Vintage bombs as booby traps

The discovery of at least 24 vintage Japanese bombs on Kawit Island needs some proper explanation about how these explosive devices used in World War II managed to survive undetected for nearly 70 years. I do not subscribe to the speculation made that these may have been defused by fishermen and brought to Kawit. Otherwise one wonders why they are still fishermen and not bomb squad members. They could very well make a lot of money getting all those bombs that are still littering the shallow reefs off Talisay (not counting the barges and tanks that are now home to a variety of marine species).

Defusing a bomb so rusted and—if indeed found in the bottom of the sea by fishermen—so encrusted with barnacles, is not an easy task. Even the authorities of the Central Command at Camp Lapu-Lapu did not throw caution to the winds and allow a single of these bombs to be decommissioned, defused and displayed in a museum. In short, no one can unscrew those bombs, remove their chemicals probably stored in glass bottles inside. That is how extremely hazardous these bombs are even after nearly seven decades have passed.

There is a passage from “Tabunan: The Untold Exploits of the Famed Cebu Guerrillas in World War II” penned in 1975 by the living legend of the war, Col. Manuel F. Segura, who I believe is now 92 years old and still very much up and about.  Thanks to one of his children, I managed to buy three copies of this classic book, unmatched in Cebu’s and the nation’s retelling of what happened on the side of the resistance in Cebu.

Page 304 states in no uncertain terms this fact: “On the beaches at Talisay and Liloan were mine fields—which had earlier been reported by Col. (James) Cushing … The Japanese had placed 50-kilogram aerial bombs (about 110 pounds) under most of the mines so that when these blew up, they tore apart the LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tanks) and big barges and left large holes on the beach. This stopped the first two waves (of US landing forces) and by the time the succeeding waves came in, there was a mammoth traffic jam.”

What is there to also prevent the Japanese from putting the same land mines in nearby Kawit, where a Japanese garrison was also set up the whole time? When the Americal (yes, Americal, short for American and New Caledonia) Division landed in Talisay on March 26, 1945, they faced no resistance from the Japanese, which had been ordered to move up north of Cebu where they would fight to the bitter end or, as it later turned out, surrender (as they soon lacked water and food).

My suspicion, therefore, is that these bombs were part of a network of booby traps that somehow the Americal Division minesweepers or mine clearing personnel failed to detect or, after defusing the land mine above, did not bother to remove the bombs buried below as their detonator (the mine) had already been neutralized.

It is too bad that all records of World War II and virtually the entire American colonial period (1898 to 1946) are stored at the US National Archives and Records Administration. Unlike the Spaniards who left their archives of the Philippines intact, the Americans did not allow this privilege to their former colony. And now, according to my friend Ino Manalo, director of the National Archives of the Philippines, the US is willing to digitize the entire sets of millions of pages, including photographs, but the cost would have to be borne by the Philippine government.

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Here’s an interesting piece of experience about customer service I got from the Watson’s outlet at Ayala Center. Last Sunday, about 20 minutes before the close of the mall hours, I was lining up at one of their counters. A  well-nourished couple in front of was  taking the best of 15 minutes trying to decide what soap, what scent and what-have-you to buy as part of their promo of a colourful tote bag should one spend h a certain amount of money. All the while, the other counter beside it, with three cashiers and sales ladies kept asking customers who would stray to their counter to move to ours as they were apparently closing or trying to solve something with their POS machine. So our line got longer and longer while this couple in front of me took longer and longer to decide which hand soap or bath soap to go with their promo bag.

After a while, I started blurting out “Wala na ni plano moirog ning linyaha?”  (Are there any plans of moving this queue up?”). Still this well-fed customer kept on testing one hand soap after the other until she decided that she liked the one that smelled of watermelon. Then the cashier said, “But ma’am, this is ‘buy-one-take-one,’ so you do not need to choose between the two!” Can you imagine my chagrin at all this crazy dialogue and utterly stupefying selection process in front of me as the line kept getting longer and longer?

Why does Watson’s allow this kind of promotion of their tote bag  at the  counter? Do they have any sense of customer service akin to those in, say, food shops where cashiers make sure you get out of the counter within a few seconds or you get your money back? Are they aware that there are customers who, like drivers all over this city, do not care if there are others behind them and just take their time and drive at a speed of 25 km per hour on a lane that requires you to drive above 60 km per hour?

I really hope this kind of madness will find its end soon.