It is the street from Rep. Nicolas Rafols Street to the circumferential portion of Rep. Nicolas Street within the Espina Subdivision. The Cebu City Council on motion of Councilor BienvenidoTudtud on October 14, 1968 enacted Ordinance No. 641 naming the street in honor of Col. James Cushing.
Col. James M. Cushing was born in El Paso, Texas, United States of America. He was the commander of the Cebu Area Command of the Guerilla Movement, based in Barrio Tabunan, He married a Cebuana, Felisa "Fritzi" Tabando.
He was ably assisted by then Capt. Manuel F. Segura (promoted to Major after World War II) in the handling of the Koga Papers and its crew and passengers held as their war prisoners.
He made correspondence with Takeshi Watanabe, Commander of the Imperial Naval Garrison of Cebu, for the surrender of the passengers and crew of the seaplane that crashed in the seas of San Fernando, Cebu on April 1, 1944.
He took custody of Vice-Admiral Shigeru Fukudomei, Chief of Staff of the Imperial Combined Fleet of Japan, next in rank to the famous Admiral Mineichi Koga. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (the man who designed the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor) was succeeded by Admiral Koga in April 1943.
James, was the seventh son of George Sr., his eldest brother George Jr., a mining engineer died in Mindoro in 1936. His other brother, Fred, mine equipment salesman died in 1949 in the USA. Charles, who was likewise in the Army, same as James, served under Gen. Pershing and became a guerilla leader in Central Luzon. The fourth brother, Frank was with the US Navy. Walter, his brother, was a miner and organized the first resistance movement in the Philippines particularly in Ilocos and died on September 19, 1942 fighting and killing dozens of Japanese soldiers. His brother Charles, was captured by the Japanese in 1943 and urged James to surrender upon orders of his captors.
James died on August 26, 1963, a war hero who fought with gallant Cebuano patriots who resisted the superior force of the Japanese Imperial Army who invaded Cebu. He lived to see the Japanese forces in Cebu surrender on Aug. 28, 1945 in Barangay Ilihan, Tabogon, Cebu.