Learning about World War II history

For our special presentation on our talkshow on Straight from the Sky tonight, we bring you a discussion on the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB) with Regional Director Antonio Decatroria. This discussion on the mandate of the HLURB should be of great interest to our viewers many of whom live in subdivisions or villages. Many of Cebu's subdivisions and villages suffer from that very ugly Pinoy trait, where subdivision officials often act like blue-blooded politicians instead of public servants, which they really are. Watch this very interesting discussion on the HLURB with Tony Decatoria on SkyCable's channel 15 at 8:00PM.

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By this time you are reading this column, I should be in Las Vegas, Nevada, attending the 33rd ShoWest convention in Bally's & Paris Hotels at the famous Vegas Strip. This is an International Theater Industry Convention, where theater owners or operators, film buyers, theater equipment manufacturers or advertising agencies would meet. I have joined this convention twice in the US and twice also in Asia, where it is called CineAsia.

I am particularly interested in finding out what the extent of the film piracy has done to the movie industry and the US industry's other ways to combat this threat. ShoWest will start from Mar.12 to 15th after which I will give myself a couple of weeks break from the usual humdrum of daily life. That means of course that we will be doing columns via the Internet and reading Philippine newspapers from the web and if there's enough time, write our usual articles based on what we read. For sure, we will be doing our usual travelogue on the places I would visit while I am in the US.

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A month ago, my uncle, Dr. Alfredo Segura who lives in Fresno, California sent me a book (we share the same passions about World War II history) entitled, "MacArthur's Undercover War…Spies, Saboteurs, Guerrillas and Secret Missions" written by William B. Breuer. This is a very interesting book because it gives the reader an idea of how things were during the opening days of World War II in the Philippines and what was happening inside the entire Philippine Archipelago while we were under Japanese occupation.

This book gives us details of stories that most Americans and I'm sure that most Filipinos did not know happened here because these accounts are not taught in our history subjects in our schools. It is sad that too many people do not know their history, especially here in Cebu. But we're not alone. I was watching an interview by Japanese actor Ken Watanabe who starred in the new Clint Eastwood movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" bewailing that the Japanese schools only teach about World War II mostly about what happened in Okinawa and the bombing of Hiroshima with the Atom bomb.

During a meeting I had at the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), I told the staff that the place which is now called EcoTech was once called the "Go Chan Hill" which was once a big battleground, where the well-entrenched Japanese defenders hid in a maze of caves and planted explosives in strategic areas. When the Americal Division assaulted this hill (my house overlooks this hill) it took them close to three whole days to neutralize Japanese defenses; 105 Howitzers shelled Go Chan Hill from the Hippodromo racetrack.

When the dust settled, a total of 85 Japanese pillboxes or machinegun nests were destroyed and 200 plus Japanese soldiers killed. The Americal Division had their share of casualties, including the disabling of one Sherman Tank. I have heard a lot of war stories from my uncle Col. Manuel F. Segura but this was the only action where an American Tank was put out of commission in Cebu.

During my childhood days, when we use to live in Ibarra St. in Parian, many of us kids would go to Sikatuna St. just across the Fire Station or the office of the Task Force Street Children as there used to be a destroyed Sherman Tank parked there and we played a lot with this real tank. I'm sure that Tinguan got that Sherman tank and turned it into scrap because it has totally disappeared.

We shall feature tomorrow the famous escape by Gen. Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in a daring mission led by John D. Bulkeley who is considered America's most highly decorated warrior. He later became a Vice-Admiral. But Bulkeley's exploits with his Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats became stuff of legend as he was featured in the black and white movie "They were Expendable" starring John Wayne and George Montgomery. It's the story where the PT-boats ended destroyed in Kawit Island, which is now the South Road Properties (SRP). We shall only feature the basic story tomorrow, as we do not have the luxury of space. Abangan!

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