LIGHT INSIDE THE CAN

My mother told me that during the Japanese occupation (l94l-l944), many unarmed residents throughout the country had many ways to evade the enemy.

While Filipino soldiers and guerilla fighters had their guns to protect themselves or fought the enemies, there were civilians who were neither fighters nor members of the armed forces.

One of them was my father.  My mother told us that he was a business man selling different items in the market like ‘panutsa’ (locally known as ‘sangkaka’).  She told us further that our residential house was at the side of the national high way, where the Japanese soldiers and cars passed by.  It was also in front of a secondary school.  Also, because classes were suspended during the war, the front of the school were tall grasses.

We were told that when ever news reached them that Japanese soldiers were approaching, my father ran to the school compound and hid behind the tall grasses. The Japanese ‘captured’   able bodied men to work for the.  (forced labor and under the threat of the bayonets).

My Uncle Manuel (whom I called Daddy) worked as a checker when the Pili Air Port was constructed.  He was fair-skinned and a teacher.  Perhaps it was because of this reason that he was not a common worker but a checker.

At home, almost all the houses extinguished their lights (gas) so that they could not be seen by the passing Japanese soldiers.  But, for mothers who have small children (like Manoy Velino and Totoy) they found it very difficult to search for something in the dark.

They placed their crude gas or oil lamps inside a kerosene can or others with similar shapes.  Thus light did not scatter to the whole house.  Light went upward.  They could also control lights going up by covering a part of the can.

The Japanese could not see the light the light as they passed by.  Many lives were saved by this practice.  My family was one of them.