Men of Honor

I was browsing about reading other peoples' blogs and then from there, checking out their friend's blogs and so on. Y'know, kinda like that six degrees of separation thang. Anyways, I ran across the blog of old friend of mine, Dr. C, who had an interesting link to "The Flavor Online," (Your source of Pinoy culture). To make a long story short, there was an article and pics of a certain monument down in Kissimmee, Florida. It's actually one of the few memorials dedicated to the men, Filipinos and Americans, of the Bataan Death March of World War ll. For those who aren't quite familiar with the history of the Philippines, click here to check out. There are a couple of photos of the memorial, too.

I actually have a Lolo, my mom's uncle, who was one of those lucky souls to have survived the Death March. The one thing that I'll always remember when I was a kid is the story of how Lolo Buddy lost one of his fingers. He had fought against the Japanese in World War ll and he would recount his story to the kids about how a "gorilla" from the jungles bit his finger off. I thought that was the scariest thing! But as I got older and started to really listen to stories of the war, it hit me- it wasn't a gorilla, as in a big hairy animal...it was a "guerilla!" Then, back in college, PACE had invited a couple who wrote individually and were trying to publicize their books. The wife wrote about life in the Philippines and the husband wrote about the Bataan Death March. He, himself, was a survivor of that arduous and hellish journey and I remember that there wasn't a dry eye in the room as he told us stories of his close friends who weren't as lucky as he was. For the life of me, I can't remember the titles of the books and I'm a bit upset that I can't find them within my own library of books. I do remember that the last name of the wife was Cayugan. I'm positive that Arkipelago Books will have these books, but once I find them, I will post them up. Talk about small world, the wife happens to be a relative of one of my mom's 2nd or 3rd cousins. I don't exactly know how, but it was cool to see the connection somehow.

In any case, check out the link and read up about the memorial. It's truly a piece of our history that all Pinoys and Pinays should know about.