WORLD WAR II and JAPANESE OCCUPATION

I had been putting off writing about the time of my youth during the war...this will be a bit long as I am sure that there will be a lot of events that evolved during that time. As a starter, I am going to relate here some facts;

Almost 9 years old and was third grade in the primary school. When Japan launched a surprise attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Aerial bombardment was followed by landing of ground troops on Luzon. The defending Philippine and United States troops were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the defending forces withdrew to Bataan and to the Island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay. Manila, declared an open city to prevent its destruction was occupied by the Japanese on January 2, 1942. The Philippine defense continued until the final surrender of the United States-Philippine forces on Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and Corregidor in May. Most of the 80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at Bataan were forced to undertake the infamous Bataan Death March to a prison camp 105 kilometers to the north. It is estimated tat about 10,000 Filipinos and 1,2oo Americans died before reaching the destination. The president of the Philippine was Manuel L. Quezon (the first president of the Commonwealth) (During the commonwealth years, the Philippines sent one elected Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representative - Pedro Guevara, cousin of my maternal grandmother). Quezon and Osmena (vice president) had accompanied the troops to Corregidor and later left for the United States, where they set up a government in exile. MacArthur was ordered to Australia, where he started to plan for a return to the Philippines.

The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government structure in the Philippines and established the Philippine Executive Commission. They initially organized a Council of States which they directed civil affairs until October 1943, when they declared the Philippines an independent republic. The Japanese sponsored republic headed by President Jose P. Laurel proved to be unpopular.

Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by large scale underground and guerrilla activity. The Philippine Army continued to fight the Japanese in a guerrilla war and was considered an auxiliary unit of the United States Army. Their effectiveness was such that by the end of the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the fifty-eight provinces. The major element in the resistance in Central Luzon area was furnished by the HUKBALAHAP ("People's Army Against the Japanese"), which armed some 30,000 people and extended their controlled over much of Luzon.

MacArthur's Allied forces landed on Leyte on October 20, 1944. Landing in other parts of the country followed, and the Allies pushed toward Manila. Fighting continued until Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945. The Philippine suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction by the time the war was over. An estimated 1 million Filipinos had been killed and Manila was extremely damaged as the Japanese did not declare it an open city as the Americans had done in 1942.

The above scenario was to give you an insight of how the war was in the Philippines during my youth. I can think facetiously now all the events of those years. At the onset of the war, people "evacuated"...moving from one place to another, mostly in the country side. When Manila was declared an open city they all returned to the capital thinking that it was the safest place.

We stayed put in Manila, the dress shop was closed and became a "grocery and eatery" for a while. Relatives from the suburb stayed in our house...but eventually moved back to the country side.

I did go to school for a while...I can't seem to remember why suddenly I was not there anymore. My days were spent mostly gallivanting, playing or helping my mother in the house or in the store. My father was usually not home, he was with the guerrilla forces somewhere in Laguna province. When he came home he brought us staples that were hard to get in those day and a bag ("bayong," a large native woven shopping bag) full of money. The Philippine pesos was not in circulation anymore. We used Japanese-issued money for all our daily transactions. I can't remember what was the rate of exchange then but I remember that you needed a lot of money to buy anything those days. As far as I can remember we were not very hard up for food. We still ate regularly...breakfast, merienda (snack), lunch, another merienda and dinner. Some people during the war had to resort of eating just sweet potatoes, cassava roots or if they have rice to cook, it was always with an additives of either sweet potatoes or corn, even grated coconuts. The food on our table was always sumptuous because my mother still could buy big fish, chicken, pork and beef... cooked them with gusto! There were a lot of improvisations of our cuisine those days. I always tagged along with my mother whenever she went to the market. She was always on the lookout for something that she could use to feed us. This was true with spices that were hard to come by. Some of the vegetables came from my garden. Even as young as I was I tended a garden in our backyard. I think we bought cabbages, snow peas, green beans and other vegetables that grew in Baguio (low temperature mountain province) from the wet market in Paco. Although everything was scarce, we didn't resort of to eating fresh cows hide (cooked until soft), Or "sisid rice", (word "sisid" literally meant to dive under water). This rice was salvaged from a sunken Japanese cargo ship that carried tons of rice. It was discovered by Filipino sea divers, who brought the sacks of rice afloat and experimented cooking them...it was sold to the public and became staples for some. I just couldn't imagine how it tasted! That rice was discovered after the ship has been in the sea water for a while.

The war did not affect me until the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese. I saw the devastation of Manila first hand when my mother and I went to our house. The streets were like those that you can see in war movies...the bombing left dead Japanese soldiers scattered, some of them charred or sort of mummified , I guess from the heat of the burning city. I don't remember seeing any Filipinos among the dead.

My brother Renato was born September 16, 1941. He was the one who was affected during the war. There was a shortage of milk or no milk at all. I used to feed him "um" (rice soup scooped from the cooking rice before it dries up...we usually put more water to the rice so we can have extra "soup." We feed him hard boiled egg yolks too. He suffered malnutrition...but he survived the ordeal. He is living in Texas right now.

Teodolfo was born May 7, 1943. There are four boys and a girl in our family. When my mother announced that she was pregnant...I vividly remember what I said. "AGAIN!" This was because there will be an addition to my ward. In spite of having a maid in the house, it was my duty to take care of my three brothers...Wilfrido, Renato, and now Teodolfo. I think after Teodolfo arrived, Renato was more or less had been taken care of "Inday," our live-in maid. Most of my personal activities had been once more curtailed short again. The dress shop was opened again and my mother was always busy with her business. My father was not always home, maybe, and I am sure that his business with the guerrillas also included his womanizing in the country side.

After the liberation from the Japanese, we established our residence in Mandaluyong. My mother still did her dress making business but with a different perspective. There were a lot of materials floating around like parachute nylons.

She bought them and they were made into blouses and children's dresses. It had been quite an enterprise because she sold them to the Aguinaldo Department Store in Escolta, Manila. So our house was sort of a factory and at the same time my father opened his clinic there too.

It was time for me to go back to school. Since records can not be verified because they were all burned, my father enrolled me as a six grader. Remember...I haven't been to school for quite a while. Every night my mother had to tutor me in my spelling and reading. I was able to hack it and was ready for high school when I graduated...not with flying colors but I graduated. By the way schooling in the Philippines is from grade six you go four years high school...a mere ten years of prep for college. English is still the medium of studies. It used to be that the Philippines was the third country in the world that speaks English...I haven't checked it out lately. With the nationalization movement going on for a while now in the country, and from what I have seen from the younger generation there, the rung might have been lowered. But still when you are in the Philippines today, you can be understood if you speak English. With the migrations and the work forces in different countries, one can encounter who speak, even haltingly some other languages. You will always find a Filipino in every corner of the world.