MEMORIES: Early Life, Studies, Involvements and People's Struggle for Freedom (PART 1)
-Chapter 2 - The Japanese-American War of World War 11 in Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz
(for release)

I remembered one time, the whole community in Dayhagan, Pilar, Capiz where we reside were ordered to leave their homes. It was I think, middle of 1944.

 It was on order of the Japanese military forces. All residents were transferred to the village center. Every family were ordered to build small nipa hut  in the middle of the village. All families were concentrated in one area.

They built a small track and field area where residents, specially the youth can compete in some sports, like running 100 meters and 400 meters of short distance running. The young people also played Base Ball games. Many participated in the game. I have not heard of Basket Ball played in our village during that time. The games were for exercises and to keep the young people busy, as ordered by the village  officials  and  Japanese officers.

At the beginning of World War II,  Lockheed, an American firm – under the guidance of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson, who was  considered one of the best-known American aircraft designers – answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting the P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, a twin-engine  design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day.

There were also a community competitions like “Rodio de Anillo” where participants ran fast and tried to hit the “anillo”, a round circle about 3 inches diameter that were suspended about 9 feet from the ground. There were small prizes for the winners.

In just few weeks after the order, we were all living in small huts, concentrated in Dayhagan village.

Farmers go to their farms and worked on their rice fields, bananas and different kinds of root crops during the days. The fisher folks go to the seashores, gather shells and fish in the sea. We were living in the “concentraton camp” about a kilometers away from the seashore of Dayhagan.

But all residents has to go back to their homes to sleep during the nights. This was the new directives by the Japanese.  Concentrated families in villages could be easily monitored.

I remembered Sabbath Schools and Sunday Schools  before, were in the bigger home of some members. Now, these were done under some trees with little shades. The cottages and huts were too small for a few people to gather inside. Group meetings were now under the shades of trees.

I heard from my uncles, one reasons for the concentration of the residents. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who went to Europe and led the Americans forces in the war with Germany was coming back to the Philippines with his American soldiers to fight the Japanese. During that time, I was  already  4 years old.

I was also told that Japanese soldiers came to our village looking for guerrillas. My grandmother, and most people were afraid of hearing Japanese soldiers coming. The Japanese, I was told were very cruel. I heard stories of the Japanese tyranny on civilians.

There were stories in nearby villages and towns, where civilians were shoot and killed by the Japanese for no reasons, except the guerrillas ambushed the Japanese or attacked their garrison. Civilians were killed   to pay for a  Japanese soldier killed. I heard, 20 Filipino civilians were killed for every Japanese soldiers killed.

There were stories of mothers bayoneted together with their child by the Japanese. Every time heard Japanese were coming, we all hide and disappeared in the wide and heavily forested swamps nearby. 

In the next town, Balasan,  about 8 kms., from our village,  the Japanese Army has built an Airport, where several Japanese war planes were parked. The airport served the maintenance needs of the Japanese war planes. From this airport, they reached out for surveillance in areas of Northern Panay, eastern part of Masbate, Romblon, northeastern Cebu and Northern Negros.

I also heard, the Municipal Mayor of Carles, Mayor Engton Bartolome, a cousin of my grandmother, was lost during the war. He was a mayor loved by the people of Carles. But, he disappeared.  No one knew what happened to him. He tried to protect the residents. Some said,  he was killed by the Japanese. Some said, he drowned in the sea. Some said, he was killed by the guerrillas and thrown into the sea. He disappeared without a trace. That’s the hardship of war during the Japanese time.

One time, while walking in the road in Cawayan, Carles, we heard the sound of the a coming truck. Somebody called “Japanese”. We ran to the side of the road and lied down on the ground. It was really  a Japanese truck, with soldiers. But I have not seen their faces. Their hats covered their faces. It was seldom, that Japanese came to our village.

It was, already in 1945 when I first saw a fight between the Japanese warplane “Zero” and the American “Lockhead”. We heard the groans of the planes coming above. The Japanese war plane and the American fighter were in a deadly combat. It happened right above our village in Dayhagan.. The two planes were about 100 meters above us. There were gunfire blasts. There were machine gun fires. And all of us, ran to our Air Raids, for protection. Then, we heard a strong gun blasts.

And we saw, the Japanese Zero plane, in heavy smoke moving very, very fast to the sea in the west. . About 1 kms., away from the shore,  the plane burst. The plane, they said were blown to pieces. But  we heard,   the two Japanese pilots were able to jumped to the sea. But they were caught by the people and turned over to the guerrillas.

Another time, we also saw the battle between a Japanese boat with Japanese soldiers  and the Filipino guerrillas in Dayhagan, Carles, Iloilo. The battle scene was just about 3 kms., from  Dayhagan. The Japanese boat, said to have some 30 soldiers were going to the Municipality of Carles. But they were intercepted by the guerrillas in Dayhagan, Carles and a battle started. It started about 4:30 P.M., and went on until nearly midnight that day.

We can hear gunshots from both sides. We heard cannon blasts. We have seen Tracer Bullets, flying with flair of lights, during the night from both sides. The Japanese boat was blown down and capsized. I heard some Japanese were killed. And some were captured.

Then, about a week later, we saw many useful things were produced by the people from the downed Japanese plane and the capsized boat. We saw cooking  utinsels, plates, spoons and forks, knives, and different kinds of materials made by enterprising people from the aluminums of the plane and the irons and steels of the boat.

These were some incidents when  fighting  by  Japanese,  Americans and Filipino guerrillas happened in our village during the Second World War.