By Ronron
August 10, 2007
Tacloban City, Leyte - More than 60 years since the World
War II erupted and ended, the Japanese government is still continuing
to this day the gathering of the remains of its fallen soldiers in
other countries with the prodding of the bereaved families.
Starting late July until this weekend, a two-man mission sent by the
Japanese government to the Philippines began information-gathering
activity in this province about the place of burial of Japanese
soldiers killed during the said war that happened in the 1940's.
Although admitting the irony that the Japanese, whose soldiers were
characterized as brutal during their occupation in the Philippines, is
now seeking the help of the Filipino people, some Filipino elderly
expressed willingness to cooperate with the mission.
"It's alright. I don't object (to the mission)," said Joaquin
Cabangisan, 84, a Leyte-based guerilla during the war who still feels
angry to this date against the Japanese people because of the brutal
death of his guerilla uncle under the hands of the Japanese soldiers.
The mission, composed of Toshio Takano and Kazuhiko Nishiyama of the
Nippon Izokukai or the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association,
arrived in Manila last July 30 and began working on the following day
in Leyte. They ended the mission over the weekend after covering nine
towns – Carigara, Capoocan, Tunga, Jaro, Alang-alang, Sta. Fe, Palo,
Tabontabon, and Dagami.
"The Japanese government undertakes projects to collect remains in
response to strong requests from the surviving families of fallen
servicemen, base on the Japanese custom of returning the remains of
deceased persons to their families to conduct proper rites for the
comfort of their souls," reads a statement from the Japanese Embassy
in Manila about the mission.
In his talks with the local chief executives and elderly residents of
Alang-alang and Sta. Fe last August 7, Takano said they hope to
account for the remains of some 385,000 Japanese soldiers in the
Philippines, which form part of the estimated total of 518,000
Japanese servicemen killed in the country during the second World War.
Takano, the Assistant Director of the Nippon Izokukai, himself lost an
uncle in February 1945 at Clark in Pampanga whose remains also have
yet to be returned to Japan.
He said that in Leyte alone, approximately 79,000 Japanese servicemen
lost their lives during the war, about 64,000 of whom have yet to be
unearthed and returned to Japan.
Takano said the mission was started by the Japanese government in
1952, but it was only in 1958 that it kicked off in the Philippines.
The delay was attributed to the hatred then of the Filipinos for the
Japanese because of the abuse of the latters' soldiers during their
occupation in the country.
Similar missions are being held in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Records furnished by the embassy showed that last week's mission was
the 38th in the Philippines. It falls within the second of a
three-year plan to intensify the information-gathering activity, upon
which the Japanese government will base its assessment as to the
future of the mission.
Because of the difficulty in achieving the purpose of the mission, the
Japanese government is also considering the demand of the Japanese
people for the return of the soldiers' remains.
The records would show that the number of reliable information about
the location of graves of killed Japanese soldiers in the country has
started to decline in 1997. This is because of the decline as well of
possible reliable sources, which, in this case, are the elderly people
who were still alive during the time of the World War II.
Last year, the mission focused in six provinces in Luzon, where some
272,500 Japanese soldiers' remains are believed to have been buried.
The mission would involve seeking the assistance of the local chief
executive in conveying its purpose to the elderly people and others
who have personal knowledge about the location of a burial site of a
Japanese soldier. If an information is available, it is requested to
be given to the local chief executive, or to the Japanese Embassy in
Manila, or directly to Nippon Izokukai.
After a few months, probably in November or December, another team
will come back to verify the information provided.
Cabangisan, who heads the group of veteran guerillas or soldiers in
Alang-alang town, said he himself does not know of a place where a
Japanese soldier could have been buried.
But his member and fellow former guerilla, Ignacio Ayo, 80, also of
Alang-alang, claims he knows a site near the central school of the
town. "Yes, I saw this graveyard where Japanese soldiers were being
buried in 1942… I can point that place today," he told Manila Shimbun
in the Waray dialect.
Juanito Pedrera, 83, another former guerilla, claimed of knowing a
gravesite for Japanese soldiers but he said he is certain there are no
more remains there because the surviving Japanese soldiers would get
them and bring them somewhere else.
