by Ram Maxey
September 9, 1944. It’s been that long, 65 years. But the memory of that fateful day remains etched in my mind. It’s as if it was only yesterday. It was the day before the town fiesta of the capital town of Surigao, on the northern tip of what was then one province of the same name before it was gerrymandered into Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur.
I am a native son of Baganga, Davao Oriental who was in grade 2 at the Kapitan Tomas elementary school in Davao when my father, a superintendent of schools, was transferred to Surigao in 1930. That’s where I grew up, finished high school before taking up pre-law at the University of the Philippines along Taft Avenue, Manila.
The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor came as a shock and changed my life completely. Who knows? I could have become a lawyer, so forth and so on. Water under the bridge (of sighs!).
Back to September 9, 1944. Surigao was occupied by the Japanese military and was a staging place for attacks on allied installations in the Pacific and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Then it happened. At high noon, the air raid siren sounded for the first time and the Maxey family members momentarily froze in their seats at the dining table, lunch half-eaten. Mother, my younger siblings Bobby (15), Charlie (13),, Joe 10, Eddie (8) and Patricia (1). Father was a prisoner of war in Los Banos (he was a captain (AUS).
Then came the unmistakable sound of planes, many planes, in a grim chorus with the sirens. I unfroze and ran to the window just in time to see the Japanese anti-aircraft gun located in an empty lot across the street literally explode in a cloud of dust and smoke from a bomb dropped by a US Navy fighter-bomber. In that instant all hell broke loose as wave on wave of planes dove, bombed and strafed Japanese installations with pinpoint accuracy (thanks to prior information sent by local resistance fighters).
I ordered everybody out of the house and head for the beach two blocks away. An old wall clock, the kind with Roman numerals, fell to the floor after another bomb explosion. I picked it up absently and set it aright. It had been with the family ever since I could remember. Then it began to sound the time of high noon, but went beyond twelve and continued sounding off like crazy — 13…14…15…16…17…I laid it down gently on the floor where it stopped ticking away. For a long, long time afterwards I really missed the sound of that old clock.
The beach was lined with thousands of people who had decided that was the safest place to be. The US pilots could see us clearly, although some Japsnese soldiers started mixing with the civilians but not too close. A Japanese barge with an anti-aircraft machinegun was sailing just off the beach back and forth, their gunners frantically shooting at the planes until one plane swooped down low and strafed it, killing everyone on board and the boat began to drift aimlessly shoreward.
Over in the horizon I could see the silhouette of a US Navy aircraft carrier accompanied by over a dozen support ships waiting for the planes to return and reload and sally forth on the attack again and again. Fifty planes, more or less. Several Japanese transport ships were sailing out of port, zigzagging to avoid direct hits, but to no avail. All began to burn, one after another until they were reduced to burning floating coffins drifting along with the tide.
I led the family to the Embarcadero, the mouth of the river on the edge of town, and we crossed by banca over to the other side wanting to get as far away as we could from the enemy.
Fast forward. Leaving the rest of the family in a well-hidden place, Bobby and I lost no time heading for the hills and after several days and nights, reached a command post of the Combat Company of the 114th Infantry Regiment in the town of Gigaquit where we joined the guerrillas.
But that’s another story. On September 10 this week, the people of Surigao City will celebrate yet again the Feast of San Nicolas. That’s what made me write this, in memory of September 9 — 65 long years ago. It seems like only yesterday.
