Social Consequences

It is difficult to convey the havoc wreaked on the people of Buguias and neighboring communities by the war. Quite apart from the combat, hundreds of thousands of retreating Japanese, ill-fed and desperate, presented a massive threat to the area's resources. By late 1944 and early 1945, the Buguias people had no option but to leave their homes and seek refuge in more remote places.

At first many hid in the higher country immediately east of the village. From here they could return each night surreptitiously to cultivate their fields. But this strategy proved not only dangerous but futile, since the soldiers consumed most of the crops. At this

point the Buguias people sought haven with relatives living in the eastern cloud forest. But as Yamashita's perimeter tightened, even the most inaccessible refuges here became untenable; this was precisely the area of the ultimate Japanese redoubt. As hostilities approached, many refugees had to cross the lines of fire to seek new sanctuaries west of the Agno River.

The food resources of the Cordillera could not support the swollen population. Ogawa (1972) graphically describes the progress of Japanese desperation; first they had traded clothes and other items for food, but within a few months they arrogated whatever edibles they encountered. Toward the end, some subsisted on tree-fern pith. In Buguias they so thoroughly raided the dry fields that several local varieties of sweet potatoes—those that could easily be uprooted—were exterminated. Some were also allegedly reduced to cannibalism. The Buguias people also went hungry. Though few seem to have starved, many lived on banana stalks and other semi-edible foods, and some reportedly bloated to death. After Yamashita's surrender, American planes dropped fliers informing the populace that food and supplies could be obtained along the Mountain Trail, but several elders, too weak to make the climb, perished just as peace descended.

Survivors returned to a devastated landscape. The fixed capital of the prewar agricultural system, the very foundation of livelihood, was demolished. Dry fields, stripped clean of crops, had overgrown with weeds; even seeds and sweet-potato cuttings were now hard to find. Rice terraces and irrigation canals were damaged, if not destroyed, and the elaborate network of fences largely demolished. All animals had been devoured. Many individuals had attempted to conceal herds in distant places, but few were successful; what the Japanese missed the guerillas took. And although the Igorot soldiers offered receipts for the animals they appropriated, these were never honored by the United States government (a source of continuing bitterness for some). Only Paran managed to keep a small cattle herd, hidden in a cloud-forest village to the south of Yamashita's perimeter, but these animals were immediately butchered to service his own funeral; Paran had refused his grand-son's entreaties to hide a second time, and thus died when American planes strafed Buguias during the final battle.

The Americans promised relief, but delivered relatively little,

considering the magnitude of the damage and the depth of sacrifice made in the Allies' cause. The veterans of the 66th Infantry received small cash payments, and those disabled in combat were provided continued support. Such payments, however, could not reconstruct the prewar economy. But, as it turned out, the Buguias people did not need to rebuild their old forms of livelihood. Suddenly they had a new opportunity servicing the exploding national market for temperate vegetables.