Mark Victor Ignacio

December 17, 2004

 

World War II from a Filipino Survivor’s Perspective

When asked about history, generally speaking the events that took place during World War II, most of us rely on history textbook content.  When asked about a more specific topic: the Pacific Theater, which is the battles between the United States and the Japanese, the internet provides us with plenty of information. When asked about the Philippines’ involvement in World War II, we look further into books concentrated on the subject matter.  Finally, when asked about a Filipino’s experience during the Second World War, an interview is conducted.  My interview with my grandfather, Alfonso W. Ignacio, a survivor of World War II, was most interesting compared with any article on World War II.  Alfonso Ignacio situates himself as an “unskilled laborer,” working for the 16th Naval District of the U.S. Navy at Sangley Point, Cavite, Philippines.  Getting first-hand information from someone who was actually alive and aware of the events back then was certainly gratifying.  From what we learn at school, movies, and television, World War II was a war between nations: Japan, Germany, and Italy with the rest of the world.  What we did not hear about was the individual stories, roles in play, and detail of the tragedies and victories.  This essay discusses what it was like living during the period of World War II, paying particular attention to the way Filipinos understood the significance of the war, the sequence of events, the way they related to Americans, and their attitude towards their third colonizers: the Japanese.  The point of my analysis is not to put down what has been written out in textbooks but further detailing the events that occurred.  Also included in this essay is additional information (not stated in the Oral History Project audio files) I gathered from Alfonso’s wife, Felicidad, who also worked for the US Navy.  With research and books pertaining to the subject matter at hand, I was able to draw links between the events my interviewee mentioned with dates, specific locations, and people involved. 

“On the morning of December 10, 1941, what was to the Americans on Luzon was what December 7 had been for those in Hawaii -- but without the element of surprise.” (Whitman).  During the Second World War, the Philippines was among the most vital possessions of not only the United States, but for Japan as well.  Aside from Hawaii, the United States used the Philippines’ locale as their further military extension in the Pacific.  For the Japanese, the Philippine Islands were a land rich of natural resources, just waiting to be colonized.  As mentioned earlier, World War II was a war between the world and three nations --Japan, Germany, and Italy.  These three nations vowed to help defend each other if for any reason the United States attacked any one of them.  The war in the Pacific and Far East was also known as the “Pacific Theatre.”  Japan had a plan for the future of Asia called “The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” (Nash).  The sphere was a Japanese empire, to include much of China, Southeast Asia, and the western Pacific.  The president of the United States at that time, Theodore Roosevelt, had a goal of limiting the Japanese expansion by cutting off the supplies Japan needed, but without provoking a war.  By the time the Japanese conquered and had control of Indochina, President Roosevelt reacted by ending all trade with Japan.  According to Gary Nash, author of “American Odyssey: The United States in the Twentieth Century,” he United States had a back-up if a war were to occur: 

Despite mounting tensions, the United States continued to negotiate with the Japanese.  In Part, the negotiations were an attempt to buy time for the nation to fortify the Philippines and to build the “two-ocean army” authorized by congress in 1940.

 

The time referred to as being bought to “fortify the Philippines,” was 1940.  This is the time Alfonso, who was around 20 years old at that time, applied for a job with the US Navy. 

Alfonso W. Ignacio played a significant role as a Filipino-American who worked for the US Navy during World War II.  His memories of the Second World War tells us that he heard about the recruitment by the US Navy and saw many people line in to sign up for applications. He applied and was lucky enough to be given a physical exam the next day and shown the place where he was to work.  He says that he was too young to enlist with the Navy and was studying at that time.  He was part of the U.S. military but on a civilian basis.  The Navy classified him as “non-skilled laborer,” so every morning he was assigned to do odd jobs.  He most commonly worked at the commissary store, a store of military food and supplies.  During the interview, Alfonso mentions, “I felt the situation getting worse.”  When I asked him to tell me his opinion on how the war started, he said that it began when the government of Japan and the U.S. not getting along with each other.  He says that the Japanese bombed the Navy yard in the Philippines on December 10, two days after the Pearl Harbor bombing on December 8.  He was assigned in the 16th naval district and was present during the bombing of the navy base.  He was not hit and obtained only scratch on his forehead.  The bombing started from noon and lasted up to 5:00 in the afternoon. He says that during the bombing of the naval base he ran and left the Navy Yard and while he was running he saw a man’s back wide open –with the lungs still breathing—as he passed by two houses that got hit by bombs.  He saw that other people tried helping the injured.  He was trying to save himself.  He also saw one guy hit on the leg asking for help and another guy helping his friend.  He also saw one person who has a friend and had his intestines falling out of his wounded body.  He says that he kept on running and when he reached the bridge he swam because the bridge was being bombed by the Japanese.  He says that he and others swam one fourth of a mile to reach the safest shore.  Everyone was swimming for their life.  After he escaped the bombing he went home and found out that people already evacuated to Alfonso (a town in the Cavite province about 6 miles northwest of Tagaytay) and he wasn’t able to go there because of a lack of transportation.  After the bombing at the naval yard, the Americans called back the Filipinos to clean up.  There were more than one half of the people killed in the base.  The next day the dead started to smell and most were Filipinos.  There were only few white people some were high-ranking officers but overall few white casualties than Filipino casualties.  He says it was harder especially the time when Japanese landed after the bombing two days after Pearl Harbor. He still worked for Americans by carrying ammunition and moving it away from the armory to outside the base’s navy grounds. Then two Americans would bring ammo with them. They did not want civilian to see where they put the weapons because there was still a battle in Corrigidor and Bataan.

