Pawid: WW2 Memoirs of Ifugao Dep. Gov. Luis I. Pawid



(First of a series)

Last Cannon Fire Shot in Kiangan

Ends Pacific War


SIXTY-NINE years ago, at 9:05 in the morning of 15 August: “...The artillery guns at Kiangan stopped firing, thus ending the war in the Philippines”.

Thus wrote the late Luis Pawid Sr., Ifugao deputy governor, in sets of diaries that chronicle the dark years of the Japanese occupation in the country, particularly in Ifugao, during World War II.

Before the sun blanketed the firing lines in Kiangan, “... radio news informed that Japan accepted the terms of surrender last night”, he wrote.

“This last artillery fire from the gun, 105, of the 32nd Division signifies the end of sufferings and of the downfall of Nazism and tyranny from the enemy, all over the world. It is history for us here in Kiangan, to be proud that the last Allied artillery fire against the enemy was shot from one of the 105 cannons of the Americans, ending the war in the East and in the Philippines in particular,” he added.

Familiar with the harsh mountain terrain, he was actively consulted by the liberating American forces in which direction should the heavy 105 heavy artillery be pointed. Every now and then he was asked to stand in the front lines among the American officers directing the cannons.

The heavy bombardment hastened the march of Gen. Yamashita out of his hiding place in the jungles of Mount Napulawan to Kiangan where he handed his Saber signifying his surrender to the American and Pilipino armed forces.

My father was then the Deputy Governor (on sick leave) of Ifugao of the old Mountain Province. His memoirs was titled: “It Happened In Kiangan.” He was encouraged by an American Christian missionary by the name of Ms. Lottie M. Spessard, the late Lawrence l. Wilson, a writer and Baguio resident, to write that diary. More convincing was Prof. R. Barton who wanted the memoirs published in a book form in the United States. Barton was a former American teacher in Ifugao, a historian, and author of several books about the peoples of the Cordillera.

When peace in the land was restored, writing paper and typewriter ribbons were available leading to a series of communications between my father and Prof. Barton who guided him on how to consolidate his notes. After the declaration of Philippine Independence, my father in a letter dated 12 November 1946 sent a copy of the memoirs to Prof. Barton at the University of California.

His letter reads:

“My dear Ama Barton:

“We received your letter of October 14, 1946, and we are again very happy to hear from you. We regret that members of your family are in Russia and are hard up too. We hope that they will join you in the near future.

“I am sending you my permission for you to show (the diary) to any publisher. I do not know if it is all right, that is, if the form is all right.

“Up to now we have not received the “binaltong” you mentioned. When we will receive and plant them, we will name it as you desired. It shall be one of the remembrances again from you.

“I started the “Hudhud” and after this I will also take the “Alim”. Both legends are very interesting.

“As regards the conditions from Nagacadan Village up to Hungduan, I am taking them in more details as you requested and it may take a little longer time because it will be as far as Ahin. Your suggestion is very good, because it may yet serve as data for the war damage commission. If you look over again on the Sketch Map of Ifugao, on the first page of my diary, you will notice that Japs last congestions was from Nagacadan to Hungduan, for they were already surrounded by our Forces.

“Uncle Sam is already paying our people here, for their services during the war, as civilian employees. This is indeed another relief. Ama abunato an calic aduani ta nanga mongbo piduana (Father this is all for now until next time).

Pawid introduced “The background of this writing” as follows:

“I was inspired by the suggestions of Miss Lottie M. Spessard of the American Christian Missionary at Kiangan, and by Mr. Lawrence L. Wilson, to write some of the accounts of the war here in Ifugao, especially on the ground that the war in the Philippines is considered ended right here at Kiangan, ifugao, Mountain Province.

“The surrender of General Yamashita at Kiangan, followed by his estimated 40,000 soldiers, remnants of the Japanese Occupation Forces in the Philippines, is another, that ought to be recorded for historians to base their writing in the future:

“The sufferings of the people from the enemy as well as from the Home Army, during the enemy occupation of this Subprovince;

“The fact that Kiangan, is to our honest opinion, the real birthplace of the Guerilla Organizations in Northern Luzon;

“The fact that Ifugao was considered by both the Japanese and Americans who were in hiding as the most peaceful in the Archipelago, during the three years of Japanese Occupation;

“The fact that the organizers of the Northern Guerilla Organizations, Cols. Volkman, Blackburn, and other Americans and European Christian Missionaries, hid themselves safely in Kiangan, not less than 8 kms. from the enemy garrisons,

“and, the fact that I had my own personal diary of some important events of this war, convinced me the more to take the constructive suggestions of both Miss Spessard and Mr. Wilson that it is history itself and it must be known by everybody.

“Hence, this writing may be beneficial or not at all; ‘truth is stronger than fiction’, as the saying goes, and what we are writing here are true happenings from day-to-day, from the Japanese Entrance in 1942 to the last American Cannon Shell, fired at Kiangan, ending the terrible war here in the Philippines.”

To be continued...

***

Note: The narrator is the youngest son of Luis I. Pawid of Kiangan, Ifugao and Angeline Laoyan of La Trinidad, Benguet. He is a journalist by profession, former town Mayor of La Trinidad, Benguet, former Executive Director of the defunct Cordillera Executive Board, Cordillera Administrative Region. He now resides in New Jersey, USA.

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