December 7, 1941

actually, it was December 8th here.

 

it is a Catholic holiday, so a lot of folks were in church...

When reports reached this rural town, Lolo, who was still a kid, his mother and some others fled to our rural farmland in fear, but later returned to town.
There were Japanese stationed in our town: Lolo remembers one friendly soldier who gave candy to the street kids. But later it turned deadly, and he reports the Japanese shooting a local man in the street in front of their house.
His older brother joined the resistance, but Lolo was too young...he did join at the end of the war, after the Americans invaded and McArthur called for an uprising against the Japanese.

Ironically, the war doesn't get a lot of play here: bitter memories are part of the reason, but I suspect it is also because a lot of the Manila elites were quislings, and they don't like to be reminded of their grandfather's deeds...