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CHAPTER 1
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CHAPTER 2
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CHAPTER 3
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CHAPTER 4
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CHAPTER 5
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CHAPTER 6
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CHAPTER 7
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      The wartime period from December 8, 1941 to April 16, 1945 was an interlude of agony in the history of Pagsanjan. The people of the town were stunned when they heard that Japan had attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Fearful Pagsanjeño families residing in Manila and other provinces evacuated to their native town. The National government designated Pagsanjan as one of the evacuation centers. As a result, the town was flooded with refugees from Manila, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and other provinces. In less than a month's time, the town's population had doubled in number.
      In response to President Quezon's appeal for fighting men, numerous young Pagsanjeños (including the sons of prominent families) joined the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, America's famed militarist. Many of them never returned home, for they either perished on the battlefields of Bataan and Corregidor or in the prison camp of Capaz, Tarlac.
      After the cheerless Christmas Day (December 25, 1941), the Fil-American forces which were losing the fight at the Atimonan-Mauban sector began their retreat to Bataan via Pagsanjan. The Pagsanjeños, growing apprehensive over their fate, began to evacuate to Paete, Pakil, and other towns in Baybay region. In the afternoon of December 28, the USAFFE engineers blew up the river bridges. The next day the last remnants of the surviving troops left the town in big army trucks, bound for Bataan. As they departed, more Pagsanjeño families fled to other towns and to the distant barrios.
      At noon of December 30, 1941, Rizal Day, the vanguard of the victorious Japanese invaders entered Pagsanjan. They were welcomed by a few Pagsanjeños headed by the town president (Emilio Aquino). Fortunately, the Japanese soldiers behaved well. They told the few Pagsanjeños that they came as friends and should not be afraid of them. Because no atrocity was committed by the enemy, all the Pagsanjeño families who fled to other places soon returned to their empty homes.
      Despite the Fall of Bataan and Corregidor, the people of Pagsanjan remained loyal to America and democracy. At the risk of their lives, they supported with men, arms, food, and funds the guerilla warfare against Japan. They themselves suffered immensely because the Japanese troops commandeered their homes, foodstuffs, pigs, cows, carabaos, and chickens.
      For helping the guerillas, many male Pagsanjeños were brutally killed by the Japanese. Among them were Dr. Dominador Gomez, Vicente Santos, Augusto Abary, David Austria, and Julio Labit. Also the Pagsanjeño guerillas who fell into Japanese hands were executed. Greatest among them was Cipriano Zaguirre, former town president and local commander of the Fil-American guerillas. He was executed by the Japanese on the night of August 25, 1942. He is now acclaimed in the town annals as the "Guerilla Hero of Pagsanjan."
      While the Pagsanjeños were agonizing under Japanese occupation, General Artemio Ricarte, famous revolutionary hero who preferred to live in exile at Yokohama than to take oath of allegiance to America, visited Pagsanjan on January 14-15, 1942. He addressed a vast multitude of Pagsanjeños from the balcony of the municipal building, urging them to cooperate with Japan. The Pagsanjeños, who respected him for his valiant record during the Philippine Revolution, listened attentively and applauded him warmly, but they never heeded his advice because they knew that he was a puppet of the Japanese military authorities.
      Even with Japan's recognition of "Philippine Independence" and the establishment on October 14, 1943 of the "Republic of the Philippines," with Dr. Jose P. Laurel as President, the Pagsanjeños refused to collaborate with the Japanese military authorities. Being an intelligent people, they knew that the Japanese-given independence was phony and the Japanese-sponsored Republic of the Philippines, a puppet government.
      As time went on, the tide of war turned against Japan. On their hidden radio sets, the Pagsanjeños secretly listened to short-wave radio broadcasts from San Francisco (California) and Australia. Accordingly, they learned that the Japanese air-land-sea forces were losing the battles in the Southwest Pacific area and that General MacArthur was hopping from island to island towards the Philippines. During the early months of 1944 the Pagsanjeños (as well as other Filipinos) suffered more atrocities inflicted by Japanese kempei-tai (secret police) and soldiers. With patience, courage, and hope, they endured their sufferings and prayed to God within the privacy of their homes to hasten the dawn of their liberation.
      In the midst of their agony, the Pagsanjeños suddenly heard the gladsome news of General MacArthur's successful landing in Leyte on October 20, 1944. This news was secretly leaked to them by some bold townmates headed by Mr. Salvador Unson, secret adviser of the town guerillas. Cheered by the Leyte landing, they waited day after day and prayed more for the success of the American liberators. From clandestine radio broadcasts, they learned of the liberation of Mindoro (December 15, 1944), MacArthur's landing of Lingayen (January 8, 1945), and the entry of the American and guerilla liberating forces in Manila on the evening of February 8, 1945.