N06F, Mayumi Murabayashi ‘07, Leonora Gajudo, Grandmother, 1927, Philippines
My maternal grandmother is Leonora Miranda Gajudo. She lives in the Philippines, and I talked to her on October 12, 2005, when I called her on her 78th birthday.
It was in the year 1943 when it all happened. The sadness, anger, frustration—all the negative and harsh emotions and feelings that one could ever experience, in a couple of days, weeks, months, or even years. My grandmother, Leonora Miranda, was 16 years old when she encountered the hardships and mourning that most people during World War II went through in the Philippines, as well as in other countries around the world.
My grandmother’s family was rich and well known in the community of Novaliches, now part of Quezon City. Her father owned a large amount of lands (haciendas), rice fields, and other properties. Her mother was an ordinary house wife. She was the fourth among six children: she had three brothers and two sisters. The family also had many servants, and one of them was my grandmother’s nanny; they were very close, and Nanny used to take care of my grandmother most of the time. My grandmother considered Nanny as a member of her family. Thus, my grandmother had a blessed family with a happy life, until the Japanese soldiers started to invade the Philippines.
In the very early stage of the war, all young men in the Philippines were forced to become soldiers by the government, so my grandmother’s oldest brother, Mamerto, who was studying to become a lawyer, was sent to the Philippine Army. The second oldest brother, Andres, who had a strong character, deeply hated the Japanese for trying to take over and colonize the Philippines. He was also told to become a soldier, but since he strongly refused it, he somehow escaped and became part of the guerilla forces. He believed that he could fight without any help from the government. My grandmother’s third brother was still very small at that time, so it was not necessary for him to go to the Army. Meanwhile, being informed about the dangerous situations of the country, my grandmother’s father decided to make a big underground hiding place with the help of his tenants as early as possible. They built it for security, so that it was not obvious from outside, but the sounds from the outside could be heard from the inside. The family hid in this underground bunker whenever bombs were being dropped by the Japanese, and because there were no lights, it was very dark and scary, with the big sounds of explosions of the bombs. They all stayed close together, scared and shaking, not knowing what might happen to them in any minute or even in any second. They could leave the underground bunker only when one of the tenants came to notify that it was safe to go back to the house. Because my grandmother and her family spent most of the time underground during the war, her education, as well as for her sisters’ educations, were disrupted for a while.
During the war, the family of my grandmother could only depend on the reports that messengers brought to them. One of the reports that my grandmother clearly remembered was the news about Mamerto. He was a prisoner of war, along with Ferdinand Marcos, who was also studying to become a lawyer, and who later on became the president of the Philippines, and Salvador Laurel, who became the vice president under Corazon Aquino’s government after President Ferdinand Marcos. They were all about the same age and had helped each other to survive the war.
Japanese soldiers were very cruel to the Filipinos. They treated them like animals; they would beat people if they were not respectful to them. The Japanese shouted at them rudely as well, and because of this, my grandmother learned the word, Bakayarō, meaning stupid person in an impolite way.
As the days passed, my grandmother and her family finally came to a point where they had to face the mourning of Andres and her own favorite Nanny. One of the members of the guerilla informed the family that Andres had been caught by a Filipino spy, who was on the side of the Japanese, and he identified who the members of the guerilla resistance were. Andres was heavily tortured by the Japanese, and no one, except for the ones who killed him, knows how he was tortured. On the other hand, when Nanny was out of errand one day, when it was thought to be a safe time, she was suddenly caught by a Japanese soldier and was raped and killed. My grandmother was so miserable when she heard that her second oldest brother and Nanny would never be able to come back to her ever again. The family was desperately heart-broken and depressed to hear about the deaths of their loved ones.
After the war, when Japan was defeated by the United States, my grandmother and her family rejoiced, since they would no longer have to go through hardships. The U.S. took over and helped the Philippines to recover, including with the aid of food supply. My grandmother enjoyed lining up for food, especially chocolate and canned goods. She remembered “Hunt’s Pork and Beans.” She and her other sisters were able to continue their studies in an American educational system high school. Mamerto and all the other prisoners of war were released, and they were able to go back to their families. He continued managing the properties of the Miranda family and later founded a school, Novaliches Academy, which is now Metro Manila College. He later became a lawyer. The family continued their business; they got more new tenants and were able to go back to their normal life. Although two important members of the family passed away, everyone else survived and were very successful in the end.
The Philippines had been through a lot during the Japanese occupation in World War II, but the Filipinos were able to move forward and to forgive Japan. My grandmother has no bitterness at all, especially now that one of her sons-in-law is from Japan.