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PhIlIppine Sea
UNTOLD TALES OF WWII IN THE PHILIPPINES
P ORTLAND · O REGON INKWAT ERPRESS .COM
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Copyright 20 I 1 by Susan Vance Cover and interior design by Masha Shubin Phi lippines map provided by US Central Intellige nce Agency. Al l rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieva l system ; without written permission from t he publisher and/or author. Contact Inkwater Press at 6750 SW Franklin Street, Suite A, Portland, OR 97223-2542 . 503.968.6777 Paperback ISBN-13 978-1-59299-550-9 ePub ISBN-13 978-1-59299-55 1-6
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ISBN-lO 1-59299-550-0
I ISBN-I O 1-59299-551-9
Kindle ISBN-13 978- 1-59299-552-3 Publisher: lnkwater Press
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ISBN-l0 1-59299-552-7
www.inkwaterpress .com
Printed in the U.S.A. All paper is acid free and meets all ANSI standards for archival quality paper. 3 579108642
o Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied itfor our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! -From "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain I never dreamed that our long-awaited liberators would actually write a flaming finitum est over Antamok. -William Maximilian Haube
Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................... xi Prologue ...... ..... .... ....... ................. .. ............ ... .... .. .................. .. :xv Ch. 1. High Alert ..................................................................... . 1 Ch. 2. Storm Clouds of War. ............................... ... .. ................ 6 Ch. 3. The Middle of the Jungle ............ ...... .. .. .. ..... ..... ..... .. ... 17 Ch. 4. Magnitude of the Task Ahead ....... .............................. 20 Ch. 5. A Chaplain to Marry Us .... .. .. .. .. ...................... .......... . 25 Ch. 6. Frantic Situation ............ .... ..... .... .......... ...... .. .. .... ..... ... 28 Ch. 7. We Turned Ourselves In ..................................... .. ...... 40 Ch. 8. A Question of Do or Die .... .... .... .......... ..... ................. 44 Ch. 9. Forbes Called Him Aladdin ....... ................................. 50 Ch. 10. We Have Been Watching you ................................... 52 Ch. 11. Dread of All the People .................. ..... .... .. .... .. .... ... ... 60 Ch. 12. In League with the Guerrillas ... ... .................. .......... . 66 Ch. 13. Just the Five of Us .. ... .. .... ..... .. ... ... ... ...... ................... 73 Ch. 14. House-to-House Searches ........... .. .... .. ...... .......... ..... . 76 Ch. 15 . American Bombs .... .. .... ..... .. .... .... .. .. ... ...... .. ...... .. ....... 79 Ch. 16. Dismayed and Disheartened ... ........ .... .. .. ..... ... .. .. ... .. 82 Ch. 17. Further into the Mountains ...................................... 84 Ch. 18. Back into the Poisonous Hole ............. .. ....... .......... .. 86 Ch. 19. A Plane Roared Over ...... .................................... ... ... 88
Ch. 20. The Destruction of Antamok .. .............. .. ..... ........ .... 90 Ch. 21. Japanese Soldiers Torched the Darkness ................ .. 92 Ch. 22. Death Traps ................................................ ;.. ............ 95 Ch. 23. A Miraculous Escape ......... .. ........ .. ........ ..... ... .. .... ... . 100 Ch. 24. All Hell Broke Loose .......... ........ ...... .. .... ...... ........... 104 Ch. 25. A Sacred Place ........ .. .......... .. .. ........ .. .. .... .... .... ...... ... 107 Ch. 26. Soul-Testing Trial .. .......... .... .. .. ................................ 110 Ch. 27. A Chaplain to Marry Us ................ ............ ............ . 114 Epilogue ................ ...... .......... ................. ........................... .... 119 Index .................................................................................... 121
Acknowledgments
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FINALLY HAD THE TIME AND OPPORTUNITY TO RECORD MY
mother Gloria's recollections of WWII in the Philippines nearly six decades after war's end. Amazing what had been left unsaid, unheard, unread for years: her engagement party to an American aide-de-camp, with generals in attendance, on the evening of December 7, 1941, hours ahead of Pearl Harbor; to be a white person born in the Philippines, fluent in native dialects, following indigenous Igorots into the mountains to seek refuge from American bombs; my grandfather's masterful journal about his experiences managing a gold-mining "camp," population 15,000, under Japanese commanders, then under American bombing raids that destroyed it all; the sheer 24/ 7 terror of war; and finally, redemption when the demolition is done. So first I must acknowledge war, that beast still brutal today. Without it, far fewer books and films, victims and heroes, death and destruction. May we learn to live without it! But this won't be the last book or screenplay written about it, not with wars still raging decades after the Second War to End Ail Wars.
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Sus a n V ance
Special thanks to my sister Sarah Vance, landscape architect extraordinaire, for her tireless proofs, encouragement, and final rush to design an initial printed layout for our mom's 89th birthday; and to my talented colleague, Christine Hubbard, for her steadfast assistance. Endless thanks to my husband, Marco Pennacchini, and sons Federico and Max, for their advice and patience during the long process of making the book a reality. Blessings to my uncles, Henry and Herbert Brady, who, as children, hiked the mountain trails as the family sought shelter from the storms of war. In loving memory of my father Fred 1. Vance, proud Naval officer, accomplished broadcast executive, journalist, and professional golf photographer; Uncle Bill Brady, who survived a three-day hike with Igorots to an American airfield; Grandpa William Haube, whose amazing story unfolds within; and Grandma Tita and William Brady, two brave souls who endured the war apart, with William surviving a prison camp in Japan. And most of all, thanks to Mom, aka Gloria H. Vance Dye, for sharing her loves, fears, and dreams.