With more Japanese invading the Philippines, Alfonso believed that the Americans began withdrawing because they were losing the war.  When the Japanese took over, the Americans made their last stand in Bataan and some Filipinos escaped from the Death March. Before the Japanese invaded, Filipinos treated other Filipinos the same. There was no envy among Filipinos except “sagdalistas”. These were traitors and told on other Filipinos so that Japanese would take men because a sagdalista would accuse another Filipino as a guerilla. The Filipinos don’t look at the Japanese face to face. There was an instance during that time that the Japanese put him in prison. Filipinos were very afraid when they saw the Japanese and they turned away when they saw one. He says the Japanese were greedy and envious and they treated the Filipinos like animals.

During the war he worked for the Japanese to support his mother and was forced to work just to get money. He worked in a factory and machine shop as a crane operator and when he made a mistake, some Japanese that were in charge would slap him.  He was also slapped 8 times for not lining up and bowing to the Japanese flag.  Alfonso also says that the Japanese controlled the rice. The Japanese would also pay them a few pesos for their work but the Americans gave them bigger pay and paid by the hour. He says that there were times that he didn’t work. Alfonso also mentions that the Japanese discriminated and actually used people as bayonet practice. He says his uncle was captured and executed by Japanese. He says he heard of a 13 Caviteños that were killed by the Japanese. Uncle was taken and killed because he was a suspected guerilla. His uncle was mestizo and the eldest boy of the family. Alfonso’s grandfather (the father of his uncle who was killed) died because of emotional stress. There were a lot of orphans and starving boys trying to get food.  The Japanese even put crude oil on their scrap so that no one could eat them. Kids during those times were malnourished and looked like skeletons. A lot of kids especially in the school at San Roque Cavite died of hunger and scavenged for food in trashcans. This was the first instance he saw people going into the trashcans and eating trash like dogs.  Felicidad mentions that the Bataan Death March where Filipinos had to walk from camp to camp The Filipino on that march died of hunger because the Japanese “do not feed them.”  The Japanese controlled the navy yard for almost 3 years and at that time the Americans started bombing the Japanese by carrier planes.   Before the Americans came back, they had raids on the Japanese occupied bases (the Japanese took over bases) and he actually saw dogfights and Americans bombers being shot down by the Japanese fighters. Japanese would capture parachuting pilots or crews and they would parade them.  He says that the government didn’t do anything. In addition to that, Alfonse dlaims that the president didn’t do anything either. Filipinos had to defend for themselves and wait for the Americans to come back.  The Filipinos waited for the Americans because they promised this.

The Filipinos were happy that Americans were coming and they called them G.I. Joes.  The Japanese fought to the last man in Manila and did their last stand there. When the first Americans landed in Tagaytay, all the Filipinos that saw them were happy. Filipinos helped the Americans fight in Tagaytay. He says that he was already working and if you didn’t have work and you applied, you got work again. He became a guard near the shore and because of the fighting in Manila; he encountered some Japanese on rafts. In Sangley Point, most of the Japanese were dead but a few were alive and they encountered them in pillboxes, bunkers, or shelters.  Near the shore, he found out that some Japanese came by raft and were discovered in pillboxes one morning. The American soldiers said to come out and raise your hands and give up but the Japanese have no white flag so they fight it out. When Japanese took the first shot, the Americans on top of the pillbox threw a grenade inside pillbox. The Americans would surround and throw grenades and after that the Americans would go inside and see the dead Japanese. Every morning he said that he found 1 or 2 rafts made by the Japanese. He would see some dead Japanese soldiers have documents or papers on them and the Americans would check them out. This encounter lasted for two weeks.  The American government helped the Filipinos. They also have to go back to work for the U.S. and they got back pay for years of Japanese occupation.  After the Japanese lost to the return of the Americans, Felicidad states that the “sagdalistas” were caught and killed by society. “Novalitas,” a town, had many of these and would parade them and at the same time they got beaten. The “sagdalistas” worked with the Japanese to get guerillas and accused other Filipinos of guerilla activity. They were punished by Filipinos that mostly knew them.

    Overall, from Alfonso and Felicidad’s perspective, they believed the United States were their friends and saviors.  During the Japanese occupation, they waited anxiously for the return of the Americans.  They viewed the Japanese as inhumane or “walang hiya.”  With the return of the Americans, Filipinos knew that they would be saved.  The point of this essay was to learn the views, beliefs, and stories of the two Filipinos experiences towards World War II.  By comparing this interview with what we know from history books, we encounter some contradicting points.  In addition to that, we also learn that by looking at events from history from different perspectives, the history that we once knew alters with biases.    


Works Cited

Ignacio, Alfonso. Personal Interview. October 2004.

Ignacio, Felicidad. Personal Interview. December 2004.

Nash, Gary B. American Odyssey: The United States in the 20th Century.                        Glencoe McGraw-Hill.

Whitman, John W.  “Air Raid On Cavite.” Military.com. 2000. 13 Dec. 2004. <www.military.com/ Content/MoreContent?file=Prcavite>