Saturday, September 19, is the eighty – third death anniversary of my uncle - in – law, USAFFE Captain Joseph “Joe” Herman y Crame (O - 2031906), 61st Division, my aunty, Solita Alcuaz [y Somosa] y Tuason [y Basilio] and their daughter, my cousin, Evelyn, three years old, in the mountains of Montevedra, in Iloilo and Capiz Provinces, Panay Island, Philippines.
A book “Guerilla Wife”, written and published after WW II by Louise Reid Spencer, wife of USAFFE Captain Cyril (Frank) “Spence” Spencer y Lawton, tells the story of the parallel lives of the Spencer and Herman families. Both men worked for the Masbate Consolidated Mining Company as Mining Engineers before WW II. Both were commissioned in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers as Captains prior to December 7/8, 1941.
In December 1941, the start of the Japanese Invasion found them at the mining site. Joe and Solita Herman, who were married on October 23, 1938, already had an infant daughter, Evelyn, my cousin. The Spencers were still childless. A few months into the invasion, after the Imperial Japanese Army landed in Masbate, they left Masbate by small bangka and went to Panay Island, a bigger and more populated island. More importantly, the 61st Division was based and its HQ was there.
After the May 8, 1942, surrender of Corregidor by Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, the latter ordered all U. S. and Philippine Commonwealth Forces to surrender. The top USAFFE Commanders and Officers surrendered but down the chain of command and ranks, many American and Filipino officers and enlisted men refused to surrender and fled to the hills, in order, to continue the fight, and maintain the resistance as guerillas.
Captain Joe Herman was assigned to survey and build small airstrips to support MacArthur’s guerilla war against the Japanese Occupation. They fought and lived a hide and seek game with the Japanese, always supported by the local population. After hearing of Japanese atrocities on civilians, including the Hopevale Massacre of Silliman University Pastors and Faculty Members and their families, Captain Herman had vowed that he would not allow his wife and daughter to fall into the enemies’ hands.
In September 1943, the inevitable happened. They were cornered. Captain Herman shot his wife and daughter and shot it out with the Japanese. He was posthumously awarded the “Bronze Star” and “Purple Heart with Presidential Accolade”. Their bodies were never found and recovered. Captain Joe Herman is honored at the Manila American Cemetery. The Spencers were able to escape from Antique by U. S. Navy submarine from Northern Antique, Panay. Louis gave birth on the long low voyage to Australia.
Joe was the third of twenty children of Henry Herman, Sr., 1880 – 1954, who had two wives: Dolores Crame, 1894 – 1939, and Donata de Jesus, 1914 - 1959. Anthony, Emily, Joseph, Henry Jr., Manuel, Julius, Charlie, Louie, Dolores and Ramon were children of Dolores Crame. Harry, Herbert, Howard, Hilda, Helen, Harold, Hedy, Harriet, Hazel and Humphrey were children of Donata de Jesus.
Solita was one of eight, nine or ten children of my paternal grandparents, Santiago Alcuaz y Somosa and Aurelia Tuason y Baslio of Intramuros, Manila. They (not in perfect order) were: Manuel “Manolo” (the eldest and my father, August 11, 1897 – November 29, 1970, married December 19, 1937 to Rosa Araneta [y Soriano] y Zaragoza [y Roxas]); Rita “Tita Tita” (1899, married twice: (1) to Garcia with two children - Mike, single and Marujita, married to Alviar, and (2) Gallegos with three daughters - Rosie married to Mendoza, Retita married and Nenucha, single); Encarnacion (March 25, 1903, married to Antonio Munoa); Ignacio (1905, married twice to two Fabregas sisters); Constance “Nena” (Feb 26, 1911, married to Louis Herman y Crame); Luis Gregorio (September 30, 1915, married to Pomponette Francisco); Crislita “Solita” (1916 or 1917, married October 23, 1938 to Jose “Joe” Herman y Crame); and Jose “Peping” (the youngest and single); there was a ninth child, Ma. Anatalia and a tenth, also Encarnacion, married to Mariano Aguilar, the parents of Federico “Dogoy” Aguilar y Alcuaz. My father did not fully explain in detail, the circumstances of his siblings because it reminded him of the war.
Another sister, Encarbacion “Siochi” and two Munoa y Alcuaz nieces lived in Paco, Manila and died at La Concordia College on Pedro Gil/Herran St. in Sta. Ana, Manila, in February 1945 during the Liberation of Manila and the Philippines.
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