Guerrilla Daughter

4. A Guerrilla Movement Is Formed, and Family Fighters Join

 four  A Guerrilla Movement Is Formed, and Family Fighters Join By late 1942, there was a growing guerrilla movement developing throughout Mindanao. Though not organized, there was a synergy to become so. After the surrender of U.S forces in May 1942, those who did not obey the orders of Generals Wainwright and Sharp went into sort of a mental hibernation as they evaded the Japanese and came to terms with their new environment. Also, they must have weighed an important ethical aspect of their action—not obeying a lawful military order to surrender to the Japanese authorities. Surely they thought about whether they would be considered deserters after American forces returned. Moreover, shock over the suddenness of the Japanese onslaught and the growing realization that help was not coming fostered more negativity in their mental outlook. Once my parents had accepted the situation, they became determined to survive in this changed world. As this was the case with my family, we have to assume that it was similar among those American and Filipino military that decided not to surrender to the Japanese. The growing movement came from many sources. A group of military officers , both American and Filipino, had refused to surrender in May 1942. These were augmented by a number of Army Air Corps personnel from the 19th Bomb Group (B-17s), which had been assigned to the Del Monte airfield after its expansion in December 1941. U.S. Navy personnel from the motor torpedo squadron that brought General MacArthur to Mindanao from Corregidor were also a part of the group. Many of them had come together at Deisher’s Camp in central Mindanao; in the months after the surrender additional U.S military personnel, evading the Japanese in the islands to the north, 65 66 Guerrilla Daughter made their way south to Mindanao. Some had escaped from Japanese prison camps and hoped to get to Australia. Those who refused to surrender had serious questions about Wainwright’s capacity to give such an order—they believed he was under Japanese control and was thus not in a position to order Sharp and his forces to surrender. While the total number of Americans on Mindanao refusing to surrender to the Japanese is unclear, estimates range from one hundred to two hundred, including both military personnel and civilians like my father. Several Americans and Filipinos were responsible for bringing my father and brothers into the guerrilla movement. Wendell Fertig was by far the predominant personality in the movement. An engineer like my father, he had come to the Philippines in search of gold and silver. Before the war, again like my father, he had a commission in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1941, during a trip to Manila from his mining job on Samar, he volunteered his services to the U.S. Army. That summer, when the American High Commissioner had recommended the return of dependents to the United States, Fertig had sent his family home to Colorado. With no immediate family responsibilities, he went on active duty on June 1941 with the rank of major. Working under Colonel Hugh Casey, Corps of Engineers, USAFFE, his assignment during this period was the construction of military airfields throughout the Philippines. Prior to the fall of Corregidor, he was sent to Mindanao in April 1942 to supervise the construction of airfields there. Because the war situation was deteriorating so quickly, he was instead ordered to supervise the destruction of roads and bridges that might be useful to the Japanese. When Wainwright and Sharp gave the order to surrender, Fertig refused and went into hiding in Lanao province, 220 kilometers away from our hideaway in Surigao. Like many of the military who refused to surrender, he went through a contemplative and reflective period, focusing on how he was to survive until American forces returned. A growing guerrilla organization was forming in Misamis Occidental province , led by Captain Luis Morgan, a former Philippine Constabulary officer. He had been effective in bringing a small group of guerrillas together but had neither the inclination nor organizational ability to go beyond the provincial level. Moreover, Morgan had difficulties working with the Moros, crucial to the cause since they made up one-third of the population of Mindanao. He linked up with Captain Charles Hedges (the former superintendent of the Finlay Logging Company and a good friend of Fertig), who had worked with the Moros and knew how to deal with them. Working through Hedges, Morgan arranged...