She could hear familiar voices and unintelligible conversations filtering from the neighborhood suddenly drowned by the wailing of a hungry infant. She could smell smoke from cooking fires. From a distance, she could discern the somber plucking of a sad guitar. They were soothing sounds of a familiar neighborhood. She felt hungry and tried to rise to prepare supper. The baby inside her stirred. She felt a numbing pain.
Shortly afterwards, Flora gave birth to another boy, Valero. He had a prominent birthmark on his right cheek, a result perhaps of the incident with the soldiers because she labored for some time before giving birth.
The Japanese were at the apex of their Imperial power. The Greater East Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere - a euphemism for empire, exercised hegemony over Manchuria, China, Korea, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and most of Burma.
A puppet government was established in the Philippines under President Jose P. Laurel, who most claimed was a nationalist forced by political situations to cooperate with the Japanese. He was unwittingly assassinated while playing golf at Wack Wack by a man who believed he was a collaborator.
In every war, there are collaborators. The motives for collaboration vary; some do it for money and the advantages collaboration brings, others are coerced with bodily threats, some collaborate for the inherent inclination to side with the victors. There are also people who believe in the cause espoused by an occupying force as best for the country - in this case, the establishment of a co-prosperity sphere among Asians, for Asians. To pass judgment on collaborators is difficult because of moral implications and conjectures such judgment entails. Suffice to say that deemed collaborators were regarded with disdain, spat at, recipients of angry and unprintable invectives, paraded in shame and in some cases executed or murdered. Dubbed traitors, they are a sorry but integral part of all conflicts.
During the Japanese Occupation, a monetary system was introduced. Without gold or other reserves to back it up, devaluation quickly followed. More money was needed to buy the same quantity of goods. The solution to print more money resulted in further devaluation rendering the currency useless. Traders resorted to hard currency in gold, silver, pieces of jewelry. Heirlooms, furniture, paintings, clothing, shoes, utensils and anything of value were swapped for food and other necessities.
After a year, with the Japanese occupation in place and the return of a semblance of normalcy, Flora decided to travel to Pangasinan to rejoin her eldest son who was left as a ward of his grandmother when they had to resume their teaching career in Bacon. It was going to be a difficult journey. There was no rail service from Legazpi. The alternative was a boat ride to Lucena, and from there, a train ride to Manila.
