Mabalacat honors two WWII heroes

MABALACAT, Pampanga — History-conscious officials here are not letting go of the commemoration of the end of World War II 60 years ago this month without honoring two hardly known heroes whose place in history was sealed in this town.

After the controversial establishment in 1998 of a concrete marker recalling the birth of the Japanese suicide bombing squad called "Kamikaze" in Barangay Cacutud in this town, the officials have announced putting up shrines honoring US Air Force Capt. Collin Kelly Jr. and Aeta Kudiaro Laxamana.

The United States considers Kelly as the first hero of World War II, while Laxamana is the only Aeta to be given an honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the US government for his heroism in the last war. The two never knew each other, but it was in this town that their heroism was known.

Kelly died when his B-17C aircraft crashed in Barangay Bical here on Dec. 7, 1941. Laxamana died in the 1970s but during the war he had fought Japanese forces and kept American soldiers safe, including ranking officials who had fled from Japanese aggression.

Mabalacat tourism officer Guy Hilbero, one of those responsible for building the Kamikaze shrine, told The Star that the shrine for Kelly will be located in a 1,000-square meter lot in the very same spot where his plane crashed in Barangay Bical. The lot was donated by Norberto de Leon and his wife, Aurora.

On the other hand, the shrine for Laxamana will be built on a 5,000-square meter lot which Laxamana’s family allocated from their ancestral lands. It is the same area where he kept his American friends safe in Sitio Hadwan in Macapagal Village.

Hilbero and the organizers of the Kamikaze shrine were criticized by some sectors, especially those who have not forgotten the atrocities committed in the Philippines by some members of the Japanese military.

On Oct. 25, 1944, the first Kamikaze flight, whose mission was to crash into a US naval ship, took off from an airfield in Barangay Cacutud where the shrine is located.

"But the past is past. Sixty years is 60 years. These shrines we want in our town do not and are not meant to extol war. Rather, they are supposed to remind us of the horrors of war, of how war can make the lives of people utterly miserable, of how senseless it is," Hilbero said.

"Yes, war is evil, but it would be wrong to conclude that those who fought in a war were also necessarily evil. Many of them were inspired with patriotism, too," he added.

The Kamikaze shrine has become an attraction for Japanese tourists who visit it to pray for peace, unity, and understanding in the world.

Hilbero said that prayer vigils have been slated at the proposed sites of the shrines for Kelly and Laxamana anytime this week.

The Japanese surrendered on Aug. 14, 1945, marking the end of World War II and lead to the official signing of surrender papers on Sept. 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri on Tokyo Bay.

Kelly, Hilbero recalled, died in his aircraft three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Clark, a base of the 13th US Air Force, was already then under attack from Japanese aircraft but Kelly had managed to load three 600-pound bombs into his plane and left immediately to hit back at Japanese navy ships miles off the coast of Aparri where he bombed and sunk the Japanese naval vessel Haruna.

On his way back to Clark, Japanese aircraft, believed to have been led by Saburo Sakai, dubbed as a "legendary zero fighter pilot", strafed Kelly’s aircraft, causing it to crash in Bical. Sakai was believed to have hit another B-17 and a P-40 aircraft during the attack.

Hilbero cited historical documents indicating that as his aircraft headed abruptly for descent, Kelly ordered his men to bail out but he stayed on and attempted to maneuver and save his plane from crashing. Two members of his crew, Master Sgt. James Halkyard and Staff Sgt. Robert Altman, signed testimonies of Kelly’s heroism.

So far, the only historical artifacts attesting to Laxamana’s heroism in the last war is a military dog tag issued by the Veterans of World War II naming him with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and a trophy posthumously awarded by the same group in 1995.