“I was one person sitting there and they were an armed group. I would smile and give them something else to think of fast.” Two items he always remembered to bring were drinks and cigarettes; in the Philippine heat, everyone was always thirsty and, like soldiers the world over in the 1940s, most every Huk smoked. “They’d come up and say, ‘yeah, I’d like a cigarette’ instead of shooting me. You don’t kill a guy laughing, being nice to you.”
