What I Remember of the War Years

It was one afternoon before Christmas Day 1941 that I had to wait for Ateng to come home from work so that we could join the evacuees getting out of Cabanatuan and going to several places.

Ateng and I had to travel on foot from Sangitan to Bonifacio and to a place before Sumacab where we joined people crossing the Pampanga River. From there, we traveled to Samon and then followed the gravel road to San Felipe where we saw Inang and the two girls.

In San Felipe, I thought of preparing salted eggs. I tried to make salted mud and buried some fresh eggs. After some days, I dug up the eggs, washed them and cooked them. The eggs had failed to become salted!

My time in San Rafael was spent helping my relatives in their farm. I even remember watching a cockfight or "tupada."

I used to hear a stories about a pinsan, a brother of Teofilo, who could see ghosts.

It was in San Felipe, where one night, I heard the rumble of Japanese trucks on the road. There was an intense exchange of gunfire in the direction of Cabanatuan.

The Japanese Army was on its way to Manila and part of the Japanese Army passed through San Felipe that night.

Several days later, Inang, Ateng, Concha, Adela, and I traveled by cart to Anias by way of Daang Sarili which starts from San Felipe in Aliaga and ends between Caalibangbangan and San Miguel na Munti in Talavera. It was more than half-a-day's travel.

In Anias, we stayed in Sangkong Menggoy's house.

It was during this time, around the early part of 1942 that Fabian and I dared to go back to Cabanatuan and found, to our sorrow, that our house in Sangitan, along with others, had been burned down. The remnants of burnt GI sheets and the base of the house were all that was left of our house. Immediately, I felt a deep sense of loss for even at that time, I felt we had no home. We had become homeless orphans.

Fabian and I started back for Anias. On the way, we were accosted by Japanese soldiers. We signaled by hand that we went back to visit our house. The soldiers told us to tell our folks that it was alright for us to return home.

I don't know exactly when in 1942 that we returned to Cabanatuan. We stayed at the house of Kuyang Carding and Insong Barang.

Inang started being a market vegetable vendor. Ateng, with Isabel, (a cousin, daughter of Tata Kadiong of San Felipe) opened a halo-halo refreshment parlor. I helped them prepare the crushed ice.

Insong Barang also started her bibingka business and I helped her in making galapong by grinding in a stonemill or gilingan, rice which had been previously soaked in water. My hands always had lintos or bruises.

There were two big houses near the house where Insong Barang and family were staying. In one of the houses, a Japanese officer was staying in the other. In the other, a company of Japanese soldiers had their garrison.