Yay Panlilio meets guerrilla leader Marcos Villa Agustin, aka Marking

"The mountains, Yay , knew, were filled with bands of Filipino guerrilla fighters. She would have liked to join them but quickly dismissed the idea. They were constantly on the run from the Japanese, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with them: the year before, while covering a story, she had broken her leg in a serious auto accident, and her bone had not been set properly. She also had a heart condition.

Plus she was a woman. How could she live among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of men?

One night in July 1942, while recovering from malaria on the property of a kind farmer, Yay suddenly encountered a large group of fighters sleeping on the farmer’s property. They were so young, they filled her heart with compassion.

Yet, in the morning, she told them to leave for the safety of the farmer and his family. None of them moved. Yay didn’t yet realize they were hearing the same thing from everyone: leave for our safety. They told Yay they would make no decision without direct orders from someone they referred to as “the major.”

Marking, standing second from right

A short time later, Yay met him. He was Marcos Villa Agustin, known as Marking, a former boxer and bus driver who, when the Japanese first attacked, had worked for the Philippine army, convoying troops to Bataan. After his convoy was cut off, he became a scout for the army. When the Japanese captured him and found an American flag and eagle tattooed across his chest, they arrested him. But he managed to escape into the jungle, where other Filipinos eventually gathered to him, forming a guerrilla band.

Marking and Yay connected immediately. He asked her to join his unit. He understood her physical limitations but was determined to assist her with these as best he could, because he knew that her intelligence—and her typewriter—could be powerful weapons..."

Excerpt from "Yay Panlilio: Guerrilla Writer" from Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater. 

Yay Panlilio and Marking

Letter from American Red Cross staff assistant stationed in Manila

Letter from Faye Anderson, Red Cross staff assistant, sent early July, 1945

Dearest Family:

I am going to try to relate properly the most exciting week of my life so far in the big Red Cross...

Manila, as it is now, is more than I have words to describe. The destruction, starvation, persecution, and ruin is incredible. to say the least. It's a down right crime to have happen to any place what happened here...To put it short, there is literally nothing left of what must have been the most beautiful spot in the world, some buildings dating back to the 1600s. The art, architecture, traditions, etc., that have been lost here will take two generations to regain.

Manila's legislative building, 1945

It is all in a state of complete confusion...[but] it's a great thrill to be an American and see how our boys have taken hold, working day and night to further this war...The Filipinos look to us like Gods and can't do enough for us as we are the Yanks that saved them from a fate worse than death.  As you pass along the streets, even the half starved [children] make the "V" for victory sign with their fingers, and yell out, "Victory Joe" as every Yank to them is a Joe. We should be very proud of our nation...

US troops, Manila, February 27, 1945

This city is filled with tragic stories and it makes you gasp to hear some of them. The Filipinos really suffered and I'm amazed at the way they are able to take it all. Their city in ruins, half starved, their families killed and tortured in front of their eyes. We all don't know how lucky we are to be Americans. I was talking to a charming Filipino woman who evidently came from a very good family and she said they wouldn't have cared if there hadn't been a pillar or post left in the city as long as the Americans arrived..

I will say that the Red Cross is doing one marvelous job here and I'm proud to be in their organization...

My love to You all, Faye

From: We're in This War Too: World War II Letters from American Women in Uniform

Endorsements for Women Heroes of World War II: The Pacific Theater

"So meticulously researched and jam-packed with engaging stories of extraordinary women, interwoven with the essential facts of the conflict in the Pacific. What an accomplishment! Kathryn Atwood’s finely detailed and fast-paced writing makes for fascinating reading, exquisite close-ups of little-known women and a much needed perspective on World War II. Before the bombing of Pearl Harbor through the long years of Japanese occupation, women bravely, day by day, stood with the victims of war and thwarted the enemy. Finally, their stories are told."
--Mary Cronk Farrell, author of Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific

"Anyone who thinks that women's only responsibility in World War II was keeping morale high on the home front will change this view after reading about spies, prisoners of war, guerilla fighters and other courageous women in Kathryn J. Atwood's Women Heroes of  World War II. By using their own voices from memoirs, diaries and other sources, Atwood clearly lets us know that valor is not, and never has been, only a men's trait."
--Elizabeth M. Norman author of We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Women Trapped on Bataan

"Atwood's vivid, accessible storytelling brings to life the oft' forgotten female spies, saboteurs, and survivors who were utterly crucial to American victory in World War II. This book rightly solidifies their place in human history."

--Ben Montgomery, author of Grandma Gatewood's Walk and The Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II. 

"Kathryn Atwood presents refreshing perspective into the horrors of the Pacific War through the forgotten stories of heroines, who have mostly been lost in the vast historiography of WWII.
--Jenny Chan, Director at Pacific Atrocities Education.

