Siquijor, now an island province, used to be a sub-province of Negros Oriental before and during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The island was still unoccupied by the Japanese forces when they first arrived in Dumaguete, Negros Oriental on 26 May 1942. Dumaguete, at that time, was like a ghost town; there were no people to be found within the población, as most of them had already fled to the hinterlands.
But a semblance of normalcy was eventually experienced when Mayor Mariano Perdices, the incumbent mayor, returned to duty to serve as wartime mayor. Since then, quite a number of civilians returned to the occupied area in the hopes of living a more peaceful life, as they knew that Mayor Perdices was still their mayor, and that the Japanese forces.
The people of Dumaguete were really amiable to the Japanese at the outset. According to Lt. Komei Fujitomi of the 174th Independent Infantry Battalion: “The people in Dumaguete showed the friendliest feelings of any of the Negros population during the early phase of the occupation and we endeavored to cultivate this friendliness.”
Eventually, though, the supposed friendliness of the Dumagueteños gradually waned when news of Japanese military defeats reached them, in spite of tight control and censorship on news about the war. The situation worsened for the Japanese forces when news of General MacArthur’s imminent return reached Dumaguete; this was also exacerbated further when the Americans bombarded parts of Dumaguete, and even Siquijor, in the month of September 1944, as part of their plan to invade the Philippines. The bombings particularly targeted Dumaguete Airfield to ensure that no Japanese fighter planes can reinforce Leyte when the Americans would finally have their landing there.
More than a year after their arrival in Dumaguete, on 25 June 1943, the Japanese forces sent four ships to Siquijor – this expeditionary force, which consisted of almost a thousand Japanese soldiers, was the first to be sent in Siquijor. They landed unopposed at night time in Barrio Candanay, Municipality of Siquijor. The commanding officer of the landing forces was a certain Fukoda
Thus, upon their arrival, the Japanese forces then coordinated with the local officials who were then under Deputy Governor Nicolas Parami, a well-known political figure in Siquijor. Like the officials in Dumaguete and Negros Oriental as a whole, Parami and his municipal mayors perforce collaborated with the Japanese occupying forces.
On 29 June 1943, just four days after their arrival, the bulk of the Japanese expeditionary forces left Larena, Siquijor. But tragedy struck one of its ships as it hit a naval mine, supposedly owned by the Japanese soldiers that drifted to Larena and was eventually placed “half-submerged at Larena Bay” by some USAFFE officers. As historian Caridad Rodriguez narrated: “It was in the afternoon of this eventful day [29 June 1943] when the tide was low that their transport, packed to the limit with soldiers, was moving full speed out of the bay. The boat struck the mine and a terrible explosion followed.” Many Japanese soldiers perished during this incident and it undoubtedly angered the Japanese command.
To remain true to their “policy of attraction” or appeasement, the Japanese forces clandestinely retaliated by holding some prominent figures of Siquijor accountable for the aforesaid incident. One of these prominent figures was Deputy Governor Parami. As the story goes, he was arrested by Japanese soldiers and was sent to jail for a few days. Many of the locals volunteered to help and rescue him from captivity, some even offered to bring him to Mindanao using a banca, but he refused these offers – stating that: “I cannot afford to leave my brother Siquijodnons nor do I want to become a traitor to my own country. I will gladly offer my life for her.” The fate of Parami is still unknown, but many locals of Siquijor believed that he was eventually executed – beheaded – by the Japanese forces who believed that he was the one responsible for the naval mine incident.
In another case, three brothers were executed by the Japanese forces in connection with the naval mine incident. This story is quite unfortunate since it was simply a result of miscommunication between the Japanese soldiers and the civilian who they questioned. As the story goes, the Japanese forces questioned a certain Marcelino Samson about the naval mine incident. They asked him who was the owner of the mine, but Samson misconstrued this question thinking that they were asking about the owners of the Manganese mine in Larena. So, he told the Japanese forces that the owners of the mine were the Jumawan brothers – Atty. Sergio Jumawan, Dr. Maximo Jumawan, and Engr. Jose Jumawan. Little did Samson know that he was already giving the three brothers a death sentence as they never returned or were seen again after they were apprehended.
Suffice it to say, when the Japanese first arrived in Siquijor in 1943, there were already quite a few atrocities that they committed against civilian, non-combatant Filipinos. Admittedly, the local Siquijodnons were vulnerable to these atrocities given the lack of formal defense against the invading Japanese forces. The guerrilla forces could only do as much as they can with guerrilla tactics, but they were not able to force out the Japanese forces, together with the BC units, stationed in Siquijor Island.
More on the guerrilla organization in Siquijor and the wartime atrocities in the next column.
To be continued.
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