In search of the grave of Col. Jim Cushing!

When our soldiers are lain to their final rest, is it really final? Here’s a very interesting story written by my good American friend Lou Jurika (he was born in Manila), son of the late American guerrilla Thomas Jurika. Lou, who came to Cebu last week for a visit, and I share the same passion — stories of what happened in this country during World War II and more importantly, that we would tell these stories to the next generation so no one can say that we are an ungrateful nation and have forgotten our heroes.

Jurika’s story is about his goal of trying to find the grave of Col. James Cushing, the American guerrilla head of the Cebu Area Command whose wartime exploits were recently written in the book The Rescue by Steven Trent Smith... about 40 Americans trapped on Negros Island and the Koga papers, the secret Japanese battle plans that Col. Cushing got from a downed Kawanishi Flying boat that crashed in San Fernando, Cebu. Since his letter is quite lengthy, this will be a two-piece article:

"Dear Bobit,

"As you know, during WWII the most deadly resistance organization in the Philippines was on the island of Cebu, led by a former mining engineer in the Visayas named James ‘Jim’ Cushing, the son of an American father and Mexican mother. According to former Cebu guerrilla and author Colonel Manuel F. Segura, Cushing’s Filipino guerrillas accounted for approximately 10,000 Japanese killed on the island during the Occupation years even before American forces arrived back to liberate Cebu on March 26, 1945.

"It is worth noting that General MacArthur’s edict to all guerrilla units in the Philippines was to lie low and collect intelligence that would be useful for the eventual return en masse of American forces; also, to establish widespread radio communications and coast watching stations to monitor Japanese commercial shipping and naval movements for American submarine attacks, and most importantly, to avoid at all cost engaging the enemy in concerted actions that might invite Japanese reprisals against the civilian population.

"Either the guerrillas in Cebu never got the message from MacArthur or they obviously chose to ignore it. Cushing joined the US Army in Cebu not long after the start of the war and was immediately commissioned a lieutenant. My father, Tom Jurika, who was born in Zamboanga and was working for Cebu Stevedoring before the war, did the very same thing at the same time. In fact, the two men were best friends and had even formulated a plan to escape by sailing banca to Australia if US forces ever faced surrender.

"If you read about Cebu in the book ‘American Guerrilla in the Philippines’ by Ira Wolfert, you will find both men mentioned inasmuch as they were instrumental in destroying much materiel of value the night Japanese forces landed in Cebu in April 1942. In the process, while Jap Naval shelling caused much damage, the fires set by the two compadres under orders from General Chynoweth probably caused as much damage, burning up part of downtown Cebu before they fought a rear-guard action into the mountains, each going his own way by fate into separate guerrilla movements and never reuniting until after the war.

"According to my father, Cushing’s wartime feats were legendary, and his Filipino guerrilla units respected him beyond compare. Cushing never once ordered his men to do something that he wouldn’t do himself, and my father in his memoirs describes Cushing as absolutely fearless, a driven man possessed in his mission to oust the Japanese from Cebu and the Philippines. Unfortunately, Jim was also fond of the bottle and it eventually led to his ill health after the war. Dad wrote that before Cushing died in the Philippines in the 1960s, he had mentioned during visits to our home in Cebu that he wished to be eventually buried not in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, nor the American War Memorial Cemetery in Makati, but instead alongside his Filipino compatriots wherever they might find their final resting place. Bobit, I have been looking for Colonel Cushing’s grave for almost 20 years, and this letter is actually about finding it. Or not finding it.

On Feb. 17, 2005, I traveled to the Philippine War Memorial Cemetery in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro Manila. I had accumulated enough indications and hearsay in my war research that Cushing might be buried there among Filipino veterans and heroes from all wars since 1898. Accompanying me were a Filipino couple from Las Pinas, Henry and Mercedes Brolagda, and a young American military historian, author John Lukcas from Export, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh. We were united in our quest to find Cushing’s grave.

Once past the Philippine Army guards at the gate, we headed for the Graves Registration Office where we found the commandant of the cemetery, Colonel Tito Casilla. We were warmly received and the colonel and several aides listened attentively as we explained our mission. But no one there had ever heard Cushing’s name or was familiar with any part of our story, and the woman in charge of the computerized grave records was quite convinced that Cushing could not possibly be in the cemetery, suggesting instead that we go look in the nearby American War Memorial Cemetery. We asked her to please check her records, but she was insistent that someone with a name like Cushing was not in a cemetery for Philippine heroes.

We were persistent enough that she eventually relented and agreed to check the records while we chatted with Colonel Casilla. A sign in his office read ‘Keep The Commander Informed,’ which was just exactly what occurred a few minutes later when the same woman burst into the room with the news that Cushing was, indeed, buried in the cemetery — in section I, row 6, plot M, designation CR-NR 264. She was a bit embarrassed that we had been proven right after all, but we were almost too elated to notice as we headed out the door to our car, eventually followed by the Colonel and his aides in their own vehicle."

As I said, this is a two-column article as Jurika’s letter is quite lengthy. I had never met Col. Cushing, but learned about his exploits from the stories of my uncle Col. Manuel F. Segura who served under Col. Cushing as one of his guerrillas. He has written two books about Cebu guerrillas, Tabunan and the Koga Papers, which author Steven Trent Smith used as reference for his book The Rescue. How I wish Star Cinema would make a movie out of these stories! To be continued...

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.