黑料社

MANILA, Philippines鈥揥hile the Western world focused its attention last week on the end of World War II and the liberation of Jewish prisoners in Europe, it is now time for Asia, specifically the Philippines, to remember its own suffering.

Seventy years ago, fierce fighting to liberate Manila killed 100,000 people, ending years of Japanese occupation and leaving the city, once nicknamed the 鈥淧earl of the Orient,鈥� the second most destroyed allied city in the world.

This month, efforts are being made not only to remember but to teach the importance of remembering.

On Feb. 3, former prisoners of the Japanese internment camp at University of Santo Tomas (UST) came together from the United States and the United Kingdom for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Manila.

They came to remember that unforgettable day in 1945 when they were given their freedom by American troops racing to save their lives.

This was Sascha Weinzhimer Jansen鈥檚 sixth and last visit from California to the site of the prison camp she shared with 4,000 others for three years.

Jansen, now 82, was 12 and had polio when her family, along with citizens of other allied nations, was forced into the camps. But she remembers liberation as if it were yesterday.

鈥楥hristmas coming soon鈥�

鈥淚t was an amazing thing鈥攖hey came crashing through the front gate. We didn鈥檛 know who it was, whether they were Russian or from the USA鈥攖hey changed the American insignias on the tanks. But then someone yelled out the window, 鈥業 smell American gasoline!鈥欌��

She recalls that earlier that day, while standing in line with a tin can to get her daily 鈥渓ugaw鈥� (rice porridge), the pilot of a fighter plane flying very low had dropped his goggles with a note attached to it that said, 鈥淐hristmas is coming soon.鈥�

鈥淭he whole place erupted like a beehive.鈥�

A newly launched book, 鈥淪urviving a Japanese Internment Camp: Life and Liberation at Santo Tomas, Manila, in World War II,鈥� by Rupert Wilkinson, was presented at the UST commemorations.

Wilkinson, his mother and sister were all internees. His father, Col. Gerald Wilkinson, was head of British East Asian Intelligence and Prime Minister Winston Churchill鈥檚 liaison officer to Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

A father鈥檚 visit

Highlighted from the book for the commemoration were the internees鈥� liberation, the gripping hostage situation in which Wilkinson was one of 200 hostages, and even the extraordinary 鈥渧isit,鈥� hatched by Wilkinson鈥檚 father, of an American Navy Seal who simply walked into the camp to gather intelligence weeks before its liberation.

Highlighted from the book were the more difficult and controversial issues regarding Japanese perspectives.

Although Wilkinson himself was an internee, the book provides a balanced study of many of the challenges confronting the internees and even looks at Japanese perspectives and the wider context in which they fought.

As Wilkinson writes, there was not one World War II. People had different experiences and opinions that the book captures.

鈥楳anila at War鈥�

Jansen recalls the effect the lack of food had on the internees: 鈥淢alnutrition does a strange thing to you. You not only lose weight but your mental equity, and you have to keep apologizing all the time. We used to apologize to the army when they would ask us a question and you have to say, 鈥楿m, I know that, but just give me a minute.鈥欌��

Ayala Foundation continues the commemorations all February with a series of events called 鈥淢anila at War,鈥� where the Roderick Hall Collection on World War II in Manila will be showcased and speakers will talk about Manila memories.

Nelly Fung, daughter of the late Ambassador Marcial P. Lichauco, who wrote 鈥淒ear Mother Putnam: Life & Death in Manila during the Japanese Occupation 1941-1945,鈥� will share from this diary about the daily lives of millions of Filipinos as they struggled to survive.

Fung hopes that current and future generations will know of the ordeals the country went through and the sacrifices made by our ancestors.

Importance of courage

Fung says, 鈥淚 hope readers will learn the futility of war, the difficult choices people had to make, the importance of courage and hope in the face of extreme adversity. As many of the generation who survived have said, 鈥榃e can forgive but we must never forget.鈥欌��

Memories of the wartime years were brought to life though a documentary film called 鈥淢anila 1945鈥擳he Rest of the Story.鈥�

After learning about the struggle of life and death during the occupation, UST history student Kate Manansala, 16, says that learning history is key to developing pride in your country.

Understanding

She explains, 鈥淚n our generation, there is no sense of nationalism. People think it鈥檚 better in the USA or England because the Philippines is useless. If they know about history, they鈥檒l give importance to what the people fought for to gain Philippine independence. They would know what the people went through just to liberate us because if they don鈥檛 value that they will belittle the Philippines.鈥�

Manansala concurs, 鈥淟ike what the film said, if you forget history then you forget who you are. You know who you are if you know where you came from and understand what happened.鈥�

Vogie Pacalam, 17, says the film taught her a side of history that history books can鈥檛 always do: 鈥淲e can see that no matter what happened, when it ended we are still resilient鈥攚hatever happens we鈥檒l survive.鈥�

Students were also given the opportunity to learn about the war directly from those who survived it. Former prisoners of war shared their memories and feelings, and UST students listened quietly and asked questions eagerly.

