nededog	Vicente Ishizaki	Francisco Williams	Manuel Villagomez

It is because of her interest to find out more about her uncle’s activities and hopes to uncover information from surviving Chamorros that Yuri Okubo chose Guam to do her research. She recognizes there is a remote possibility that she'll find someone who actually knew her uncle, but the doctorate candidate has a desire not only to find out her uncle’s but also the whole Kaikontai’s activities from the Chamorro view from Oral History interviews.

She has observed interviews as well as participated in them on Guam and Saipan. However, in Saipan she had a greater part in the interviews since many of the elders there speak Japanese, Chamorro and English fluently. It is not only the eye-witness accounts that Yuri draws benefit, she has learned that despite the many atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during their occupation of Guam, there is little resistance from informants in discussing the very sensitive matter in her presence.

With just two weeks left of her six week visit, Yuri Okubo has experienced the side of Guam and the CNMI that most Japanese tourist never see. She has been in the homes of many informants, benefited from their hospitality, seen their personal photos collections, met their families and have listened and watched their reactions and interaction between each other, with their children and especially with her. The many situations she has found herself in have been a precious experience that has deeply moved the young woman.

This is the second trip to Guam to do her work and Okubo will be back on Guam for the 60th anniversary of the US Reoccupation of Guam in July 2004, to see first hand how the Chamorro people plan, execute and commemorate the WWII experience that forever changed the Chamorro people and their way of life.