A CLASSIC story, with squalor and love and war. Americans, writers/journalists.
Squalor: “The effects of the terrible experience in the Finnish gaol were all too apparent. He told me of his cell, dark and cold and wet. Almost three months of solitary confinement and only raw fish to eat. Sometimes he was delirious and imagined me dead. Sometimes he expected to die himself, so he wrote on books and everywhere a little verse: ‘Day and night and day, Yet cannot think one bitter thought away — That we have lost each other.’” [Louise Bryant, The Last Days With John Reed, 1920]
Love: “All my weak endeavor, Lay I at her feet, Like a moth from oversea, Let me longing lightly rest, On her flower petal breast, Till the red dawn set me free, To be with my sweet, Ever and forever…” [John Reed, “A Letter to Louise”] “Yes, I raise flowers for his grave. You see, He loved the flowers and the soft green grass, And it is lonely where he sleeps and he… Must miss me, want me, so I always pass, The little plot at evening… But alas!” [Louise Bryant, 1915]
‘But after the Spaniards had been driven out the Americans did not want to go away.’
War: “Take, for example, the peoples of the Philippines. In 1898 the Filipinos rebelled against the cruel colonial government of Spain, and the Americans helped them. But after the Spaniards had been driven out the Americans did not want to go away. Then the Filipinos rose against the Americans, and this time the ‘liberators’ started to kill them, their wives and children: they tortured them and eventually conquered them. They seized their land and forced them to work and make profits for American capitalists. The Americans have promised the Filipinos independence. Soon an independent Filipino republic will be proclaimed. But this does not mean that the American capitalists will leave or that the Filipinos will not continue to work to make profits for them.” [John Reed, Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East Appendix to the report of the Fourth Session, 1920]
Without a love story, only squalor: “Feb. 14, 1944. Damn the enemy. Even Germany permits bags and letters from home. I don’t want these officers killed, I want them isolated and incommunicado in a camp for months on end; no bags, no word from home, just plugging along without any toilet paper, living on rice and cabbage.” [Diary of Natalie Crouter (Resident of Vigan and later Baguio in the Philippines. Interned by the Japanese with her family in Baguio, then Bilibid Prison in Manila); https://philippinediaryproject.com/1944/02/14/feb-14-1944/]
Without a love story, only war: “The guerrillas had already taken refuge in the mountains several months ago, or had returned to their homes, reconciled but not appeased, waiting for further developments. The more zealous groups have settled in the mountains on the opposite coast of Makiling, from where they descend and prey upon the lowland towns, though infrequently, ambushing trucks and destroying army trains… Another noteworthy development is the intensity of preparations for defense which the Japanese are making around Manila. From Muntinlupa to Caloocan are being constructed a chain of airfields and a small Maginot line from north to south through the towns surrounding the city. It is evident that they are taking the invasion threat very seriously.” [Diary of Juan Labrador, O.P., February 15-29, 1944]
Without a love story, separatist strife: “(B) In late January, MNLF rebels began to harass AFP units at Jolo city airport with mortar fire. Phil Air Force was forced to remove aircraft from Jolo to Zamboanga. (C) On Feb 4 AFP forces landed on the south coast of Jolo in an attempt to retake several MNLF-controlled municipalities. (D) On the afternoon of Feb 7, rebels attacked Phil Army units defending the airport. Rebels almost succeeded in taking the Army 4th brigade headquarters located in Notre Dame College complex at the airport but were repelled with AFP losing 19 killed and rebels 21, according to fragmentary reports. Airport was closed as a result of the fighting. Phil military sources in Zamboanga city told an American observer that the airport had been ‘lost’ twice and retaken from rebels between Feb 7 and 9. Govt reinforcements were landed and fought through town to the airport. AFP lost one F-86 and four helicopters were severely damaged. Embassy believes that AFP has since kept control of the airport and driven most rebels from city. Defense Secretary Enrile and AFP Chief of Staff General Espino visited Jolo city on Feb 11. (E) As fight for airport proceeded, mortar rounds and house-to-house fighting touched off small fires in tinderbox Jolo City. Napalm was dropped by Phil Air Force and may have added to fire, which quickly destroyed most of the town. Govt officials have claimed that rebels set the torch to the city. (F) Chief of Police, whose forces reportedly fired in the air rather than against rebels, is under arrest”
“Muslim rebels will probably be quick to blame the burning of Jolo city on policies of President Marcos, and recent developments will undoubtedly add fuel to criticism of GOP policy at next week’s Lahore Conference” [U.S. State Department cable 1974-15327]
No love story, only terrorism: “On February 14, 2005, between 6:00 and 8:30 p.m., three separate bombs were detonated across the Philippines, one on a bus in Metro Manila, another in General Santos City, and another in Davao City. Four people were killed in Manila, three in General Santos, and one in Davao; over 100 people were wounded. Human Rights Watch interviewed witnesses and survivors of all three attacks. Manila: Wilson Balceta, age 36, was working as a traffic aide at the site, in the Makati area of Manila. Balceta told Human Rights Watch he was about 10 to 15 meters from the bus, with his back to it, when the bomb detonated. He was hit by glass shards from the bus windows, and the blast dislocated his elbow and burned both arms. Injuries to his right arm, now withered, were especially severe. Balceta received skin grafts, and says his left hand is still very weak and that cold or wet weather causes extreme discomfort…Another victim of the blast, Vivian Eugenio, a mother of three, was blinded. With bandages around her face and eyes, lying in her hospital bed in Manila, she told journalists that she was in the front seat of the bus when the bomb exploded, and that the windshield had shattered and sent shards of glass into her eyes and face.” [https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/philippines0707/background/2.htm]
“Abu Sayyaf says it carried out the attacks as a ‘Valentine’s gift’ to the president, in revenge against a heavy military offensive launched on Muslim rebel strongholds on the southwestern island of Jolo.” [Terrorism Focus, Volume 2, Issue 4, May 5, 2005; https://jamestown.org/program/valentines-day-bombings-in-the-philippines/]
“You could have a change of heart, if you would only change your mind…I don’t wanna fight no more, I don’t know what we’re fighting for, When we treat each other, baby, like an act of war… When the truth is like a stranger, hits you right between the eyes… Can’t stop the hurt inside, When love and hate collide” [“When Love and Hate Collide,” Track 9 on Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits, 1980—1995]
