Over 70 years later, 86-year old Carmen Iglesias Alconaba and 80-year-old Isabel Iglesias Manibusan received their honorary high school diplomas from the Guam Department of Education. Both survived the horrors of the Japanese Occupation of Guam.

They were just 10 and 3 years old at the time of the invasion, with Alconaba recalling having to work in the field and sleep beside dead bodies on her long walk from Northwest Field to Manengon and Nimitz Hill.

The honorary high school diploma program started in 2005 and recognizes those who survived the war but were unable to complete their education as a result.