Would the Japanese in the Philippines side with Japan or the United States? Nearly unanimously, they chose Japan. The former internees, bearing guns provided by the Japanese army, took swift and brutal revenge on those who had locked them up. They then served the Japanese occupation as intermediaries and interpreters. Filipinos got used to seeing familiar faces—the gardener, the ice-cream peddler, the house servant—parading in Japanese military uniforms. “Words cannot describe the seriousness of the dilemma faced by the Japanese residents as we found ourselves caught between the brutality of
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