"Kathryn Atwood’s “Women Heroes of WWII-the Pacific Theater tells the stories of fifteen gutsy ladies—writers, agents, activists, nurses, survivors, and others—whose bravery, resilience, and determination to take risks, confront adversity, and even face death are revealed from a perspective too often ignored. A modern day Profiles in Courage."

 --David Rensin, co-author with Louis Zamperini of his autobiography, Devil at My Heels, and his collection of life lessons, Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In.

Angelina Trinidad: World War II Filipina Nurse: Liberation!

Everybody was jumping. Some are crying. It was so nice. I even want to remember it. I always try to remember when the Americans landed in a barrio before Sibulan, Calo. It is a small coastal barrio with small huts. Fishermen live there. The Americans landed there. I’m not sure how many, but they landed in landing barges—two or three. When they open the landing barge, I remember very well the American soldiers were all in camouflage uniforms. We were there by the road with the mountains at our back. Juaning Dominado, the husband of Tita Gras is the one who instructed the Americans whether to bomb because they were bombing the mountains because it was the Japanese that were in the mountains now and the guerrillas are down from the mountains already! So he instructs where—to the left, to the right. So we were there beside him and we can see and hear. We saw the Americans came wading in the sea.

I did not see any Japanese anymore after that. After we left for the mountains, I never saw any Japanese any more. When we were up in the mountains, the guerrillas were always watching. They would ambush the Japanese that would come near. There is always a small fight between the guerrillas and the Japanese, but I never saw them.

After they landed and we were able to go back to the house, everyone came to the Big House. We had lots and lots of American officers in the house because Tita Belen was very friendly. They always made parties.

Angelina, July, 2012, looking through the letters Benjamin sent her while he was imprisoned by the Japanese

Angelina Trinidad Locsin, now 96, lives in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, The Philippines, with her two daughters, Maria Teresa and Maria Trinidad, and their husbands.  Benjamin, who she married on March 1, 1944, died in 1997.  So did her only son, Ramon Tomas, in July 2015.  Angelina's four grandchildren, three sons-in-law and eight great grandchildren live in the Chicago, Illinois area.
Her incredible memory continues to amaze family and friends!

Angelina Trinidad: World War II Filipina Nurse: Into the Mountains

Benjamin was released in 1943. He started working in Santiago hospital in Manila and worked there for a while. That was all rice field then. It was the only building there that catered to the Spanish community. And then Benjamin had to go home to bring medicine for his father, Vicente Locsin.  

Benjamin and I got married in 1944. Then we went home to Dumaguete. There were so many Japanese sentries there. You had to bow to them and smile. Vicente was getting very worried because the Japanese army was taking lots of professionals for questioning and they never came back. So he was scared that they will take his son.

It was only when we came home to Dumaguete and there were lots of Japanese coming to the house because Vicente befriended the Japanese because he did not want the Japanese to be against us. So when we came and they saw that Benjamin was a doctor, they got close to us when somebody was sick. They would call us and they would stay and make kwento (chat).

Benjamin's sister, Gracia Dominado, lived in a house across from us. She played the piano, so when the Japanese would come, they would call her to play for them. The Japanese officers knew all the classical music. They would tell her, “you play Hungarian Rhapsody.” They were very educated and were really gentlemen. I have no bad thoughts about the Japanese that I came in contact with. They were all educated, respectful. But the lower-class, not the officers—the enlisted men they call “low class,” they were the ones that abuse and kill and torture.

I was scared only when they began picking up prominent men like men who worked in the hospital or were engineers or in the treasury before the war. The Japanese picked them up for questioning and then they never come out again, are never seen, and many were executed. One time there was a friend of Benjamin's. I don’t remember his name. He was like mestizo (Spanish blood mix). We had a small clinic with Benjamin downstairs. That’s where we talked with him and we made stories with him. One time when he was going out already, the Japanese came and told him to go with them, and we never saw him again. That was the time when I got scared.

So when Vicente said, “I think it’s high time that you go to the mountains because I think the Japanese are getting suspicious.” That was the time we went. We arrived here after we were married in maybe late April and we went to Zamboanguita by boat in September. So it was 5 months were were here in Dumaguete. After that, we stayed in Zamboanguita for 2 days and then were taken up to the mountains  by the runners of the guerrillas.

I enjoyed it there [in the mountains] because I was playing mah-jong every day! That’s where I learned really how to play mah-jong. There were 3 families that stayed together: the Dominados the Aviolas, and the Montebons. That’s why we call the place, “Do-Al-Bon.” That was a famous place before. The families of those guerrilla officers lived together in like a long barracks. They divided it into 3 compartments—one space for the Dominados, Aviolas, and Montebons. It was decorated with sawali–very native—and each compartment has a stairs, so it’s private really, you’re not together. But every morning after breakfast we start playing mahjong already. The wife of Montebon, Aviola, and Dominado are all mahjong players so they taught me how to play. So it was not scary for me at all.

