It was the valiant efforts of seven men from Malesso' who saved their village from a total massacre.Those seven men are Jose “Tonko” Reyes, Mariano Nangauta, Jose Nangauta, Juan Naputi, Patricio Taijeron, Nicolas Ada Chargualaf, and Vicente Meno.

To honor their memory and courage, a part of Route 4 will be renamed to the Seven Heroes of Malesso Highway. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero made it official during a ceremony today at Adelup.

Eighty-five-year-old Mae Nangauta is the niece to three of the seven heroes of Malesso. She shared the events she remembers leading up to the liberation of the village.

"It happened that these seven people decided a plan to decide what to do with the crowd of Merizo to take care of them, to be alive so that’s how it happened," she said. "I remember that night, we heard a shot and then they were running, all the people. All the men were running around trying to survive. These seven men, I remembered that they were the ones who decided to kill those Japanese for the people of Merizo to survive."

The village uprising happened at Atate in July 1944 -- a day before U.S. forces arrived to recapture the island, according to Guampedia. The revolt came after dozens of villagers were wrangled up into two Malesso' caves and slaughtered. Few survived the massacre at Tinta. About 30 were killed at Faha.

After years of fighting to get these seven men recognized, Nangauta says she’s happy that it finally happened.

Jose Naputi is the grandson of Juan Acfalle Naputi. He shared what he felt knowing now that his grandfather’s memory will live on forever.

"It’s 78 years in the making so my thought: it is too long, but it’s good that they finally get recognition so that at least the villagers of Malesso, they will always remember, “Ok we’re here because these seven men, these seven heroes, they resisted the Japanese, they were able to liberate all the villagers from the Japanese. So it’s huge, it’s significant."