The Occupation

About the Book

While this book is about the experience and life of the author during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines until the termination of the Second World War in the Philippines, it begins with the simple life of Filipino people before the arrival of the Spaniards in the early 1500s and the Spanish regime that concluded after the arrival of the Americans and, thereafter, the Japanese occupation. The story is related by a boy who has a firsthand experience of the war and his observation of the ruthless treatment of Japanese soldiers toward the Filipino civilian, which started right after they set foot on Philippine soil. This book also includes an interview of old acquaintances who shared their own war experiences. I am greatly indebted to the authors and publishers of the sources from which the material for this work was taken and to those who made themselves available for my interviews and otherwise assisted me in completing this book. I am particularly grateful to Mr. James Helt and Mrs. Sandra Helt for helping me in editing this book. The photographs used in this book are from the National Archives, Washington, D.C., and also from the By Sword and Fire by Alfonso J. Aluit, The Guerrilla Resistance Movement in the Philippines; Cabanatuan by Dahk Knox, Flyboys by James Bradley, and The Rising Sun by John Toland. I owe special thanks to several Japanese friends who provided me their war stories they themselves experienced, which enabled me to find merit in this book. Kelly S. Medina 27 April 2006

About the Author

Kelly Medina was born to General Florencio Medina and Carmen Medina on October 25, 1931, in Manila, Philippines. Right after graduating from high school from Mapua Institute of Technology High, he attended Mapua’s Engineering School and later took Nautical Science at Philippine Maritime Institute. He taught Marine Engineering at PMI and later joined the U.S. Navy and stayed for twenty years and retired on April 27, 1976. After retirement, he worked for Morris and Guralnick Marine Engineers and Naval Architect Associates as Design Engineer and then moved to Federal Civil Service as Supervisor for Shipbuilding and Conversion and as Ship Surveyor and then as Head of Machinery Planning Department of Shore Intermediate Maintenance Activity, San Diego, and retired in 1989. The author has written these matters in a single volume because they are interrelated— any of them without the others would be less meaningful and less interesting. Medina’s early years were covered briefly, but beyond that, it is mostly historical than biographical. Although events take precedence over the author in part 1, they drew his stories. In part 2, the author gradually emerges into full view as his career developed.