By Nick Buglione
Although he still speaks fondly of his homeland, left on that tropical archipelago in the south Pacific are vivid memories of war, imprisonment and oppression at the hands of Japanese occupiers.
Between 1942 and 1945, when the world was engaged in the bloodiest conflict mankind has ever seen, a teenage Latorre faced far weightier dilemmas than most people ever will in their lives.
As the invading Japanese seized control of his country, forcing General Douglas MacArthur and his command to neighboring Australia, Latorre willfully took up arms with the overmatched Filipino guerrillas and hid in the jungle for three years. Along with family members and fellow townspeople he did everything in his power to help disrupt the Japanese and facilitate liberation.
His is a tumultuous story of toil and triumph, capture and escape, ignorance and recognition told as though it happened yesterday.
Born the son of a school teacher-turned-farmer in the town of Villa Real on the Phillipine sland of Samar in 1926, Latorre and his six siblings faced adversity at a young age.
"It was depression time and it was hard," said the diminutive Latorre, overlooking his lush backyard garden of the East Meadow home he's resided in over 40 years. "I couldn't go to the eighth grade because the school charged a matriculation fee and I didn't have the 18 pesos for entrance."
Unable to continue his education, Latorre honed his skills as a farmer, working the several acres of land his family owned. His present day garden, complete with plants indigenous to the Philippines, proves his affinity for farming has died hard.
While money might have been scarce at that time, his country--then a commonwealth of the United States--was at peace. War, however, was not far off.
"It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon in the Philippines and 7 o'clock in the morning in the United States and I was listening to the radio," said Latorre, recounting where he was when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. "My hair was standing up."
The sneak attack came as great surprise to Latorre, but he had no idea his country was next on the list for the Japanese. Bombing of the Philippines began on Dec. 8, 1941 and enemy troops began the invasion just two days later.
"When the battle with the Japanese started it was uplifting," said Latorre. "I wanted to join the army so I volunteered. I joined the volunteer corps in my hometown."
The corps he joined fell under the auspices of the United States Army Forces in the Far East. Despite the havoc the Japanese had already wrought on surrounding nations, defiance among the Filipinos was unwavering.
"The mayor of my town organized the volunteer force and to show our unity we went to the capital of Samar and held a big parade," Latorre said. "We wanted to demonstrate our unity to go against the Japanese."
Americans and Filipinos fought bravely to defend the Philippines, holding out at their last foothold in the Bataan Peninsula for about three months. Yet with MacArthur having retreated to set up command on Australia, surrender in the spring of 1942 was the only option for the overwhelmed troops.
What ensued was horrific. The some 70,000 captured were forced to march from the south end of Bataan to a prison camp some 63 miles away. Only 54,000 prisoners survived this now-famous death march.
Not everyone surrendered, however, some American and Filipino soldiers fled to the jungles and mountains where they would eventually wage guerrilla warfare.
Meanwhile, about 200 miles away from where the intense fighting took place, a 16-year-old Latorre and other hometown volunteers were determined to resist Japanese occupation at all cost.
"My hometown was known to be the quarters of [resistors] and the Japanese were aware of that," Latorre said. In fact, in the nearby mountains the subversives had set up headquarters and it was not long before the Japanese came to route them out.
"Their planes came and they circled where the general headquarters were and the Japanese surrounded the mountain," he said. They took no prisoners.
"Later I found out they were all beheaded," Latorre said of the captured. "That was a terrifying experience at that time."
Realizing the town, which would soon fall under the complete control of the Japanese, was no longer safe, Latorre, his family and other townspeople took up arms and sought refuge in the island's dense jungle.
"We were overmatched, we hardly had any bullets," Latorre said. "It was very hard. I had an uncle who made a submachine gun. He was a good craftsman."
Yet what they lacked in fire power they made up for in knowledge of the terrain. Life in the jungle, where Latorre would stay for the next three years, was not easy. "Food was scarce in the beginning because people were just starting to live in the jungle. After a few months there was plenty of food because everyone started farming," he said. "It was difficult to sleep sometimes because you never knew when the Japanese patrol was coming."
The Filipino guerrillas were an extremely organized and efficient force. "Every village had guerrillas and they were all organized under one group," Latorre said. "Every island had their own commander."
The chief commander of the guerrillas was Col. Wendell Fertig, an army engineer who failed to surrender when the Philippines fell under enemy control. He managed to organize and unify a force of thousands of guerrillas--estimates seem to vary between 20,000 and 38,000. A film profiling Fertig and his efforts entitled "They Fought Alone," is scheduled for released in the fall of 2003.