Cabangisan said even if he is not happy with the presence of the
Japanese up to this day because of what they did to his uncle, he
would still help the mission by not preventing his fellow ex-guerillas
to cooperate out of humanitarian reasons.
Cabangisan claims his uncle, who was a "mayor" guerilla, was held
captive by the Japanese soldiers for three days sometime in 1943, and
was tortured by exposing him to direct sunlight, and slicing his body
and sprinkling salt to the wounds while still under the heat of the
sun. His life would be ended on the third day with several bullets.
"From that time till now, I am not contented with the presence of the
Japanese… I cant' forget the brutality they (Japanese soldiers)
inflicted on (my uncle)… How can I forgive them," Cabangisan told
Manila Shimbun.
In Sta. Fe, none of the estimated 30 elderly residents who attended
the meeting with Takano and Nishiyama claimed to have personal
knowledge about a gravesite for Japanese soldiers.
But the town's health officer, Dr. Josefina Balderian, 58, said she
would be willing to escort the mission to a tunnel in their property
in Dagami town, which the Japanese soldiers reportedly used as hideout
during the time of the war. The information was relayed to her by her
father, Alejandro Balderian, a known fierce guerilla in Leyte during
the Japanese occupation era.
Balderian said she would help even as she had two painful stories
about the Japanese soldiers and her ancestors caused by her father's
position then.
The first she shared was about the alleged abduction of the Japanese
soldiers of the first-born baby of her parents. Balderian said that
her mother was snatched by Japanese soldiers on the ninth month of her
first pregnancy after she refused to reveal the location of Alejandro.
When she gave birth, the Japanese soldiers interpreted a mark on the
male infant's body as a sign of a good leader, prompting them to keep
the baby. Balderian said her mother was just told by the soldiers
that the baby died. Her mother would be rescued later by her father
from the Japanese.
But months after the incident, it was the parents of both her mother
and father who fell again into the hands of the Japanese after their
refusal too to disclose the location of her father. The old folks
were allegedly tortured by their captors, the worst of it was tying
them to a horse that would drag them on the ground to their death.
"I feel very sad now as I share these stories because I could imagine
the situation of my grandparents then… And up to now, we still hope
for our eldest sibling to come home as shared by our father before he
died in 1987," Balderian said in a separate interview with Manila
Shimbun.
"Yes, it's an irony that they are now asking for our help. But it's
okay, I'm willing to help them. I have no problem with that… We're
just humans, and I'm purely Catholic. So, it's (painful experience)
all in the mind now. We forgive them," she added while speaking also
in Waray.
Takano, in behalf of the Japanese people, asked for forgiveness for
what Badlerian's ancestors went through under the hands of the
Japanese, especially that up to now, her family also has yet to
recover the remains of her four grandparents.
To this, Balderian said: "Don't be afraid. No hard feelings.
There's nothing to worry. We are friends."
After their mission in Alang-alang and Sta. Fe, Takano told Manila
Shimbun that it has indeed become more difficult now to gather
information because some veterans who may have more reliable
information have already died due to old age.
Aside from this, Takano expressed worry that it would be similarly
difficult as well to unearth remains of Japanese soldiers and later
identify them because the tropical climate in the Philippines could
affect the condition of skeletons.
Takano said they have not much sure information gathered during this
mission, with only five to six that they hope to verify in the coming
months. He said that in last year's mission, they only had almost 50
information but almost all are hearsays.
He disclosed that when the mission for this year ends in March of
2008, they will target the Cordillera provinces like Ifugao and
Mountain Province, among others. Aside from Luzon, the identified
areas where several Japanese soldiers allegedly died during and after
the war are Negros (11,200), Panay (1,200), Cebu (11,700), Mindanao
(63,700), and others (78,700).
During the first mission in 1958, the mission successfully recovered
2,561 remains. From that time, a total of 133,056 remains have been
brought back to Japan. Some were identified, the rest were not.
"Just like you, Filipinos, we, Japanese, also value the remains of our
loved ones. So, we hope you could help us," Takano had said in the
meetings in Alang-alang and Sta. Fe.
Takano said that while a three-year plan had been laid out by the
Japanese government, it does not mean that the mission will already
end after the last fiscal year of 2008-2009. "As long as there are
reliable information, the project will continue," he said./DMS
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