World War II Second Mass Evacuation in Nagcarlan and Massacre in December 1944 (Rico Guillermo Eusebio)

The writer in 1960

This happened around  December 1944. The guerrillas came down from the mountains and had an early victory celebration.  They were displaying their new rifles, the garand cal. 30  air dropped  by the Americans in Mt.  Banahaw.  Rumors had it that the air drop was seen or reported to the Japanese in San Pablo City,  not yet city at that time.  It resulted in an order for the Japanese to avoid Nagcarlan when retreating.

Then it happened that a Japanese truck loaded with soldiers was coming from the direction of Liliw.  The guerrillas immediately left the town and set up an ambush position somewhere in Bambang. After a brief stop-over in town,  the Japanese proceeded to San Pablo City. They were ambushed by the guerrillas, almost all were killed, but due to the presence of mind and skill of the Japanese driver, who was able to drive the truck outside of his seat and away from the line of fire, he was able to reach San Pablo.  Anticipating that the Japanese would conduct counter operation against the guerrillas and civilians,  the residents hurriedly evacuated the town. We joined the family of Ma Casiano, a neighbor of Tia Titay Guillermo-Montanano who was then residing near the elementary school. How we came to join Ma Casiano,  I cannot recall.  The family of Ma Casiano,  Ate Cion Guillermo-Serrano, Tio Teroy Serrano and I evacuated in Barrio Bunga near a creek and which is now a picnic resort known as Bunga Falls.

Now the Japanese did return but came from a different direction. From San Pablo, they traversed the villages of Maravilla, Alumbrado, Bunga, Maiit and finally the poblacion in Nagcarlan.  Along the way they held captive all men they met and brought them to the Municipio. When they found out that residents had evacuated, they left after staying just for a few days. Immediately after they left, the people, especially relatives of the men captives of the Japanese, went to the Municipio. There they found freshly-dug ground.  They dug it and found the bodies of all the captives.  That whole day, funerals of the dead massacred by the Japanese were held. Many were buried just bed sheets. 

A story or rumor then spread around that one night, an old man approached an old woman who decided to stay in the market when everybody had evacuated.  The old man who was carrying an itak asked the woman why she was still in town when everybody had left already. The woman replied that she's already old and the Japanese would not mind her. The old man said, "Tanda, wala na kayong aalalahanin,  umalis na po ang mga Hapon." None of this dialogue between the old man and woman had been verified but it spread to the people of Nagcarlan. Then the story spread that when people returned home,  they noticed that the itak of San Bartolome was not in its original position with the blade facing upward but instead it was facing downward.

I was just wandering why today there is no town commemoration or remembrance of that massacre. If my memory serves me right,  there were more or less 40 men killed.

Life at our evacuation was not so bad at all. Ma Casiano really made life easy and quite good.