I was living in the mountains, but Benjamin was asked if he would work. Major Dominado was very powerful, so when he asked Benjamin if he wanted to work, he said, “yes, I want to work. I want to help in the clinic up in the mountains." That was 1 1/2 hours walk from our house at Do-Al-Ban to the clinic. Benjamin stayed in the clinic. I would go and visit him at the clinic once in a while. But we would rest. There were small huts in the mountains. And you know the old people there did not know we were at war! They were saying, “why are you in the mountains?” We told them we escaped Dumaguete because there were lots of Japanese already there because we are at war. They would say, “why?” They remember only the owner of a Japanese store we had here and they didn’t know (why we are at war with him)!

Next: Liberation!

Angelina Trinidad: World War II Filipina Nurse: War and Occupation

The following are the recollections of Angelina Trinidad Locsin, witness to war in the Philippines.

Angelina Trinidad

I grew up when the Philippines was under American rule. Some of my teachers in the grades were Americans. We raised the American flag every Monday before classes begin and we recited the oath of allegiance. Friday after classes we assembled for the flag going down. I took up Nursing in American hospital, St. Luke’s. We had an American Superintendent of Nurses and American Episcopalian priest. We had several American chief nurses of every department. I graduated June 1941. We were the last nurses to graduate before the war. After graduation, I worked in a hospital on Negros Island. The hospital was run by American nuns. We had American doctor as director and head of the hospital; he was a reserve officer in the Medical Corps American Army.

Angelina Trinidad (left) with the rest of her graduating class

 

 

I was 22 years old and had been was working as a nurse just 6 months when war was declared on December 8 1941. I remember this very well because it was Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We all heard mass and when we came out of the chapel, Dr. Davies, our Medical Director was by the door with three American Army officers. They announced, “We are at war! The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor!”

There was commotion and confusion. Our nuns who ran the hospital were all Americans and Canadians. We were all crying. Dr. Davies told us that the hospital is being commandeered by the US Army. We were inducted in the USAFE January 13, 1942. Most of the hospital employees—doctors, nurses, technicians, and workers--were inducted into the US Army. We all boarded a boat and were brought to Mindanao where we set up the Army Force Hospital in Impalutao, Bukidnon.

We had dug-out foxholes around the hospital. That’s where we all jumped when we heard the sirens because the planes were coming near to bomb. So when we hear that we all run out of the hospital and jump in foxholes. I was scared that time. If we are working on a patient, we just leave them. There were assigned boys to stay and stand watching in each ward. We had 4 or 5 quonset huts: one for surgical patients, one for medical, one for the emotional like shell-shocked and depressed, and then we had one for operating room. We took rotations. I would work in surgical and then medical and then psych ward. We had to work there even though it wasn’t ready. We improvised.

The most scary part of the war was when I saw my first casualty. I think he was hit at the back. We could see his lungs breathing.

We worked in the hospital until we surrendered to the Japanese. After the surrender, they took all the Americans out. I don’t know where they brought them. There were only Filipinos left. And then we didn’t have Japanese patients yet, only Japanese officers coming around.

The oath of allegiance the Japanese made Angelina sign

But then in even not a month, they closed the hospital and brought all the nurses to Bukidnon and made us work in the civilian hospital of that town. And the Filipino men [including a young doctor named Benjamin Locsin with whom Angelina had fallen in love] were brought to a concentration camp near Bukidnon. They were just interned there. And then when the Japanese decided to bring us back to Manila, they loaded us the ones from Luzon.

Benjamin wrote me letters because they had a small cantine in the camp, and some girls sold food and toilet articles there. And Benjamin befriended some of the girls and said, “can I send letters with you?” But it was risky. One time it was not the girls that got caught: one of the boys who worked “detail” at the camp (they call it detail if you are made to work at the camp by the Japanese). He was caught with letters from people outside. He was punished. They were afraid they will kill him but they didn’t.  He was just punished. I don’t know how they did it. But the girls were never inspected so Benjamin smuggled his letters through the girls. There were days that the girls go to the camp maybe three times a week and Benjamin already had letters prepared for them to bring to me.

  

 

Next: Into the Mountains.

 

Footage of Jane Kendeigh, the first navy flight nurse to land on Iwo Jima

I was quite thrilled to receive the following link featuring an eight-minute video of rescue on Iwo Jima. I've seen B&W photos of Jane Kendeigh, the first navy flight nurse to land on Iwo Jima, a woman whose story is included in the book, but seeing her in action is quite startling.

Jane is seen at the seven-minute mark: http://bit.ly/1Yvmgy8