A simplistic view of life paints everything black and white. There are the good guys and the bad guys, and a bag guy is all bad and a good guy is all good. The reality of life is a mixture of more colors than black and white. Take the Japanese Occupation, for instance.

Three, young Chamorro women lost either a leg or a hand, thanks to World War II. Two were sisters, entering their teens. Isabel Mendiola Iglesias was just ten years old when the war started, and her younger sister Magdalena Mendiola Iglesias was just nine.

Perhaps it was 1992 or 1993 when I was stationed in Saipan. I walked into the sanctuary at Kristo Rai Church in Garapan to start the 6AM Mass and was startled when the...