Under the Guava Tree

“They are coming to town!” people were all shouting and children were running fast from school. Everything seemed to be in panic. It was chaos in one bright morning of year 1941.
Ernesto Castro, a grade-two student of Manaog Elementary School, as usual, prepared himself for another day in school. But as he walked through the walkway of the Manaog shrine where he usually passed when walking to school, he saw children, some of them were his classmates, running fast and horribly from their school. Only then when he realized that classes were suspended and teachers advised the students that they will have a long rest for they don’t need to come to school for the next days because the Japanese were coming for invasion.
Unlike the frightened classmates, the eight-year-old boy joyfully went home and was happy to hear the news since no classes would mean a lot of time to play. He was the one who broke the news to his family. “Nanay, the Japanese are coming here!” he said excitedly. Terrified were his parents, they scolded Ernesto about the positive feelings he had for the coming of the Japanese. Horrified and clueless, Ernesto wondered why people were so scared of them.
Ernesto’s life with his family was hard. They belong to the lower class of the society. His parents do not have a day-job and they have difficulties providing their daily needs, sometimes even the basic ones.
The coming of the Japanese in the Philippines in year 1941 was a commonplace. When they entered Philippines, Manaog Elementary School became one of their evacuation areas and later became one of their headquarters as well.
When the Japanese first came in the Philippines, they were more of a friend than an enemy, except when one challenges them.

The Japanese Soldier
Had stopped from school, Ernesto as a young boy, had a lot of time playing and doing things that he wanted to do. One time, when he was out and was on a top of a tree getting guavas, on a nearby neighborhood, he met this Japanese soldier named Hitaski. Young Ernesto was amazed by his camouflage uniform and a set of firearms on his side and asked him if he wants some of his guavas. Hitaski was so stunned by the wit of the little boy.
The next day, while Ernesto was again out for a tree-climbing, he saw Hitaski again but this time, Hitaski has brought something for him. A paper and a pencil, which he said will be useful when the classes resume. Ernesto never felt that happiness he felt that day. That was the first time he had a new paper and pencil since the day he started schooling.
Ernesto and Hitaski met several times. After their first encounter, Ernesto would always climb on top of that guava tree where they first met and wait for Hitaski there.
They were both having fun with each other. Although they do not talk that much, because both know just a little about each other’s mother tongue, they had a harmonious friendship. Being the oldest child in the family, Ernesto felt as though he had an older brother.
Ernesto never told his parents about his new friend because he knew that when they find out that he is being close to a Japanese soldier, they would scold him and worse, they would not allow him to go out and he would never see Hitaski ever again.

The Last Encounter
Ernesto’s last encounter with Hitaski was during one sunny afternoon. Ernesto went to their meeting place, under the guava tree, and saw Hitaski there who brought some foods for them. They ate, played and as usual had story telling when Hitaski told him that he was not going to see Ernesto anymore since he was assigned to different place, somewhere far from Manaog. Having a real friend at eight, for the first time, Ernesto did not know how he would feel at first. Hitaski has been very close and very kind to him. He was almost like a brother and a father to him and for the first time in almost two months, he would lose him. As remembrance, and for Ernesto a sign of their friendship, Hitaski gave him the spoon which he used after their picnic under the guava tree that day and finally said goodbye to Ernesto. After that, Ernesto never saw Hitaski again.

The Cruelty Started To Unfold
People were all in terror and everything was mayhem. They have just heard that the Japanese were coming for attacks and they ruthlessly kill Filipinos who were against their administration. Everyone was looking for a place to evacuate and everybody was running and shouting. Even women, unmindful of themselves, ran across the river naked, in fright that Japanese soldier might captive them and make them their slaves.
The Japanese then began to attack the Philippines step by step. Clark Air Base in Pampanga was first attacked then Japanese forces landed at the Lingayen Gulf and then proceed to Manila. It was then when General Douglas MacArthur declared Manila as an open city. From there, the cruelty of the Japanese soldiers started to unfold.

Life Was Tough
Ernesto’s family also started to evacuate. They went to Barilao, Pangasinan and for the mean time stayed there with his family’s relatives and sometimes with his family’s friends. Their life became harder. His parents got every possible job that they could get to sustain their family’s basic needs. Their life for them became even tougher when Ernesto’s younger brother, Pedro, who has a cerebral pulse, became badly ill. They do not have enough money to send Pedro for medication plus medications during those times were very rare since Japanese wrath got worse and worse. There would come a time when they would have to dig under and make tunnels just to hide from the cruel Japanese soldiers. Their life was turmoil. They do not know how they will get the basic necessities that they need for survival.
Every morning, they come out of the tunnel to look for foods. People will get anything they could even if they were not sure if some of those were edible. That was the time when Filipinos invented exotic vegetables such as kangkong and malunggay. Before, those foods were given only to pigs but since the Japanese occupation, those have become part of a typical meal of almost all Filipinos.
Ernesto, at first, couldn’t believe that the people who were treating them badly were the Japanese soldiers whom Hitaski was a member of. He did not want to believe that Hitaski also could do things as cruel as what he was encountering. Ernesto was saddened by the fact that his first true friend could possibly be like the ruthless soldiers who were maltreating the Filipinos in some other place and could also possibly has killed lives of his countrymen.
Ernesto has witnessed an actual physical harassment of a Japanese soldier to a Filipino. One morning, when he was out of the tunnel, looking for food, he heard Japanese soldiers talking not far from where he was. Then he heard shouting and crying. He peeked from the bushes and saw that it was a Filipino who did not bow to them when they were on what they call the “Garrison” or a checkpoint. The Filipino man tortured by a Japanese soldier and Ernesto could hear the laughing of the others. Ernesto saw that Filipino and he would never forget the first time he actually witnessed harassment that bad. He could still remember how helpless and how pitiful that Filipino was, until now.
Because of extreme poverty that they experienced during the war, Pedro, Ernesto’s younger brother died. Ernesto, at an early age who experienced those kinds of incidents, has grown matured and strong. After years of famine and deprivation, Ernesto seemed to have become immune from suffering.

The Comeback
When General Douglas MacArthur has returned to the Philippines in 1944, as he promised, together with his American soldiers who have just gone from the United States to undergo several trainings, the real war between the Japanese and the Americans had started. They attacked all the Japanese headquarters then and there. It took them weeks of intense fighting before the Japanese finally surrendered and on July of 1945, Philippines has received its freedom back from the Japanese with the help of the Americans. That was the end of the Japanese cruelty in the Philippines.

The Guava Tree
The end of the Japanese cruelty was also the end of Ernesto’s friendship with Hitaski as he knew it, because although Hitaski said goodbye to him during the war, he knew that there is still a possibility that they could meet again and be just like what they used to be but after the Japanese have left the Philippines, he knew that it was really the end.
After the war, Ernesto’s family has gone back to their house in Manaog. He also was back in school and restarted as grade-two student. When walking to school, he would passed the guava tree where he had all the memories of Hitaski, his first true friend, and he could still the recall the stories they used to tell and the games they played.
It was so strange that Ernesto has met his first true friend amidst the war but it was stranger that the first true friend that he met during the war belonged to the enemy of his country. But even though that was the case, Ernesto never had anger to Hitaski.
The paper and the pencil that Hitaski gave to him were lost during the war but the spoon that Hitaski used during their last picnic is still with him and is still classified as one of the most precious things that he has.