Blood on the Rising Sun

Book excerpt: The Truth about the Philippine Rape by a member of General MacArthur’s U.S. Counter-Intelligence Staff—Adalia Marquez BLOOD ON THE RISING SUN is a true story of life in Manila under Japanese occupation and, later, during the American liberation. There have been many tales told about guerrilla activities and underground operations in the Philippines but in almost all of them the chief protagonists are Americans. BLOOD ON THE RISING SUN is the story of the fights against the Japanese waged by a Filipino woman, her husband, and their friends and presents an aspect of the Philippine resistance that has never yet been told. Adalia’s account of life in the prison hellhole of Fort Santiago describes the terrible privations and tortures the inmates were forced to undergo. Later on Adalia worked for the American Counter-Intelligence Corps and helped pin authenticated collaboration charges on many Manilans who had sold out to the enemy. While carrying on this task she received numerous threats against her life and the lives of her children. On the Philippines was staged the Bataan Death March, as well as the crucial landings on the Island of Leyte. Many who will read the story of those two unforgettable episodes of the War of the Pacific will feel deeply grateful to Adalia, her husband Tony, and the hundreds of other brave Filipinos who sacrificed all for freedom. BLOOD ON THE RISING SUN is not a book of light fiction. The truth asserts itself and here in this book Adalia Marquez writers with eloquence and simplicity, which go direct to the human heart.