How Uncle Patricio was saved.

Mama told me this story as she remembered it when she was a child growing up during the Japanese occupation of the Philippine Islands.

The Japanese soldiers were rounding up older boys in the town where my mom's family lived. Evidently the soldiers would torture these boys by having them bath under the hot sun for hours as an intimidation factor. So that fear is instilled and these boys will not grow up to be resistance fighters. Mom's two older brothers (Patricio and Ramon) were amongst the boys rounded up by the soldiers. My grandparents were not there to witness the event so they were oblivious of what was happening. Mom happen to witness it so she run home to her parents to tell them that Uncle Patricio and Uncle Ramon were taken. My grandmother immediately dropped what she was doing and chased the truck with the captured boys in it. This she did despite of the fact that she had the traditional bound feet many affluent chinese girls had growing up. This made her feet very small and it made her running extremely difficult. Just a small example of how much a mother would do to save her children. Somehow she prevailed and caught up with the truck and she miraculously was able to plead for her children. My two uncles did not have to go through the torture. This in fact may just have saved the life of Uncle Patricio cause he was sickly / asthmatic and the torture would have killed him.

Just a little piece of family history I am documenting.