Philippine E-Journals

Were These Men Traitors Or Patriots

Gregorio C. Borlaza

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

This paper has been lifted verbatim from an entry in a war diary which the author managed to keep during the Japanese occupation. Other such entries have been published in two early post-liberation issues of the Philippines Free Press under the titles "False Rumors and False Hopes that Sustained a Nation" and "The Massacre at San Pablo City." Some other entries which may be of historical value deal with short wave broadcasts heard from San Francisco during the Japanese occupation; San Pablo City after the bombing on December 25, 1941;· the fall of Bataan; the fall of Corregidor; the release of war prisoners; contacts between the Philippine Constabulary and the guerrillas; contacts between Governor Jesus Bautista and Superintendent Abdon Javier and the guerrillas; the little war between the Fil-Americans and the P. Q. O. G. in Lilio, Nagcarlan, and Rizal; the "Zona" in Lilio on July 4, 1943 and the subsequent confinement and torture of suspected guerrillas; the reopening of schools in San Pablo City under the Japanese and after the liberation; and other events, most of which the writer witnessed or participated in personally. The entry being reproduced here, the writer hopes, will be of some value in appraising the motives of some of the men who collaborated with the Japanese, particularly Jose P. Laurel who headed the Japanese-sponsored republic.