Lt. Col. Anastacio Campo’s diary is a revealing memoir of a Filipino officer stationed in Davao City at the outbreak of World War II. There are relatively few Filipino first-person accounts of the war and most of these are from Bataan or Manila. This account, set in Davao, opens a heretofore unknown vista for most Filipinos. Having been written at the time, it has an immediacy and personal flavor that are unique. Lt. Col. Campo’s diary is enriched with his granddaughter Maria Virginia Y. Morales’s comments and annotations that provide background information, which brings out his human side. An important addition to the Filipino memoirs of World War II, this book is a step toward making the Filipino war experience better understood as a truly nationwide experience.Concerto, 2008: A Film by Paul Alexander Morales
Towards the end of the war, late 1944, as the Americans started their systematic bombing of the major Philippine Cities, the DE LA TORRE family of Davao, along with most of the city residents, had to escape the bombs, leave their houses and live in the forests.
The father RICARDO was very weak at this time, having been incarcerated, tortured, and just recently released by the Japanese Kempei-Tai just a few months before. The large family, with children ranging from young adults to a 1 year old infant, had to quickly adjust to the nomadic life in the hills. Near the house of a Filipino couple, they dug a small hole to serve as a bomb shelter, with a shack on top as sleeping quarters.
The family knew that they could not really escape the war; across the woods the Japanese had also built an engineering camp.
Through the eldest son JOSELITO, who could speak a little Japanese, the family slowly developed a cordial relationship with the officers of the nearby camp. They sold them food and shared their home cooked dinners.
The Japanese doctor at the camp would come to attend to JULIA, their mother, who had a large ulcer on her foot, to the comfort of the family. Still in the silence that pervaded the forest the invisible divide between the conquerors and the invaded nation was palpable.
RICARDO was a former commissioned officer of the Commonwealth Army and some of the elder members of the family were presently part of the guerrilla resistance, so in a sense restraint was paramount.
JOSELITO being friendliest with the Japanese would eventually join the Japanese troupe as they went to excursions into the city. He served as their translator. This was frowned upon by some of the members of the family but accepted also as a necessity as he would return with food and news of the war in general. Their uncle NARDO would be imprisoned also by the Japanese and JOSELITO would need to plead to save him.
One day the army truck would return with a beaming JOSELITO. He recounts how his Japanese friend, the COMMANDER FUJITA, had saved the family house and how they acceded to his request to bring the family piano to the forest.
The incongruous presence of a piano in the camp brought lightness to the war. The family teenagers NINA and MARIA gamely played the piano to the delight of the family and Japanese alike.
The tensions of the war all seemed to dissolve as the piano brought a sense of connection to the whole area culminating in a joint concert by the family members and some of the Japanese officers.
At the concert YAMADA, a young Japanese pilot announced that he was being shipped off and expected to die in Zamboanga, tears running down his cheeks as a moving sonata played. For the family the war and all its terrible repercussions are sensed and weighed as the music plays beautifully in a special concert in the forest.
Synopsis ~ The Family ~ Japanese in Davao ~ War ~ Music