"Whenever there was a patrol or some Japanese in a village or town, we would go and attack them," Latorre said. "But we would not confront them for long hours because of our limited arms. The main tactic was to attack and withdraw."
Since he was still in his teens, Latorre didn't see much fighting. Instead he was made a sergeant in the Signal Corps, whose main objective was to gather intelligence on the Japanese that would be funneled through the guerrilla command and eventually to MacArthur in Australia. "We would send communication on Japanese movements and positions," he said.
Despite all his clandestine acts of espionage, it was a task of a personal nature--a direct order from his mother--that got him captured by the Japanese.
"My mother asked me to go back to the town and check on our house. So I did," Latorre said. Deciding to spend the night in the comfort of his town, Latorre awoke to screams that the Japanese were coming. In an effort to elude capture, Latorre made a break for the town's edge.
"It was surrounded and the Japanese ran toward me with fixed bayonets," he said. "As I was being led to the jail in the municipal building, I heard the townspeople say 'they took Mr. Latorre's son Amado, they're going to kill him'."
The Japanese were notorious for their harsh treatment of prisoners, but the still young Latorre, about 17 at the time, was fortunately spared of any torcher. The same cannot be said for fellow prisoners, who were regularly beaten with baseball bats and rifle butts.
While Latorre was not immediately executed, he was placed on regular work detail for the next few days. "I knew the town well, I was born there," he said. "I'm not the type of person to give up easily."
Equipped with only his knowledge of the land and a strong will to resist, Latorre managed to slip past the Japanese without detection and returned to the jungle with quite a story to tell.
Fighting between the guerrillas and Japanese continued when the United States forces, after making substantial headway in the south Pacific, finally returned to the Philippines in October 1944.
Hooking up with the U.S. Army, Latorre volunteered for three months to serve as a guide for detachments that went out in search of the Japanese, who had now ironically sought refuge in the same jungles and mountains the guerrillas called home during the occupation.
"That as the greatest happiness I have ever felt in my life," Latorre said, though he added that he wanted to do more. "I went to where the [U.S.] landings took place and I presented myself to the U.S. Army and said that I wanted to go to the front."
Though the army did not send him to the lines, he was told that volunteers were desperately needed to bring back the U.S. ships damaged by kamikaze attacks during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. It was during this battle off the coast of the Philippines that the Japanese unleashed their first suicide attacks, a clear sign of their desperation. By 1945, the island was once again under U.S. control.
Hopping aboard the damaged U.S.S. Patrick B. Whalen, Latorre headed for San Francisco. His service on this ship eventually led to his entry into the U.S. Merchant Marine, which he would be a part of for the next 23 years.
Despite his valiant service and eventual desire to settle in America, the country did not exactly welcome him with open arms. The strong anti-Japanese sentiment that had been building up in this country during World War II began impacting people of all Asian nationalities--including Latorre, who said he was the victim of prejudice.
"I could only stay in the port for one month, after that I was sent back to the Philippines," he said. Attempting to get citizenship was not easy.
It was not until he was able to procure documents in the Philippines validating his service in the Filipino guerrilla force and as a scout for the U.S. Army that he was allowed to become a permanent resident.
Latorre remained a merchant mariner well after the conclusion of World War II, making a few trips back to his homeland. On one particular excursion in 1955 he married his wife Eugenia. It was on May 29, the same day he sat down with the Herald for this interview. He has not returned to the Philippines since.
The two eventually settled into a quiet home in East Meadow, where they raised five children who have since gone on to lead independently successful lives.
Though the war ended decades ago, Latorre eventually took up another fight here in the states.
According to Latorre, the government has long overlooked the efforts of the Filipino guerrillas during World War II and he made it his mission to get the recognition they deserved.
"He came to me and explained all about his background and he wanted to know how he could go about getting the proper discharges and recognition," said Bernard Flatow, national chairman of veterans affairs for the American Merchant Marine Veterans. Flatow has known Latorre for about 12 years.
"I thought he was a great guy to do what he did and fight for the United States," Flatow added, "and certainly a loyal American."
After countless calls and letters to senators, congressman and other politictions, this past April, Latorre received some recognition in the form of a statement from U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi.
"Filipino soldiers paid a heavy price to restore liberty and democratic principals to their homeland," Principi said. "U.S. forces were honored to serve alongside them during the war. Their bravery and self-sacrifice are legendary."
These few, simple words meant everything to Latorre. "It took such a big load off me. Freedom is not free. I fought for this country, I fought for freedom. Now I can say that."
