LOVE stories that were doomed by war have somehow surfaced as one researched through the history and culture of the Leyte-Samar region.

The memoirs of Porifio Kuizon, in his 70s, of Bato, Leyte, tells of a love story in his hometown during World War II.

Titled "The Good War," the memoir, seven pages of single-spaced text in fine print with some scanned pictures, includes a Who’s Who list of elite families from Cebu City, war refugees who made Bato their "Little Cebu" and the Kuizons’ poblacion residence as a half-way house.

The Kuizon patriarch, Segundo, was an apolitical community stalwart who owned the only high school in town before the war.

The memoir also tells a string of love stories involving individuals from all sides of the conflict: Japanese-Filipina, three American guerrillas and their partners, and even Kuizon siblings.

The more tragic love story involved the young Japanese commandant of the Bato garrison and the daughter of the town’s wartime mayor. This was matched with an extant old picture of the two lovers.

Kuizon was 12 years old and in fifth grade when the war broke out in December 1941. Their teacher dismissed the class and the pupils cheered the unscheduled vacation, not knowing it would last more than three years.

The Japanese troops reached Bato in May 1942 and made a garrison out of its public school buildings.

Luckily for the town, the young Japanese commandant, Captain Katuisi Amano, a graduate of an American university, was a fluent English speaker. He was also not the stereotyped Japanese officer (i.e., fanatically brutal and cruel).

Probably the same officer known in another document as "Col. Bo Tay" (i.e., bow tie, perhaps a signature wardrobe item), Amano appointed Ranulfo Sanchez as the town mayor.

Mayor Sanchez played his cards very well in dealing with Capt. Amano and the Japanese troops in his town while maintaining regular contact with Filipino and American guerrillas throughout the war.

But the mayor did not really have to work hard to please the Japanese, because Amano soon fell in love with his 23-year-old daughter, Marcelina, who bore her father’s good looks and fair complexion from a Spanish lineage.

Amano formally courted Marcelina and promised to marry her after the war.

Bato’s wartime residents acknowledged Marcelina Sanchez as their heroine. Because of her, Capt. Amano developed a soft spot for the town.

Despite several guerrilla attacks on the local garrison and on patrolling Japanese troops, there was no bloody retaliation against innocent local civilians, as had happened in other parts of the country.

Bato was a nerve center of the guerrilla movement in the southern part of Leyte Island.

The town did not have a known "collaborator" or Filipino spy for the Japanese. A peasant-type resident who started to become friendly with the Japanese was found stabbed dead in the street one evening.

As a result, prominent personalities such as pre-war Senate Pres. Mariano J. Cuenco of Cebu, Sen. Carlos P. Garcia (later president) of Bohol, and Col. Ruperto Kangleon (the Leyte guerrilla leader who later became provincial governor, defense secretary and senator) could frequent the Kuizons’ evacuation house a kilometer away from the poblacion without being detected by the Japanese.

As the chess player in the family, Kuizon had played games with Senator Garcia and Colonel Kangleon. He always beat Kangleon and he could beat Garcia when the senator played with a one-rook handicap.

Kuizon’s household chore was running morning errands to the town market on his bicycle, a fancy vehicle at the time.

He had a brush with Japanese soldiers in town due to one such errand.

One morning, while he has biking to the market, a Japanese sergeant named Tanaka signaled Kuizon to approach him. The soldier then borrowed his bike and promised to return it at noon.

Around 4:00 p.m., when there was no sign of the sergeant or of the bike, Kuizon pleaded with his eldest brother, Anselmo, to accompany him to the Japanese garrison to reclaim his bike.

The brother first consulted the mayor and sought his advice before they went to see the Japanese.

At the garrison, Captain Amano called the involved sergeant and a private after he was briefed about the incident. Then in front of the awe-struck brothers, the Japanese private slapped the sergeant left and right many times and yelled reprimands at him while the commandant silently watched the process.

Kuizon got his bike back afterwards. But upon reaching the garrison’s gate, the sergeant was there, waiting for him. In revenge, he slapped the boy once with all his might.

Stars flashed in the young Kuizon’s mind from the slapping. But he did not fall down because he held on to this bike.

Kuizon has never forgotten Amano’s kindness in entertaining a young boy’s complaint. He mused that such gesture would not have been possible without the influence of the mayor and his daughter.

The return through Leyte of the US Allied Forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur in October 1944 dashed all hopes of a Japanese-Filipina wedding in Bato after the war.

Captain Amano was killed along with his men during the Battle of Ormoc, about 90 kilometers north of Bato. The battle was fought in December 1944.

The disconsolate Marcelina was informed about her fiancé’s death by an officer of the Philippine Army, who had probably fought on the other side of the same battle.

Marcelina later got married to a fellow Bato resident. But the unhappy union did not last a year and the couple broke up.

In February 1987, during the centennial anniversary of the founding of Bato town, Marcelina and her father were each presented a "Century Award Certificate of Recognition" for their heroic deeds during the Japanese occupation.

Now 85 years old, in poor health, hard at hearing, and without a family of her own, Marcelina lives with a cousin in Iligan City.

She recently sent Kuizon a priceless memento of her life - her old photograph with Captain Amano, taken on a bright sunny day during tense but hopeful times on the seawall in Bato.

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