“World War II brought great suffering to most of the world. My mother was not exempted from that. She had a happy marriage with four little children. They lived in Marawi City where my father, as a young lawyer, started taking the role of leader of his clan. My mother’s father just died so her mother, who lived in Davao, decided to stay with them.
When the Japanese came, my father wanted to join the guerrilla movement but she forbade him to join. She told him that she could not possibly take care of so many children alone. The Japanese who came to Lanao did not brutalize the people as they did in Luzon. According to my mother, the Japanese officers were from Japan’s nobility and acted in a courteous and civilized manner. The Japanese invited the young Maranao leaders to be the province’s officials – governor, mayor, etc. My father was invited to be one of the new government’s leaders. He refused. The Japanese then called a manhunt for him.
For months, my parents, my grandmother, my four eldest sisters (the youngest was a mere infant) were on the run, together with their servants. They ran from one village to another, staying with relatives or in the community’s torogan (royal houses). But the running was too much for the youngest daughter, Salma. She died. It was then that my father decided to surrender to the Japanese.”
Excerpt from “My Mother and The First ‘Modern’ Moro Women” by Jamal Ashley Abbas (April 4, 2012)
