With my knowledge of Nippongo, I easily made friends with Japs. I found out that they are friendly and even helpful if they can trust you and you understand each other.
I learned my Nippongo in the Government Training Institute where I was required to study as a Civil Service employee for two months. My grade on the Civil Service exam after our course in Nippongo was 98%. I even learned how to read and write in KATAKANA.
After the appearance of the U.S. planes, there was a Japanese plane that ditched on the bed of the Magat River with two Japs, who were not hurt. Our house close to the riverbed was their first refuge. We made friends. They said they ran short of gas. They shared with us their hard biscuits and we shared with them our soft-boiled rice.
Even when we transferred to Barrio Apad, they visited us there, where they bought my home-made Virginia cigarettes in exchange for their hard biscuits.
They brought with them an American-educated Japanese civilian interpreter, Mr. Mias. We enjoyed each other’s company until they left town for Kiañgan, Ifugao, as part of the retreating Jap forces.
There was a Jap soldier who claimed he was a Christian and went to a Catholic Church. He shared with us some powdered aspirin for our sick children. He belonged to the medical corps. Major “Sukiyoki”, who spoke Ilocano, shared his food with me.
Another member of the retreating Japs was a Formosan civilian who bought a pair of my khaki uniform for ₱500 Jap notes. With that money I went to buy as much palay as I could get from a co-passenger of ours from Manila who owned large tracts of rice land there and had a lot of palay stored in his house to sell.
Major Sugiyama, Supt. Constabulary Academy in Manila, was a good friend of mine who signed my I.D. that saved our lives later and railroad permit for carrying a dead body to Tanglin.
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