These attacks on caves were a tricky business, because of orders not to kill any civilians who were also inside many of them, hiding from the fighting. Graf recounted his experiences further:
Throughout the campaign we were taking prisoners.
Seldom were they Japanese soldiers, instead Korean and Chamorro laborers, both men and women, who mostly worked in the sugar cane fields and processing plants. Chamorros were natives of the islands, while the Koreans, of course, were brought over as forced labor. Approaching us, hands up, and smiling and bowing the Koreans would say in understandable broken English, “Me Korean, not Japanese.” Some Japanese civilians were also captured. The Japanese tradition was that the male members of the family were the dominant members. Several times when we tried to feed newly captured women and children first, the male would shove them aside and demand to be first for rations. A few raps to the chest with a rifle butt soon cured them of that habit.
As the sick, scared, and often starving civilians would emerge from their hideouts, there were many pitiful scenes:
One sad incident I recall was when a captured civilian Japanese woman came up to me. She was crying and when she got close to me she started hitting me on the arm and pointing to my pack. I did not know what she wanted until an interpreter came over and explained that she wanted some food and water for her dead child. She pointed to a wicker basket that contained her dead infant. I gave her what she requested, and she placed the food and water in the basket so that the child could have nourishment on the way to meet the baby’s ancestors.
Physical conditions of many were pitiful. Every illness that we had been briefed on was observed: leprosy, dengue fever, yaws and many cases of elephantiasis. Most of them were skeleton thin, as they had no nourishment for many days. Many were suffering from shock caused by the shelling and bombing, and fright because they did not have the vaguest idea as to what we would do to them. Civilians caught in a war that was not of their making....
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 83266
Marine talks a terrified Chamorro woman and her children into leaving her refuge.
Civilians are escorted back to safety, food, and medical care.
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 83013