War and Forgiving
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Lourdes "Lulu" Reyes Besa - Filipino civilian, twice recipient of the United States Medal of Freedom for saving lives of American POWs. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Ann Quirino)
Men died from dysentery, malaria, and starvation. American POWs were dying at an average of 60 a day. Filipino prisoners died at about 300 a day. The building hospital had no beds and no medicines. Patients lay in their own dirt. Bodies were all over. Some lay where they died so long that they smelled putrid. The captors ordered bodies to be taken to a burial place outside the camp every day. The skin of the dead came off on the hands of those who handled them. The POWs assigned to this burial detail never forgot how horrible it was to bury their own.
Incarcerated American soldiers described how thousands of flies laid their eggs in the eyes of prisoners who were still alive. Soon the eyes of these brave heroes were crawling with maggots. It was not unusual to see men suffering with dysentery drag themselves to the latrine. Sometimes, they were so weak they could not leave and laid there to die. It was sickening to think of the depths men could sink under those wartime and prison conditions.
The young woman in her twenties named Lourdes never talked about the horrors of World War II she witnessed as she entered these prison camps with friends from the clergy. She never mentioned the agony of not knowing where her brother, Willie, was. Her search for answers took her to terrible places called concentration camps with the most inhumane conditions. She never said aloud how she feared the possibility of being caught, raped, tortured and killed.
Guillermo "Willie" Reyes - Bataan Death March Survivor, Filipino POW at Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac and brother of Lulu Reyes Besa. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Ann Quirino)
Lourdes Reyes’ quiet world changed swiftly that fateful day in April 1942. Lulu as she was called, an unmarried Filipina, from Malate, Manila, was crushed when she heard on the radio that Bataan had fallen. Her mama, Luz Jugo Reyes, a widow, collapsed on the ground, sobbing inconsolably “mi hijo Willie, Dios mio!” (My son, Willie, oh my God).
Lulu Reyes decided she was going to penetrate every prison camp, to search for her younger brother, Guillermo “Willie” Reyes. No one knew if he had survived the Bataan Death March. But Lulu was determined to bring her brother home. With friends from the Chaplains’ Aid Association, Lulu gained entry to all the concentration camps in the Philippines during World War II.
Father Forbes Monaghon, an Irish priest assigned in Manila, wrote in his book Under the Red Sun,
“After the fall of Bataan, Lulu went to Tarlac with her mother, to bring help to her brother, Willie, who was a prisoner. Seeing the misery of other POWs, she devoted herself to aiding them. Though it was forbidden to enter the prison camp, Lulu went to the Japanese commandant and got his permission to bring in medicines and food. She smuggled money and notes even if she was warned death was the penalty for doing so.”
Corporal Robert J. Dow of the United States Army, recipient of the Bronze Medal and the Purple Heart, contacted me a few years ago to tell me about Lulu. Dow was a POW at Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac and in Cabanatuan from 1942 until the war ended. In his memoir Dow said, “Without the atabrine Lulu Reyes got to me, the malaria may well have killed me.” Corporal Dow described how Lulu smuggled in quinine and atabrine for POWs with malaria through the priests who visited the camp.
“Every time Father Santos said mass, he cautiously gave me atabrine given to him by Lulu.”
For heroic efforts to aid American POWs, Lulu Reyes was awarded the United States Medal of Freedom twice – on August 11, 1947 and September 24, 1947. Major General George F. Moore, commander of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays during the Japanese invasion in 1941 said, “Lulu was one of the outstanding heroines of World War II.”
Ernie A. de Pedro, managing trustee of the Lord Takayama Jubilee Foundation wrote, “There are hundreds of files about Lulu Reyes – 37 testimonials from U.S. POWs who recommended her for the Medal of Freedom.”
Meanwhile, in February 1945 in Malate, during the Battle of Manila, a young Alicia Syquia Quirino clutched her baby to her bosom as her children, Tomas, Armando, Victoria and Norma ran across Colorado Street to escape the bombings. Unknown to the family, camouflaged Japanese officers were lurking behind the debris. The enemy shot at the family. Tomas, aged 23, was hit in the thigh, but escaped. Fourteen-year-old Victoria was unharmed. But Armando and Norma were shot dead. Alicia, and baby Fe, were killed. Husband and father, Elpidio Quirino, then a Senator, arrived moments later. He had stepped away to pick up the laundry. Tragically, he returned to find his wife, three children, and his in-laws, the Syquias, all massacred.
Family photo of Elpidio Quirino with wife Alicia Syquia at around 1935, with children Armando, Victoria, Norma and Tomas. Baby Fe is not in the photo. (Photo courtesy of the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation)
After the war, Elpidio Quirino became the 6th President of the Philippines, from 1948 to 1953. He received numerous letters of petition from Japanese citizens. An artist named Tatsuo Kano wrote over 100 letters, identified names of Japanese officers, and in behalf of their families, begged for forgiveness.
On July 4, 1953, in an unprecedented and unexpected move, despite suffering personal loss, President Elpidio Quirino issued an Executive Clemency, releasing the remaining 437 prisoners of war, nearly 114 of them Japanese, and allowed them to return to Japan. This began the process of reconciliation.
President Elpidio Quirino issues Executive Clemency from his hospital bed in Baltimore, Maryland on Jully 4, 1953. (Photo courtesy of the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation)
(Image courtesy of the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation)
Philippine President Elpidio Quirino Meets Tatsuo Kano Kanrai who wrote the President over 100 letters of petition asking for forgiveness for the Japanese POWs. (Photo courtesy of the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation)
What can we learn from President Quirino? We should consider his act of clemency as an example for other nations and leaders to follow. Such historical actions have taught us that cultural prejudice, racial intolerance and aggression that can lead to violent confrontations and even war, have no place among countries and their peoples, if we are to achieve peaceful relationships and mutually beneficial commercial agreements.
Recently, my husband Elpi Quirino and I were honored to share these stories about our family’s history during World War II in the Philippines at the 4th Bataan Legacy Historical Society Conference held at the University of San Francisco in California. I told the story of my late mother Lourdes “Lulu” Reyes Besa. My husband talked about his granduncle, President Elpidio Quirino.
At the 4th Bataan Legacy Historical Society Conference held at the University of San Francisco, the author with husband, Elpidio Pineda Quirino and Consuelo Hall McHugh of the Memorare Manila 1945. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Ann Quirino)
One of the goals of the conference was “to teach the lessons of war.” There is nothing we can do to rewrite the past, but we can learn from history and never allow these horrendous acts to be repeated. As a community, we must continue to be engaged. And we can learn from the lives of these two brave Filipinos.
Lulu found strength in her faith. President Quirino found strength in forgiving. With the pain still raw in his heart, Elpidio Quirino told his family, “If you cannot forgive, you will never find peace.”
Elizabeth Ann Quirino
Elizabeth Ann Quirino, based in New Jersey is a journalist and author of the “How to Cook Philippine Desserts: Cakes and Snacks” Cookbook. She is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals and blogs about Filipino home cooking on her site AsianInAmericaMag.com.
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