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Index
Abra River, 15 Acupan Mine, 12 Afangka, Chief, 29-31 Agno River hydraulic plant, 35, 66-67 Angeles City, 25 Antamok Goldfields Mining Company, 54, 68-69 Antamok River Valley, 6, 10 Army and Navy Club, 2-3 Arnobit, Segundo, 24, 29-33 Bachrach, E.M., 9 Baguio Goldfields Mining Company, 37 Balatok Mine, 22, 35 Bataan Death March, 26, 115 Bau School, 96-97 Bauang, 21-22 Beam, Walter E., 12 Benguet Consolidated Mining Company, 2, 6, 9-10, 12,20, 45,51,57,68,71 Benguet Mountains, 6 Big Wedge Mining Company, 95
Bishop Brent School, 2, 33-34, 36-38, 46, 50, 84 Cabanatuan, 26, 115 Camp John Hay, 15-16,21,32 Campos, Pilar, 61-63, ) 07 -108 Catholic, 23, 41-42 Chinese, 7, 56 Christmas, 6, 13,29, 32, 68, 70, 119 Clark Field, 25 Clark, M.A., 8-10 Copper, 45 Corregidor,26 Crossfield, Judge, 9 Davis, George E., Destroyer Escort, 116 Dewey, Admiral George, 7 Dewey Blvd., 2-3 Duggleby, Mr., 35, 67 Eisenhower, General Dwight, 2 Eisenhower, John, 2 Elefante, Balthasar, 21-22, 24, 29,33,35-36,38,45,95
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Susan Vance
Elefante, Damian, 29, 52, 98-99, 105 Fiske, Roger, I 16 Forbes, W Cameron, 7, 51, 71 Fort McKinley, 2-3, 17 Fort Santiago, 37, 58, 61-62 Germans, 40, 42, 47, 50,62,68, 107 Gold, 7-10,12,22,45,51 Guerrillas, 67-70, 73 Hague, Wally, I 16 Hale, Governor, 34 Haussermann, Cohn & Fisher, 12 Haussermann, Judge John W, 10,23,37,52,69,76 Heald Lumber Company, 33, 38 Herlinger, Elizabeth, 68-70, 73 Herlinger, E, 68-69 Hess, Carl, 9 Holy Ghost Convent, 41 Horan, Colonel, 32-33 Igorots, 1,29,32,54,71,73-74, 81,83-84,89,92-94,100101, 106, 118 Ilocano dialect, 85 Ito, Colonel, 54, 56 Itogen, 24, 35 Kangaroo court, 45 Kanmori, General, 47-48, 53, 55-56 Koreans, 55-58, 104 Laoakan, 32, 81, 83-84 La Union Province, 15,21,70 Lee, Mr., 55-58, 104
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Lennox, L.W, 20, 22, 24, 34-35, 55 Leyte Island, 76-77 Lincoln, Captain Fred, 117 Lough, General Maxon, 2 Lucban Road, 38 Luzon, 15, 108 MacArthur, General Douglas, 26,91 Mancayan copper mines, 45 Manila Bay, 2, 116- 117 Masonic Temple, 46 Massacre, 107 McCullough, R.C. 9 Miller, Reed E., 14-15 Mount Pinatubo, 25 Mount Supot, 34 Muller, John, 15, 102 Murphy, J.J., 33, 38 Naguillan Road, 21, 30, 83 Nichols Field, 25 Notre Dame Hospital, 34, 69 Nuns,. 42-43 Pandan, 15 Pangasinan, 35 Paredes, Roxy, 114, 116 Pearl Harbor, HI, 13,15,17 People's Bank, 32, 34 Peoria, IL, I, 116, I 19 Philippine Army, 15,21,26,35 Prospectors, 7-8, 15 Queson, President Manuel, 26 Red Cross, 41, 1 15, 117 Russians, 37, 61 Sallee, Arthusa & Henry, I 19
Tropic !) orn War Torn
Sallee, Joseph , 2-4, 16-17, 61, 73,105 , 114-115 , 119 San Fernando, 15 , 21 San Miguel Brewery, 4 Santo Tomas University, 41-42, 60,67,114,116 Sehorn, Eleanor, 3 Sehorn, James, 5, 24, 31,32 Silang, I 7, 40 Snyder, Erny, 35, 66-68 Sorong, 95, 105 Spaniards, 7, 61, 107 Spanish, 41 Spanish-American War, 7 Swiss, 41,61,63,66, 107 Taft Avenue, 63, 107 Taft, President William Howard, 7 Tagalog, 41, 85 Tobin, Bill, 117 Tojo, Generalissimo, 57 Trinidad concentration camp, 71 Tuding, 95, 105 Typhoons, 6, 10, 60 Vance, Fred L. , I 15-1 17 Van Shaik, Colonel, 32, 34 Wainwright, General Jonathan, 2 Whitmarsh , Phil , 30, 35 Wilson, Colonel, I 15 Worcester, Dean c., 7 Wright, Betty, 3,61-63,108, 117 Wright, Miriam, 108 , 117 YMCA , 76 ZigZag Hotel , 74, 79, 83 ZigZag Road, 50
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