Roman Tmetuchl

At the age of 23, he was placed in the 11th grade at George Washington High School in Guam.

Roman Tmetuchl (February 11, 1926 – July 1, 1999) was a Palauan political leader and businessman.

He grew up in Japanese-controlled Palau and joined the Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police, during World War II.

After the war, he became the leader of Palau's Liberal Party.

Tmetuchl was born in the Eloklsumech clan of Airai in 1926.

He grew up in Koror while Palau was under Japanese control.

He attended a Japanese elementary school in Koror and excelled in mathematics.

During this time, he worked as a janitor and Paperboy.

In 1943, he was recruited to work for the Kempeitai, the Empire of Japan's military police in World War II.

He started with various cleaning jobs and then worked for Lieutenant Colonel Aritsune Miyazaki.

He participated in military drills and exercises, and learned about the war's status at police headquarters.

After the war, he returned to Koror and started working for the United States military at a quarry.

Tmetuchl, who at that time could speak Palauan and Japanese, started learning English.

He was recruited in a teacher training group and learned more English.

In 1948 he traveled to Guam for further training and testified at a war crime trial for twenty Imperial Japanese Army personnel.

Tmetuchl was also a sprinter and jumper and was, according to William Vitarelli, regarded as the fastest sprinter in Palau and Guam in 1949.

In 1950, he led Palau's second workers' strike to raise wages.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s he worked in Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) positions such as translator, public defender, counselor, administrative assistant, and district court judge.

He graduated in 1951 and was one of the top ten students of his class.

Tmetuchl was a leader of Palau's Liberal Party throughout his political career.

During the 1954–1955 academic year, he studied law and social welfare in the Philippines under a United Nations scholarship.

He worked from 1954 to 1962 to regain Ngerekebesang Island, which the TTPI had acquired from the Japanese government.

On April 9, 1956, he succeeded his brother Toribiong Uchel as president of Palau's local legislature Olbiil era Kelulau era Belau (Palau's House of Whispered Decisions).

He worked in the Congress of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1964 to 1978 and advocated for Palau gaining a separate status from the rest of Micronesia.

He became governor of Airai and engaged in three unsuccessful Palauan presidential campaigns.

As a businessman, Tmetuchl led several construction projects for his business holdings and for the Palauan community, including the Palau International Airport (which was later renamed in his honor) and a Seventh-Day Adventist clinic.

In 1965, he was elected into the First Congress of Micronesia for the TTPI.

He ran for re-election in 1966 and lost his senate seat to David Ramarui.

In 1968, he won a congressional seat by popular vote.

Later in his life he would coach teams and sponsor Palau's athletes in the 1969 Micronesian Games.

He served from 1969 to 1970 on House committees and congressional groups regarding future political status and budget planning.

He introduced a political resolution on July 28, 1969, calling for Micronesian independence in at most seven years.

The resolution was referred to another committee, and no further political action was taken.

He ran for a seat in the senate against John O. Ngiraked in 1970 and won the popular vote.

A few days later, a local man named Hitler attempted to shoot Roman.

A man named Heinrich Ngowakl stated that he was tasked by Tmetuchl's political opponent John O. Ngiraked to carry out the assassination, but soon realized he could not personally do it and so he gave the gun to Hitler.

Tmetuchl ultimately decided not to press charges.

Senator Ambilos Iehsi filed a minority report questioning the election's results by noting an irregularity in the write-in votes.

The senate held a session which reviewed the election results and ultimately accepted them.

Tmetuchl became a senator in the Congress of Micronesia by taking his oath of office on January 29, 1971.