Jesus Baza Duenas
Jesus Baza Dueñas was a Catholic priest and local leader on Guam during World War II. He was tortured and beheaded along with three others by Japanese forces for refusing to disclose the location of a U.S. service member hiding in Guam.
Early life
Dueñas was born on March 19, 1911, to his parents of Luis Paulino Dueñas and Josefa Martínez Baza in Hagåtña, Guam, with siblings Pedro, Eduardo, and José among others.Education
Dueñas studied for the priesthood in Manila, and became the second Chamorro Catholic priest when he was ordained in 1938. During the World War II Japanese occupation of Guam, Japanese forces who suspected Dueñas of knowing the whereabouts of a fugitive American serviceman tortured and, on July 12, 1944, killed him.Japanese occupation
In December 1941, Japan invaded and occupied Guam. In early 1942, Father Dueñas was appointed temporary head of Guam's Catholic church. He sometimes told local people not to cooperate with the Japanese, and his independence and status on Guam worried them. The Japanese kept a close watch on Dueñas and wanted to exile him, but worried that relations with local people would worsen if they did so. Japan decided to send to Guam two more cooperative Catholic priests, Monsignor Dominic Fukahori and Father Petro Komatzu, but Duenas at personal risk often refused to co-operate with them.Friends and associates operated secret radio receivers and kept Dueñas well informed on the progress of the war.
Father Dueñas knew much about the movements of the six American servicemen who had escaped capture during the December 10, 1941 Japanese ground invasion, and about those who helped and harbored them. He is also said to have known about the plans of Japanese search teams searching for the fugitives and their helpers.