Philippine E-Journals

Stolen Glimpses of the Free World during The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines

Gregorio C. Borlaza

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

One of the measures taken by the Japanese to effect thought control in the Philippines during the enemy occupation was the prohibition of listening to radio broadcasts from the free world.

 

But there were Filipinos who had the courage to hide unreconditioned radio receiving sets and to take stolen glimpses of the free world for relay to the people in general, but particularly to the resistance fighters operating in the hills. One of them was Mr. Fausto Arevalo of Lilio, Laguna. It was in a secret compartment in his house that the writer was able to listen in very often during the Occupation. He recorded what he heard in a war diary. From the contents of this war diary the resistance movement in the Laguna-Tayabas-Batangas sector, headed by Vicente Umali, was kept posted on the development of the war, both in Europe and in the Pacific.