Vet filling out a form
Bino Realuyo’s first book of poetry, The Gods We Worship Live Next Door, winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry in the US, has just been published in Manila. His previous book was the novel, The Umbrella Country. Bino was born in Manila and migrated to the US with his family in his teens. His father was a survivor of the Bataan Death March. Bino’s day job is teaching survival English to poor Americans, most of them immigrants.
I met Bino in 1999. We have mutual friends who gave me his number so I called him in New York and we met at the Boathouse in Central Park. I was horrendously late because, as usual, I took the wrong train and it was nonstop to the Bronx or something. Every time I’m in his neighborhood we get together and have strange adventures. The last time, we went to Elvie’s Turo-Turo, where the Pinoy at the counter was freaking out white customers who ordered sinigang by asking, “Do you want head?” Literal translation of perfectly innocuous sinigang-related question: “Gusto mo ng ulo o katawan?”
Here’s a poem by Bino.
From a Filipino Death March Survivor Whose World War II Benefits Were Rescinded by the US Congress in 1946
In Memoriam, Augusto Roa Realuyo, 1921-2003
1. I left three years ago.
2. If you want to know about my rural childhood, ask my survivors.
3. If you want to know how I was recruited into the United States army at twenty, ask President Roosevelt.
4. If you want to know how I ended up in the Death March at twenty-one, ask General MacArthur.
5. If you want to know how many of my friends perished in the Japanese concentration camps, ask General Homma.
6. If you want to know how I contracted malaria, beri-beri, dysentery, skin disease, gastrointestinal disease in one month, ask the Japanese Camp Commander.
7. If you want to know how my military benefits were rescinded at the end of the war, ask President Truman.
8. If you want to know how I became a 100% disabled veteran, ask my V.A. doctors.
9. If you want to know how I got burial benefits, ask President Clinton.
10. If you want to know why I wasn’t buried in Arlington, ask Judge Owen.
11. If you want to know how I died without seeing the Rescission Act of 1946 repealed, ask me again.
12. Then again.
13. I’ve been asking the same question for sixty years.
14. _________
15. I don’t know why, really.
16. I don’t know why Filipinos have ignored it for so long.
17. I don’t know why Americans don’t know this happened.
18. I don’t want to think about this anymore.
19. 46. . .
20. 06. Sixty years. I couldn’t wait anymore.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 7th, 2008 at 10:47
My father, too, was a Death March survivor. Someone would invariably ask him about his experiences during the Death March, and he would always attempt to tell one. He could never finish even one incident, though, for he would always get choked up. He would stop talking, eyes suddenly red and swollen. No, he was not embarassed by the tears. He would just sit there, not talking, with that “thousand-yard stare.” Father’s unfinished stories, my older brothers called them. I used to wonder about those things; those things that happened that could still make old men cry, even after more than half a century had passed. Maybe only civilised societies could achieve that feat?
My father died at the Veterans’ Hospital more than a year ago. We never did hear the endings to his unfinished stories.
We have an idea, though.
May 11th, 2008 at 03:34
I’m very curious about the answer to No. 7. According to wikipedia: Of the 66 countries allied with the United States during the war, only Filipinos were denied military benefits. In 2002, US Senator Daniel K. Inouye delivered a speech before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and he said “As an American, I believe the treatment of Filipino World War II veterans is bleak and shameful.” I hope the Veterans Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007, which the U.S. Senate passed just last month, becomes law very soon. Sadly, Augusto Roa Realuyo and jediknight’s father didn’t live long enough to see this injustice being rectified.
It’s also quite tragic that our country hasn’t given the Filipino veterans the respect and honor they deserved. And I don’t mean the pageantry and lip service during Araw ng Kagitingan and National Heroes Day. I remember this joke made by an ROTC officer back in college. He asked: Why are they called veterans? The answer: Because they are better runners. I’m ashamed to admit that I also laughed at this mean joke. My apologies to all veterans. I realized you deserve much better.