Recollections of World War II
Three books on General Douglas MacArthur were given to me by Fr. Balinong, SJ, that kindled the thought of writing memories of the world war in Manila. The first book, “American Caesar” by William Manchester, is a full story of the general which in a special way recounts his escape through a PT boat from Corregidor down to Mindanao and from there by B17 plane from the Del Monte airstrip off Cagayan de Oro. The second depicts his crawling up from Australia through tough battles outmaneuvering the Japanese several times over New Guinea. He finally arrives at Leyte in 1944, thinking that the Japanese would leave Manila without a fight. The third book, “Rampage” by James Scott recounts the massacre of Filipino civilians in Manila by Commodore Mabuchi who ignored the orders of General Yamashita to surrender. Instead he burned North Manila and butchered the population of Intramuros and South Manila and defended it block by block. In the case of big buildings like the Manila City Hall, they fought from floor to floor.
Early on the morning of December 8, 1941, we were in the third floor of the Padre Faura building of the Ateneo de Manila. We were high school students serving Mass. It was the feast day of the Immaculate Conception. After serving Mass, one of my fellow students told us that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. We had never heard of the place before and did not know where it was. His father had been listening on short wave radio that night. So we continued to breakfast and on to West Parade Grounds where we participated in a gala military review. Before the ceremonies were over, there were already shouts of “War. War.” Some newspapers had printed huge letters of “War.” When my father came to pick us up, we did not go home straight but passed by the grocery store in Paco where we loaded the car with canned goods.
The next few days were filled with anxiety. But as a teenager, I really did not know what it meant. After a few phone calls, my father decided we would leave Manila and go to Binan to the house of his friend Dr. Conrado Potenciano. It was probably on the 9th that we went to
Binan and it was uneventful .There was an air raid on the 10th as well as on the 12th. On that day my Uncle Ramon Cruz’s family was passing by Dewey Blvd. when the sirens rang. They took shelter in a Social Club House. They were made welcome in their air raid shelter. That was the day that they bombed Nichol fields and destroyed the planes that were there. Earlier they had also destroyed the planes in Clark Field with bombers coming from Taiwan. A couple of days after Christmas, some military officers passed by Binan who informed us that they were retreating to Bataan. With this news my father decided to go back to Manila.
We moved to the house of his relative, Dr. Florencio Lara, in Sta. Mesa. His junior was my classmate in the Ateneo but I did not know till that time that he was my relative. On New Year’s Day, Dr. Lara and my father decided to go to Paco and I joined them. While they were buying something, they met their first Japanese soldier. I had stayed behind in the car but when they came back they told me the soldier got angry for some reason and slapped them. For the Japanese, this is a mild rebuke but for the Filipinos, it was a grave insult. The soldier wondered why Dr. Lara spoke Japanese. He had done his postgraduate studies in Japan. After a few more days, we moved to Malate again in the house of Dr. Potenciano. There I saw a cochero (horse rig driver) tied by a Japanese soldier to a tree in front of Malate church and whipped with the whip used for the horse. We bystanders watched in frustration but could not do anything the soldier had a gun we had none. When the cochero was untied, he fell like log. We avoided passing by a Japanese sentries because you had to bow to them. We took round-about walks so as not to pass where a Japanese sentry was stationed. Fort Santiago and in the Studio Bldg. in Divisoria was where the tortures were done in Manila.