Loading ...Last night we lost the patriarch of five generations of my ‘Hanai’, or sort of adoptive family of the past 40 years. Papa was filipino, born in 1930. Many times in past years, after he retired as a sugar cane mill worker in Hawaii, the family asked if he would like to travel back to the Philippines for a visit. He always declined the offers. He said he had too many bad memories there. A few years ago he finally relented and told us why he had bad memories of back there. During the war, in 1945, he was only 15 and captured by the Japanese soldiers and brought to their prison camp. The Japanese were rounding up all the men and boys that might give them trouble, and were executing them. Papa was standing in a line at the camp, watching while his friends and neighbors in front of him in line were being hung. He was about number five in the line when the American planes came over and bombed the camp. The Japanese guards all ran off, and all the filipino prisoners scattered into the jungles. Papa spent five days hiding in the jungles and did not come out until he saw someone he knew. Papa was a survivor. Shortly after that the entire family was taken to America… to Hawaii to work in the sugar cane fields. Papa worked a lifetime here, and raised six children. Last night he had his last heart attack. He was 91. Rest in peace, Papa. You were a survivor.
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