By Marlon Ramos Inquirer News Service
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna -- Even during the darkest hours of their lives, Fr. James Reuter and a group of other young Jesuits never lost courage and hope.
The songs they composed during those horrific days when they were internees at the Japanese concentration camp here showed it: "What is the hope that the white flags bring?/What puts the zip in the songs we sing?/ What's the reason for the crowd 'round the barracks door?/That some day we will be free!"
Reuter sang the song from which those lyrics were taken at the commemoration here of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Los Baños from Japanese forces.
"The young Jesuits were the entertainers of Vatican City. We composed about 24 songs while we were here. In those last days, we had this one..." he said before launching into the song.
"Vatican City" was actually Barracks 19, where priests, nuns and missionaries were held by their Japanese captors. Reuter was then 25.
The commemoration was a historic reunion for Reuter and the Filipino guerrillas and American soldiers who rescued him and the other internees during a dawn raid on Feb. 23, 1945. Most of the prisoners had been languishing in the camp since 1942.
Among those present at the ceremony were Lieutenant Colonel Gustavo Ingles of the Hunters-ROTC and Rev. Ken Fuller of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The two had led the raid on the 250-strong Japanese detachment.
Reuter came to the Philippines as a missionary before World War II. After the war, he returned to the United States to be ordained a priest.
He eventually came back to the Philippines and taught at the Ateneo de Manila University. The Senate awarded him honorary Filipino citizenship in 1996.
Prison memories
In a speech, Reuter, now 87, recalled his days as a prisoner and a member of the camp's burial crew.
He was one of 2,147 people held in Baker Hall, a gymnasium at the then Philippine Agricultural College, now known as the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
The town, then part of a vast US military reservation, was a stronghold of the Japanese Imperial Army.
"When this area was a concentration camp, some things happened that were very painful, and some things happened that were very good," Reuter said.
A part of his memories was how a young American was shot dead by their Japanese captors and how he and the other members of the burial crew dug a grave for the body:
"One morning, just before dawn ... we saw a young American ... just outside the front row of barbed wire. He was rolling on the ground, shot through the shoulder. His shirt was [bloodied], but he was hanging on to a bundle."
A Japanese officer named Konichi approached and berated the injured American for supposedly trying to escape. Then he ordered his soldiers to take the man to a small furrow just outside the camp.
Moments later, Reuter and the others heard a gunshot.
"When they gave us the body, [we saw that] the hole was small in the back and very big in the front. It blew out the [whole] brain."
Reuter and another American proceeded to dig the grave. But they were too weak to dig and had to bury the man merely two feet under.
He asked the other prisoner why the man had tried to flee at dawn, "when he would not have a ghost of a chance."
His fellow prisoner retorted: "He was not shot trying to break out. He was shot trying to get back in."
Reuter then realized that the man had gathered rice, coconuts and bananas outside the camp and was trying to bring the food back to his wife and child.
"The Japanese thought [he was taking the food out] so they gave us the bundle. We gave it to his wife. The rice was soaked with his blood."
Keeping the faith
Reuter said the horrors at the concentration camp gave the prisoners more reason to hang on to their Christian faith. Even some of the Japanese came close to becoming "saints," he said.
"In this camp, we had hardships," he said. "But we also had forgiveness, compassion, charity, love. The Gospel: Pray for those who hurt you."
Konichi, after being captured, put on trial and subsequently convicted for war crimes, converted to Catholicism, Reuter said.
It was a holy end to the Japanese officer:
When he was sentenced to hang in Los Baños, he was baptized and was given communion.
With the rope around his neck, while he was kicking and gasping for air, a priest below him "anointed his hands" before he breathed his last.
"So he went straight to Heaven, without even a stopover in purgatory," Reuter said. "I think it was because of the prayers of the nuns."
According to Reuter, there were two main reasons why not too many Japanese officers survived the war: the Japanese did not surrender, and the Americans never took prisoners.
"Even if a Japanese came out with his hands up, the Americans would shoot him dead. Because too often, the surrendering Japanese was carrying hand grenades under his armpits," he said.
The captain's wife
A few years after the war, a priest from the camp by the name of Father Greer had a chance to travel to Tokyo, Reuter said, recalling yet another story.
Greer had become friends with the Japanese captain during his incarceration. The captain had since died, and armed with a picture of the captain's wife, Greer set out to look for his next of kin.
He managed to locate the members of the captain's immediate family. "They were so grateful to hear any word about him because all they had received was a telegram saying: 'Missing in action.' Father Greer told them every good thing [about him]," Reuter said.
But Greer wondered where the captain's wife was. So the family led him to another house, where a nun opened the door.
Greer asked the nun about the captain's wife. And the nun smiled and said: "I am the wife of the captain."
What happened was, Reuter said, the captain's wife went to a Catholic school after her husband was killed. She eventually became a member of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart.
Reuter said he had the chance to meet the nun when she traveled to the Philippines to visit the place where her husband had died.
Great adventure
Despite the difficulties he faced as a prisoner, Reuter said he never gave up on life and tried to learn lessons from the nightmare.
"Those who were not here during the war expect us, the internees, to remember Los Baños as a place of horror. But it's not that way. It was a great adventure, much more exciting than studying philosophy and theology," he said.
He recounted how, after thinking that their Japanese captors had pulled out of the camp, he and the other prisoners lost nearly all hope when their tormentors came back minutes later.
After that setback, he said, what they pinned their hopes on was the sound of American airplanes droning over them on the way to Manila.
"We did have hardships," he conceded. "But we also maintained courage, and hope, and the joy of living. And when the paratroopers dropped on us, the thrill of survival was magnificent!"
Inspiration
Senator Richard Gordon, co-chair of the committee in charge of the anniversary celebration, and US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone led the commemoration of what is regarded as one of the greatest airborne operations of all time.
During the program, Reuter and his fellow prisoners -- now numbering only 18 -- received commemorative badges. Gordon also presented a Senate resolution to Reuter.
Sponsored by Gordon and signed by Senate President Franklin Drilon, the resolution honors Reuter for "leading and inspiring others in all that he taught, wrote, said and did, to believe and live in a life of vision, of leadership, and of dignity."
Gordon said in the resolution that Reuter -- who is well known for his work helping orphans and street children -- was a steady source of inspiration for all Filipinos of all faiths.
"[He] was born an American and yet he lived his life as a Filipino and for Filipinos. Though he has received many awards... such honors fail to truly capture the immensity of his sacrifices for the Filipino people," Gordon said.
ŠPhilippine Daily Inquirer