P-MAN VIII Update #3
16 February 2006

Our first stop this morning was in the village of Ngatpang, where we paid a return visit to a respected chief whom we also interviewed last year. We wanted to clear up some points, and to share with him some photographs that we'd accumulated since we last talked with him. His area of expertise is the place we've been calling "Police Hill," which is near the location of the Japanese military police headquarters where several U.S. airmen, probably three Navy UDT members, and several priests and Palauan civilians were executed and buried.

Chief Techitong (center) shows Pat Scannon (left) and Joe Maldangesang
where he believes the execution site is located. © Reid Joyce 2006

The aerial photographs - some from 1944 and some from just last year - were very helpful in getting the chief oriented to the hill and in helping him figure out how to tell us where he believes one of the execution and burial sites is located. The chief, who is in his late 70s, doesn't feel comfortable traveling with us to the site, which is a long, difficult walk from the nearest road. But he called a friend who also knows where the site is, and who will probably take us there tomorrow.

There are several other potential sites around Police Hill that we still needed to investigate to expand our picture of where things happened during that time, so after leaving the chief, we headed back to the hill. We were accompanied today by Professor Don Shuster from the University of Guam.

This will only be meaningful to those of you who've been there, but we went from the top of the hill down into the jungle, followed the river to the south, came out of the jungle, climbed back up to the top of the hill, and rested for a few minutes by the foundation of what must have been a very nice house.

A brief rest break at the foundation on top of the hill just south of "Police Hill."
© Reid Joyce 2006

This is the part that you guys will appreciate: then we went all the way back down to the jungle directly below this house foundation, looked around in the jungle for more candidate sites that match some of the descriptions in the war crimes tribunal records, and then climbed back up to the top of the hill. That's two complete round trips. I'll bet even Flip isn't envious of this itinerary.

So tomorrow's plan is to pick up our new guide in a village north of Ngatpang and return to the hill, from which he will guide us to the alleged execution site. We'll start fairly early in the morning, but it's likely to take most of the day to get this accomplished.

- Reid