STORY ABOUT MY MOTHER

SHORT STORY ABOUT MY MOTHER

(By: Jojo C. Pinca)

My mother was born on February 1, 1935 in the province of Leyte in the Philippines. She grew up in a poor and patriarchal family. Ignorance and poverty were the prevalent mode in their small community. My mother was second to the eldest among eight siblings. But half of them were already gone now because of various illnesses that could have been prevented but because of poverty and medical ignorance they were wasted. Since the Philippines had been colonized by the Spaniards for more than Three Hundred years, my mother grew up in a devout Catholic family. Farming and raising live stocks were the main source of income of my grandparents. According to my mother though they were poor yet they lived a happy life, until the war came.

The year was 1940, while Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler was ravaging Europe, the Japanese Imperial Army was moving fast towards East Asia region; conquering territories after territory. The Philippines was not spared in the war because aside from the fact that the Philippines were an American allied, it is at the same time part of the so called co-prosperity sphere (list of target nations) of Japan. My mother's family and other relatives were forced to leave the town after it was bombarded by Japanese airplanes.

My mother heard the news about the Fall of Bataan and Corregidor at the radio broadcast at their Municipal Hall and MacArthur's speech declaring Manila an "Open City". During the entire duration of the war, my mother and her family they stayed in a small village near the forest to evade the patrol units of Japanese soldiers. She heard many stories of guerilla operations launched against the enemies. The names of General Douglas MacArthur and other Filipino generals who went underground were always the topic of group discussion.

She was not even seven years at that time but my mother has already witnessed a very traumatic scene. A drunkard peasant guy was caught by the Japanese convoy at the hills. They suspected that he was a guerilla hence they interrogated and tortured him in front of the village people. The poor villager was hung inversely between two trees and they flogged him repeatedly; when he was about to die they stabbed him with a bayonet. Aside from this horror my mother also witnessed how my grandfather was betrayed twice by a Filipino collaborator who was working for the Japanese army. My grandfather was very lucky because on these two separate occasions he was always saved by some 'good' collaborators.

Then the historic "Leyte Landing" or what is called in history as the "Battle of Leyte Golf" came. The Americans and British soldiers headed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed at Leyte to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation forces. Thousands were killed in that assault. The Americans were welcomed by the Filipinos as if they were the true liberators. Everybody was shouting "VICTORY JOE, VICTORY".

Chocolates, candies, corned beef, luncheon meat and other imported foods supplied to the American soldiers; as a small girl these were the good things that my mother really likes about the American. She still remembered it. According to her there was an occasion when an American soldier approached and asked her "HEY DO YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE?"

They say that war changed people, any bloody warfare for that matter altered things. The Second World War changed many people in the Philippines; it changed their point of view. I know this is true because it changed my mother too.

Whenever there was a military conflict in the Philippines (Communist rebellion, Military adventurism and Muslim uprising) my mother would always tell me "if the situation worsens we must evacuate to the province". This plan sounds good but the problem is that we don't have a province to go to. I remembered the People Power I Revolution that ousted Marcos in the late 80's. We were monitoring the situation of the ongoing mutiny through radio broadcast when my mother suddenly cried. She recalled the war with Japan.

But the most striking influenced of Second World War to my mother was her fanaticism to the Americans. She really believes in her heart that America is our ally, that America will help us, that America will not disappoint us, that America is invincible and other myths. When I explained to her that America deliberately abandoned the Philippines during Second War to support Europe (particularly Britain) - she wouldn't listen to me. War is terrible but sometimes the psychological effect is even more devastating to some people. My mother is now old and weak but she still loves the Americans, pathetic.

But my mother is not alone because there are many Filipinos today who believe in these myths about Filipino - American friendship, this is bullshit. Just a clarification, I don't hate Americans because they are Americans, what I don't like is the foreign policy of their government.