May 8, 1918 - January 25, 2011
The heavy rains flooded the rice paddies where we had constructed our improvised shacks and dug our air-raid shelters. Most of the daytime hours were spent inside our dugouts as the U.S. planes bombed and strafed the retreating Japs passing the town … [Continue reading]
It was my usual routine to go to town to search for food, even in abandoned gardens or yards when no planes were overhead. With my jute sack, I roamed the streets for bananas, papayas, coconuts, or anything “eatable.” My eyes popped wide open … [Continue reading]
In the month of May when the rains started falling, the rice paddies became full of water. Dry season was over! Rainy season had set in. Our evacuation site was flooded! Food had become very scarce. We had been out of town for five … [Continue reading]
The next thing I did after settling in our hut was build a dugout. I saw to it that it had beams overheard with G.I. sheets to hold lots of soil, on which I planted spinach. It was “L”-shaped and could house ten persons. I placed … [Continue reading]
It was getting dark and starting to rain when I left the town riding on the back of the carabao pulling the sled. At last it became pitch-dark and only the lightning lit the trail on the rice paddies. All of a sudden the carabao pitched … [Continue reading]
After we had located our campsite near a family that had a water pump, I started carrying from town on my back pieces of lumber, burned G.I. sheets, and sawali (soft bamboo slats). We had no nails, only copper from burned electric wire for … [Continue reading]