Lolo was a young teen, and when they heard that war had arrived, he helped his mom and cousin walk to the farm (which is four miles from town) and they stayed there for a few weeks.
Since the Japanese decided schools should teach Japanese, essentially all the schools were shut down, so Lolo didn't return to school until after the war.
He was a kid, and the only stories he related to me about those times was that one of the local Japanese soldiers would give the street kids candy. ..but he also related how a "spy" was executed on the street in front of their house.
Many elites in Manila hoped that the Japanese would give them independence, but that didn't happen... but I wonder if this is why there isn't a lot of rememberance of WWII heroes in the culture. Our town plaza has memorials to both those who fought for independence against the Americans and also one in honor of those who fought in WWII...
ironically, our family, who had a history of supporting Philippine independence against the Americans, (both Lolo and Kuya were named after Rizal's btother) joined the anti Japanese resistance: Lolo was too young but his older brother and cousin were part of the resistance, hiding in the nearby mountains.
His Cousin was killed, and his aunts still had a shrine in their house to his memory, with his photo and the letter from Harry Truman thanking him for his service.
Sigh.
The surviving Philippine veterans didn't get a pension until recent years (mainly because of fraud: too many lied about it). Lolo's brother, who fought as a guerilla for several years, was long dead so his family didn't get any of the pension, and Lolo, who only joined at the end of the war and never actually fought, (he mainly did patrols of the local area with his brother) was given a Pension from the Philippine government and help with his tuition for school, but was not eligible for the US funding.
One trivia fact: Probably more civilians were killed by the Japanese who were fleeing Manila than were killed in Hiroshima. wikipedia estimates 100 thousand were killed, some were killed by errant shelling during the battle, but most killed in revenge when found by the fleeing Japanese.
Most of the history books stress the US military in all these stories, and ignore the Philippine soldiers and civilians were doing a lot of the fighting.
And of course, the western (and anti western culture Marxist) history taught in schools never teach such things.
Heck, when Ruby and her American cousins visited Bataan during their stay last month, she had to fill them in on the details.
MacArthur was hated by many Americans, even those who fought under him, because essentially he was a snob. But growing up in Asia he understood Asian culture, which included obeying superiors and "utan na loob", keeping one's promises. Manchester's biography called him an "American Ceaser" but one would like to see a biography putting his personality and actions (both here in the Philippines and in Japan) into the context of East Asia culture rather than western culture or the Marxist interpretation of history (read US BAD) that often contaminates recent history.
....
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