by Corban K. Alabado
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Fifty years after World War II in the Philippines, it is time to recall the events that led to its end. This is the personal narrative of a Filipino University of the Philippine student, Corban K. Alabado, whose studies were interrupted when he was drafted and inducted in to US Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) under General Douglas MacArthur and war broke out in 1941. He fought in Bataan, surrendered and survived the Death March and was imprisoned in the POW concentration camp at O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. After fighting alongside American soldiers and suffering and enduring the brutalities of the Japanese Imperial Forces, he found himself and his Filipino comrades completely ignored after the war in 1946. Thus to him and all Filipino soldiers, while the Japanese enemies were brutal, the aftermath "discarding us like a useless piece of rag" was more humiliating, painful and unjust.