Four Generations: Inspired by an Affair to Remember
On December 8, 1941, my father was as young soldier for the Philippine Scouts. That afternoon his life was impacted by the events initiated early in the morning at Pearl Harbor, hundreds of miles and one day away. This act precipitated US involvement in World War II.
Behind the M1 Carbines in the bunkers of Fort Stotsenberg, near Manila, my father heard the drone of Japanese Zero planes over head. These fighters caught another fleet of US Army unprepared for the bombing overhead. The crippling of the American Fleet in Pearl Harbor and hours later on Clark Air base in the Philippines marked the beginning of the end for the troops on ground to fight in the jungles of Bataan, just south of Manila.
My father fought buried in bunkers and and hiding in jungles alongside American soldiers from December until April 9, one day after Easter. But the day that marks spiritual freedom for others was the last day of freedom for the remaining 75,000 exhausted soldiers. Filipino and American troops surrendered to the Japanese that day after fighting despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, with his forces crippled by starvation and disease, U.S. General Edward King Jr., gravely surrendered, stating: “There is only so much a man can endure. These men have endured all past endurance.”
Miles from the surrender on Bataan, my 12 year old mother, took her toddler brother by the hand, and walked with him sixty miles from her province towards Manila. Her brothers had been tortured by Japanese soldiers, one brother, a priest, killed, accused of being a spy. She fled on foot to safety, joining the crowds of others escaping the provinces under attack.
Meanwhile my father had escaped the line of troops captured by the Japanese. Slipping into a rice paddy face down into the water he lay prone for hours until the troops passed. Shaking from malaria and emaciated from the previous months with no food supplies, my father made his way on foot to his mother’s nipa hut in the province. He recovered there until the troops barreled by in trucks to return to his unit at the end of the war. For his service he was awarded US Citizenship. 75 years later the Gold Congressional Medal of Honor would be awarded to his widow in his honor.
These acts of bravery determination and endurance have passed on into our lifeblood as their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews carry on. Children of his nieces and nephews who first stayed with my parents in their split-level suburban home have gone on to serve the United States. One is a Major in the air force, one a Lieutenant Colonel in the army, one a Captain in the air force. My father, an enlisted man, would beam with pride that his name lives on in an officer’s uniform.
"The fact that we are here today citizens and friends of the greatest land on earth is a manifestation of the immeasurable debt we owe to them and to those who wear the cloth that defends us now. The greatest generation underlined a pivotal role that we may enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today for boldly defending America in her time of greatest need."
Ambassador Harry Harris,US Ambassador to Korea at the 2019 Pearl Harbor Ceremony
The greatest generation paved the way for generations to follow. This week my cousin's daughter will open a restaurant in Seattle.My cousin, a daughter of the Philippines. Her daughter, a daughter born in America. Her mother remembers receiving airmail letters postmarked from America. When she was 12 years old she would hurriedly bring the letter to her mother to open. Spilling out of the envelope would be black and white photographs of my sister and I in matching outfits in front of our split level yellow house, and in neat cursive handwriting scripted by my mother stories about our life in America.It seemed like a dream to my cousin.A decade later my cousin would sit in the kitchen of the home she only dreamed about in photographs, discussing with my mother as she cooked over the stove the possibilities open for her life in America.This restaurant is a place inspired by four generations of family determined and dedicated to building a life her and preserving the life of family
“If you want to know what Musang is and you want to know me and what my family is look at my cousins they are the craziest people in the world we raised each other.. we raised each other if you want to know me and why this exists it’s because of them and their kids.”
Melissa Miranda
The same kitchen where her mother first found shelter when she immigrated from the Philippines is the same kitchen where a 12 year old Melissa girl peeked around the corner observing the preparation of a traditional Filipino meal two decades later. It is the same kitchen where her “Lola”, grandmother in Tagalog, first served the lumpia shanghai Melissa serves on platters this opening night.
