American Experience

Interviewer: In general, what did you do as a resistance fighter? What were you trying to do?

Leon Beck: The gathering of intelligence information was the most important thing we could do, in the hopes that it would benefit our army when they did come back to the Philippines.

Interviewer: What did you live on when you were a resistance fighter? What were you eating?

Beck: We killed carabao's a time or two, and we'd cook it. They shipped kerosene to the Philippines in five gallon tins and you'd nail a handle through there and could carry it and we'd cook in that. Of course we got in trouble over it. A farmer reported we'd killed his carabao and they were going to dock our pay and make us pay for it, but nothing ever came of it. And [we ate] what the Filipinos had. If they had a little bit of rice and it was not enough to feed everyone, they'd mix corn with it, they'd put green beans, eggplant, anything to supplement the rice, to give it more bulk. And at times we ate real good. You'd get into a hacienda where homeowners, the landlords, had not left, and they could trade on credit in the market and place and they'd go in and get chickens or something. We'd have a chicken boiled and eat it with the rice. But rice got very scarce, even before liberation time came.

Interviewer: Did you witness how the Japanese were treating resistance the fighters that they caught or Filipinos they thought were collaborating? Did they torture?

Beck: Not in my presence. They'd take them somewhere else for that. But, if they came into a barrio, if they had a problem with someone in the barrio, they put a cordon of troops around it and make all the men fall out in the barrio street, in the dirt road. And they'd bring the Filipino in with a sack over his head and eye holes, and whoever he pointed at, he would indicate that they were supporting the guerrillas and they would execute him, right on the spot. They didn't waste any time and then they'd leave. Now, you don't get out there and mingle in close with them, you're off in the brush somewhere. You hear the shots and you go see them, go into the barrio, when the Japs pull out ...find out what happened. But they sent a big contingent of Filipinos to Japan, put them through military school, brought them back to Luzon and put them in a Philippine Constabulary. And we had more trouble with the Philippine Constabulary than we had with the Japanese. They were a real thorn in the side because you couldn't distinguish them from the clothing they wore or their appearance, and if they saw you, they'd report you. The next thing you know, there's a Japanese raid on that barrio.

Interviewer: What were some of the atrocities that you heard about or witnessed?

Edwin Ramsey: Well, when somebody was accused of being a collaborator with the Americans, they were taken in by the Kempetai, which is their SS -- Kempetai is literally, the military police, but they were the ones who actually did most of the torturing. They would be given all kinds of torture in order to get from them any information that they might have, with regard to the guerrilla forces, which was a big thorn in their side. Sometimes they would tie their arms together behind them and hang them up off of the ground, thus dislocating and breaking the arms and shoulders. They would pull out their fingers, nails. The worst of the lot was when they would put a hose in the mouth, run it down into the stomach, turn it, fill your stomach with water and then stomp on your stomach, which would rupture the insides. Many people died from that. Some people, if it weren't too full, lived through it, and some of my people got out and reported that to me, amongst other things. I, myself, fortunately never had to undergo that, and I was never close enough to observe them doing this. But I am confident that it did go on, because these people would report back to me.

Interviewer: What kind of punishment, what did they do?

Gustavo Ingles: Oh, they started with punching us in the body. For me ...because of the punishment I always received in the academy, I developed a strong stomach, when they socked me in the stomach. And I pretend, of course, that I felt very bad about it, but so long as I can withstand it, I withstand it. Then, when they are through punching you, they started tying you, and if you ever [admit] you are committing any campaign or raid against a Japanese detachment, that's where you are subjected to further punishment, like water cure, electrocution, hanging by the thumbs with your toes barely touching the ground and then swinging you left and right until you are set.

Interviewer: Did they do that to you? Did they hang you by your thumbs?

Ingles: Yeah. Sometimes above. Sometimes at the back. I don't mind being hung, but when they swing you, particularly when your thumb is hanging, but your back ...your joints at the shoulder. In fact, up to now, [I still] have difficulty.

Interviewer: And when you were a guerrilla, were you in touch with MacArthur? Were you aware that he was planning to come back?

Ingles: Well, it was like this. Long before, when we went up to the hills, we had to put up some sort of different radio system, and the first ones were complete failures. So ...we made contact with General MacArthur's headquarters through the unit on Panay Island, because they were already well established ...And we had been sending them intelligence reports from Luzon by couriers. That's how we were able to maintain close contact with them.

Interviewer: Did you think MacArthur was coming back?

Ingles: That was our only hope during the time.

Interviewer: What was your only hope?

Ingles: That the Americans are coming back, as promised by MacArthur, and we had already been receiving messages before that. Take the case of, "I shall return" cigarettes, sent by submarine. We have a small pack of cigarettes, Chelsea, Camel ...ten cigarettes, in small pack with a picture of MacArthur at the back, "I shall return." And they had the faces, the name of the cigarette, and this was distributed, taken by submarine....

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Edwin Ramsey: ...We were in a constant state of hoping. We were receiving what information we had by submarine, mostly. And the intelligence units that were being sent in from MacArthur, with radios and so on, were coming up by submarine. And unfortunately, they had a very difficult time to get to me, because I was in the central Luzon, which was the reserve area for the Japanese Southwest Pacific Forces. So, there was never less than 150,000 - 200,000 Japanese in my area, up to three-quarters of a million. So that, as soon as we got our radios, this was like a life line, we knew that then, it was only a matter of a relatively short time before they would come back in. And, this was a godsend as far as morale was concerned. They also sent in with us chocolate bars, and on the outside was the American and Filipino flags crossed, and it says, "I shall return - MacArthur." And that was the greatest boon to morale, and we would give these to the Filipinos. Unfortunately, if they were caught with it, they would be killed. But, they didn't mind it.

Interviewer: Did you have a sense that MacArthur was going to come back?

Leon Beck: Oh, we always thought so. It was only a question of time. We knew that we would overwhelm the Japanese some day. I didn't think it was going to ever take that long, but I never lost hope. If I had, I'd probably surrendered, like all the rest of them did.

Interviewer: You were living on hope?

Beck: Hmm -- hopes, dreams, rumors and, I never lost hope, no. I always thought enough of America that some day our army would be back there to get us.

Interviewer: What if they hadn't come back and they bypassed the Philippines? What would you have done?

Beck: Well, the thought never entered my mind that they would bypass it. MacArthur said, "I shall return" and I thought that was the truth. And when he landed on Leyte, the light came on that he's back in the Philippines and it's only a question of time until they get to us.

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Edwin Ramsey: MacArthur himself told me, when I had a meeting with him in Tokyo. After I was out of the service in 1947, I was on a business trip to Tokyo. We spent almost an hour sitting in his headquarters, at the Dai Ichi Building in Tokyo, which was his headquarters, just going over all of the things that had gone on during the war. And he told me at that time, that the activities of the guerrilla forces, mine and others, had saved tens of thousands of American lives, because the Japanese were never able to put up a single major defensive position, from Lingayen Gulf, all the way to Manila. Well, we put up five, in the original attack [in 1941-42] ...Because if you will just stop and think psychologically, if you're being attacked from the front, by regular forces, and irregular forces are behind you, cutting your communications and shooting at you, from the rear, you're not of a mind to stay there and keep it up. And they didn't....