From a young boy’s point of view

(Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from the narrative that won first prize in the 2011 WWII True Stories Contest. Apigo got a Macbook computer. The Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) also opened a savings account in her name with an initial deposit of P10,000. Her teacher-coach, Glynnis K. Ngeteg, received P5,000 from PVB.)

IF WAR broke out today, how would I survive?

This question remained in my mind long after my interview with my grandfather about his experiences during the Second World War.

My grandfather is Dunstan T. Tamog-ong, a native of Bontoc, Mountain Province. A full-blooded Igorot, my ikit (Bontok word “grandparent”) was born on April 13, 1934.

When I was younger, Ikit used to tell bits and pieces of his experiences during the Japanese occupation of Bontoc. My grandfather was only eight years old when the war reached the province.

“The first groups of Japanese soldiers were hostile. They killed and raped. They torched houses. Our governor then, Dr. Hilary Clapp, appealed to the Imperial Army not to be hostile. The governor promised Hirohito, who was (Japanese) emperor at that time, that the people of Mountain Province would abide by Japan’s rules. So when the soldiers came to Bontoc, they were met with no resistance. And so things became peaceful.”

When the Japanese opened schools, school-aged children, including my grandfather, were sent to the SVS (St. Vincent School), which was run by Japanese soldiers.

“We were taught Nippongo. Our teachers were Japanese soldiers who grew up in California. Others were Japanese soldiers who stayed in Malaysia.

“Danisutaen Tamago is my name in Nippongo,” my grandfather said.

Ikit smiled as he reminisced, saying it was fun learning the language. He boasted he could speak it years after the Japanese occupation. He remembered, too, that the soldiers trained the young boys in jujitsu, a Japanese form of martial arts.

Wrestling

“At 10 a.m. we would proceed to the school grounds,” Ikit said. “There were four bamboo poles set upright on the ground. We wrestled with these. If a boy was able to wrestle down three poles, then he was declared champion.”

He said the Japanese also taught the young people to be industrious. When we were younger and we would not obey, grandfather would tell us how the Japanese soldiers taught the value of industry.

“Everyone must work,” recalled Ikit. “We had to attend to our kaingin in the mountains. The boys had to collect firewood. No one was allowed to be idle. It was a crime to be lazy. We (also had to help) the Japanese cooks. This was our punishment when we tried to steal some guyabano fruits at the All Saints compound where the Japanese had planted many fruit trees. I saw how economical their way of cooking was. One big wok of food was enough for one battalion.

One-wok cooking

“Rice and vegetables were cooked in one wok, unlike now that we (cook them) separately. The cook added soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Their condiments were very tasty. I appreciated their way of cooking very much.”

Having learned the value of hard work early, my Ikit taught the same to us. He believes teaching children to work is to prepare them to survive in life.

Grandfather praised the attitude of the Japanese towards vice. He said drunkards were severely punished. Filipino men, known for their love of spirits, had to temper their drinking for fear of getting executed.

“I like the way they (Japanese) implemented their laws. These were updated and were obeyed,” he said.

When American troops under Gen. Douglas MacArthur started their drive to retake control of the Philippines, they started bombing towns including Bontoc. Gov. Clapp urged the people to evacuate to the mountains. This was what he remembered about evacuation:

“We joined the people of Samoki and fled towards the mountains in the east. The others went to the southern side while those who had relatives in western Mountain Province fled to those areas.

No salt, sugar

“Life during the evacuation days was hard. There was no salt, no sugar. Those who were able to bring rice with them were lucky for they had something to cook.

“We had to wait until things were peaceful before we could plant camote. We survived on sweet potato leaves and tubers during the bakwit (evacuation) days. For our drinks, our mothers fermented camote, which we called saffeng. This was very nutritious.

“To avoid being seen by aerial bombers, we made sure there was no smoke in the daytime. We cooked very early in the morning and ate. Before daylight, we covered our camps with vegetation and moved away. We hid under large trees, some looked for caves and stayed there until night time or made it their home during the bakwit days.

Grandfather said everyone was cooperative. “It was a time when everyone looked after each other. But it was also a time to be wary of collaborators. We had to watch our backs. Life was very hard.”

Ikit also told me how he became a runner for the guerillas while they were hiding in the mountains. A group of boys was asked to deliver wooden tubes from one guerilla group to another.

“These secret messages saved many Bontoc lives,” he said. “The guerillas never told us what were inside the tubes. But I felt it was very important.

Ikit was among the local runners who brought messages to different parts of Bontoc.

“I knew these were messages because there were papers with words or maps,” he said. “Others, like Leon Kiat-ong and Manong Felix, were national runners so their trails were more distant. They were sent to Besang Pass or to the Villaverde Trail.”

Although grandfather was an adolescent during the liberation years, his mind and body had matured.

He recalled young boys like him were tasked to carry supplies, firearms and bullets to nearby areas.

“I carried heavy steel boxes containing bullets,” he said. “We followed the guerillas going to places like Talubin.

“We learned survival techniques like hand signals. We walked through the mountains and passed rivers. It was safer to travel this way because the Japanese were afraid to follow us on these unknown trails. We also helped the guerillas ambush Japanese soldiers.”

When the Japanese surrendered to the Americans in 1945, the people of Bontoc were jubilant. A radio broadcast saying the country was free from Japanese rule was met with cheers. The Bontoks were instructed to come down from the mountains and return to their homes.

“We had to look for areas to build our homes,” my Ikit said. After the war, Bontoc was very devastated because of carpet bombing by the Americans. The Bontoks returned to their usual livelihood, which was farming.

Post-war

“But life immediately after the war was not easy,” said Ikit. “Many died of dysentery, malaria and lack of medicine for common ailments. There was fear our once safe water reservoirs were contaminated. Many died drinking water from these sources.”

“The American soldiers gave us tablets to make the water safe. We were told to drop one tablet into a pail of water. That was how I came to know of chlorine, the element in the tablets.”

Like the rest of the country, the small town of Bontoc experienced many changes after the war. They had their first election, some fathers were employed by the government. My great grandfather became an employee of the municipal government. The children went back to school.

Although Ikit wanted to continue his schooling, he had to stay home and tend to his mother who had breast cancer and was bedridden. At 18, he tried to enlist in the army but his mother discouraged him.
Moved by her tears, Ikit abandoned his dream of becoming a soldier.

“Then a couple generously paid my school fees at SVS,” recalled Ikit. “I went back to school and started to enjoy it again. The nuns were strict—boys could not mingle with the girls.

“One time, the Mother Superior talked to me. I told her about my mother. She told me she wanted to see her. It was Mother Superior who told the family that my mother had breast cancer and it was incurable. But the nuns were kind to us—every month they came to pray over my mother.”

After high school, my grandfather was employed as a school carpenter.

I have learned several things from my Ikit’s experiences.

First, discipline is very important. It marks the quality of a person.

Second, children must be taught hard work. This will prepare us for unforeseen events like war.

And, lastly, there is hope in the midst of devastation.

I admire my Ikit’s resilience. Though the war happened when he was at a very impressionable age, he did not let this global tragedy ruin his personality. Instead, he took the best lessons from his experiences and tried to pass them on to his children and grandchildren.