THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE :
Victorino P. Mapa
“Smiling, happy, Philippines” was the title of a National Geographic magazine article which appeared during the closing days of 1941. To be appointed High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of the Philippines was a plum much sought after by American officials. The archipelago was the idyllic , serene Pacific paradise populated by a people imbued with an exhuberant hospitality and a joie de vivre not experienced anywhere. When the commissioners ended their tours and departed they left their hearts in the islands. We had leaders that were giants : Quezon, Roxas, Paredes, Recto, Laurel, Yulo, Osias. Their names and deeds now leap out from our history books.
I was enrolled at the “Colegio de San Juan de Letran” Located inside Intramuros, the Walled City A part of the walls embraced the school and a rampart fronted the school’s main entrance. We would play on the grassy knoll atop the walls during recess. We lived inside the Walled city and on weekends we would take a stroll across the Walled City’s north gate to the Mehan gardens behind the Grand Metropolitan opera house to visit the zoo. A street car ran along the entire length of Rizal Avenue, to Plaza Lawton, curving behind the City Hall to San Marcelino street and ended at Singalong.(the American expats pronounced it “Sing Along)The ride from end to end cost five centavos.
. Our educational system was second to none in Asia. We studied from books prepared and printed in the USA. While we learned of our origins as a people, our innumerable revolts against Spain and of Rizal, Bonifacio and Aguinaldo we also studied the 13 colonies,. The Civil War and George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln as well. We got accustomed to saluting two flags and singing “Philippines my Philippines in Englsih Word for word the song was the anthem of the state of Maryland. Everyone could sing the national anthem . The words were entirely in english. (“Land of the morning, child of the sun returning……..”) With his English the average Filipinos’ ambition was to leave and reside in the United States. One could walk straight to the counter in the US High Commissioner’s office (It wasn’t the US Embassy then – we were still a Commonwealth) apply for a visa and have it granted within minutes.
Many college graduates and especially the children of the more affluent did not share the same ambition. Jobs were plentiful, the Peso held steady against the dollar and the standard of life was far superior than what one could find in the United States. Why travel to the United States at all and be hired as farm hands, bus boys or waiters when one could easily test for civil service eligibility and/or take the fast track to executive positions in fast growing companies? What does the United States have that we could not have in the Philippines? . We saw the latest American movies, had soda fountains, hamburger joints and Magnolia ice cream; Florsheim shoes cost the same and we smoked Lucky Strikes, chesterfields, camels and Piedmonts. And haven’t you heard? . Corregidor island has openings for civilian employees and they pay in US dollars! We were living the good life and we had no doubt that we shall continue doing so when we became independent. Nationalism was in full swing. America pledged to grant our freedom in 1946. Uncle Sam will do everything to help prepare the country for Independence
General Douglas MacArthur retired from the US Army and was hired by the Philippine Government to help it train and create its own army .MacArthur proclaimed himself Field Marshall. With the Philippine Scouts and the Constabulary as the core He estimated that the Philippines would have a viable Armed force by 1946. In December 7 Japanese planes over Pearl Harbor. Because of the International date line the war came to the Philippines the next day. Japanese Zeros came and destroyed the planes at Clark Field and the US Navy ships at Cavite. When the bombs fell it shattered more than the planes, ships and implements of war. It also destroyed that which was more precious and irreplaceable. -a grace and an innocence and a way of life that would nevermore exist.