Sharing memories

When one student asked, 鈥淗ow did you survive all those years? Did you not want to give up hope?鈥� Jansen responded: 鈥淣o. We never said 鈥榠f鈥� they came in 鈥�. We said 鈥榳hen鈥� they came in and that is the most positive thing you can live by.鈥�

Jansen says that in preparing and hoping for that day when freedom would come, many women at the camp 鈥渒ept something, one item aside, to wear 鈥榳hen their boys came.鈥欌��

For Jansen, it was a pair of socks, for her mother, it was an almost empty lipstick kept hidden under her mattress.

When liberation came, her father started to carry his then very weak, 78-pound (35-kilo) wife to the gates, but she insisted, 鈥淲ait, we have to go back for my lipstick.鈥� And they did.

Having strong faith

Fifteen-year-old Andre Concepcion says that before attending the commemorative events, he knew very little about the internment camp at her university.

Concepcion says listening to the former internees made him feel lucky and inspired.

鈥淚t鈥檚 about having strong faith and believing that you can survive anything because if you believe in yourself you can survive this kind of situation,鈥� he says.

Amidala Senica, 15, says, 鈥淓ven though we were not in that situation, we can still know what happened and get lessons from what happened. Having them say it directly to you makes you feel the history more.鈥�

Proud to be Filipino

Alexandra Kraft, 20, who came to the Philippines with her grandmother and grand-aunt, both former internees, echoed the importance of knowing your country鈥檚 history.

Explaining that even Americans don鈥檛 know enough about their history, she says, 鈥淲ith knowledge, you are more understanding, and with more understanding, you are more forgiving and more loving and that is what makes us progress as a world and as a race.鈥�

She adds, 鈥淚n knowing history you can take the future into your own hands, and you don鈥檛 have to be swayed by the hatred that anybody tries to make you have.鈥�

Concepcion says he learned things that have broadened his perspective. 鈥淭he Philippines fought and it helped to create peace. I feel very proud that I am a Filipino.鈥�

7 years old then

It is such sentiments that Ambassador Juan Jose Rocha, who was 7 years old during the Battle of Manila, would be happy to hear. Rocha is president of Memorare Manila 1945 Foundation, a group started by survivors of the Battle of Manila.

He says, 鈥淚 want the younger generations to know what our country went through three and a half years of terrible Japanese occupation. We had some terrific fights. We were badly defeated. We were not prepared but we stood up, and we took it, we suffered greatly, had great casualties but we survived and moved on. We could be proud as Filipinos of the way we stood up.鈥�

Rocha lost his mother during the fighting but like many survivors, kept the trauma to himself and suffered privately for many decades. It was only on the 50th commemoration of Liberation that Rocha and others started to share their experiences with each other.

He recalls, 鈥淲e started to talk and our mental blocks faded away and things we kept back emerged and that really helped us.鈥�

鈥楳otherland in pain鈥�

It also became a call to action for the group to do something to ensure that those who lost their lives during Liberation would never be forgotten.

Standing in front of the Memorare monument in Intramuros, which the group built in 1995 and is the venue for an annual commemorative event, he says the sculpture shows the spectrum of what happened 70 years ago.

Rocha says, 鈥淭he Lady is the motherland in pain, holding a dead infant, the girl is a rape victim holding her child, a man bewildered with his family lost, and an elderly and a youth who were killed.鈥�

Remembering walking through a hospital and seeing bodies 鈥渆verywhere, from top to bottom,鈥� he says, 鈥淲ar is hell and we lived through it. We pray that you, the future generations, never experience what we did or saw what we saw.鈥�

Memorare鈥檚 purpose, he says, is not to recriminate or ask for compensation but to honor the lives lost and to request Japan 鈥渢o recognize what they did and to offer a long-overdue apology.鈥�

Valentine鈥檚 Day

Rocha explains, 鈥淛apan is now our friend, but history can鈥檛 be rewritten. These are facts. Please come to terms with your past鈥擥ermany apologized so it should not be a problem for Japan.鈥�

This year鈥檚 70th commemoration was held on Valentine鈥檚 Day鈥攁 day for love throughout the world but for survivors of the war, a day for them to remember the loved ones they had lost.

An engraved plaque was unveiled that lists the many sites where the Japanese military鈥檚 massacres of civilians took place.

Ambassador Miguel Perez-Rubio, 89, was a 19-year-old prisoner of the Japanese Kempeitai (the equivalent of the German Gestapo) in Baguio when his mother, father, sister, brother and many other immediate family members were slaughtered by the Japanese.

He says, 鈥淭he Japanese set fire to our home and those who did not burn to death ran outside, but were then killed by bayonets then gunfire.鈥�

Terrible loss

Despite his terrible loss, Perez-Rubio says that if the Japanese who killed his family were to apologize, he would forgive them.

Rocha says that the war, which killed over 1,700,000 of the country鈥檚 prewar population of 17 million, changed the Philippines dramatically.

鈥淭he majority of those we lost were young, future leaders,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ur whole lifestyle, our political and social outlook, it completely changed, and Manila, of course, had to be rebuilt. The life we had before just vanished in the flick of a finger.鈥�

Former President Fidel V. Ramos, who spoke at this year鈥檚 Memorare commemoration, said the Battle of Manila was indisputably the greatest tragedy and manmade disaster in the history of the Philippines in terms of lives lost and total destruction and irreparable damage to our cultural heritage.

鈥淚t was an excessively high price to pay for freedom, but there is a valuable lesson for future generations鈥攖hey must never forget that war is not an option,鈥� Ramos said.

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