My Treasured Memories

He covers what the United States did under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to cope with the urgent war crisis that began with the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, without warning, causing serious dame to the airplanes and battleships stationed there. The attack led to an order requiring all R.O.T.C. Cadets be concentrated in their respective universities until further order. He recounts the dogfight of Capt. Ignacio Villamore, a Philippine Air Force pilot stationed at Corrigidor, with the furious Japanese airmen, and the surrender of Bataan and Corrigidor, resulting in the infamous Bataan Death March.

The author then went home to Antique, joining the guerrilla organization. He participated in a U.S. submarine secret mission, delivering medicines to guerilla soldiers in Panay Island. He tells of the return of Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur to the Philippines, after President Roosevelt commissioned Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe. He recounts the return of Gen. Mac Arthur, landing at the shores of Leyte, and the guerrilla soldiers laying down their arms and returning to the lowlands. The bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to surrender, thus ending World War II in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The author then tells the personal tale of his flight to the United States with the Philippine Airlines (PAL), stopping over at Honolulu, Hawaii, and landing at the panoramic City of San Francisco. He then met with, for the first time in many years, his brother Nereo, his sister Prudencia, his brother and sister-in-laws Pedro and Adulfa, and his nephews, nieces, and other relatives. After his interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), he participated in an unforgettable Oath-Taking Ceremony at the Marriotte Hotel in downtown San Francisco that led to his American citizenship.