World War II and You

Prof. Bernard Karganilla dedicates his column to me and other docents-in-training in his column yesterday entitled, "World War II and You". The full article is on this site: www.malaya.com.ph/may05/edkarga.htm. He started module 3 of our saturday class with the documentary on the japanese atrocities, available on sale at the ayala museum for P700. Every filipino should watch this to understand how manila was raped and pillaged by the japanese from 1942 to 1945. Women raped, men beheaded, babies bayoneted, rich and poor together burned alive, the chinese, germans mocked before killed. It is an investigative report done with the survivors of the japanese occupation so that we will not forget the sins of the japanese fathers who refuse to apologize to our nation, and instead continue to honor their war dead in yanasaki shrine in tokyo. Although the war is centralized in manila, there were other casualties of war- in lipa, a massacre, and in panay island where the youngest brother of my grandfather,who, while running away from the japs who reached aklan, got caught and bayoneted, and eventually beheaded. This is a tale i heard from my relatives, who are now one by one dying of old age; our land, which used to be well-maintained, free from shrubs and weeds, now run in disarray as only an aunt is left to tend to it. Planting rice is never fun, as they say, and the youth, my grandmother said, would rather text than tend to the fields. .. I also used to ask Lolo Doroy about his wartime participation, he fought alongside the americans in the war, along with 18000 filipino men, out of which only 6000 got the renumeration and package promised them. Lolo was lived to see that day and got his family settled in before he died; others were not as lucky. He was 16, at that time of the war, and he was 65 when he set foot in the U.S... What many filipinos also don't know is that the americans, when they came in the 1900s were shooting at us like the native americans. It was the first mechanical war our filipino men fought, and they were helpless as the americans had big tanks and guns, and they even had a name for the filipinos- they were shooting goo goos, like they shooting ducks and they would party on fridays after a fight. This is uncanny because filipinos now love everything american, its consumerism, materialism, from american idol to hotdogs and branded apparel. The reason for this is when the americans colonized us, they also sent english teachers who taught our lolos and lolas english, and this assimilation made us love their culture. There were over 100,000 killed in world war II, and the filipinos triumphed over this. but we musn't forget. Along this story is a book that await to be written, about our valliant guerillas, our brave women,and how our kanya kanya attitude helped the americans in their quest to reclaim their colony; alongside this, there is a film in there somewhere that needs to be captured, and seen. It is the story of each and every filipino; so we will not continue to be a nation of dancers and overseas workers who toil away from our families and this beautiful land, a land where the sun always shines, and the people always endearing with their smiles.