Transcription of Pablo Simmons

Transcription of Pablo Simmons

Interviewee: Pablo Simmons
School and location: Abraham Lincoln High School, San Francisco, California
Location of Interview: Interviewee’s house San Francisco, California
Interview date: May 15, 2011
Interviewee Biography: Pablo Simmons was born on January 25, 1931 in Bulacan, Philippines. He is now eighty years old. His first childhood memory was when he was four years old. He was living a peaceful life with his parents and siblings and hanging out with his friends. When he got older, his father wanted his family to move because he wants to start his own business. The community that they moved into was very nice and peaceful.
The Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1941 and he experienced the Japanese terror first hand as his they occupied the country. His father passed away when he was nine years old. His mother let him continued school to learn more about the Japanese and what was going on at that time. He also learned how to speak Japanese in fifth grade. It was really hard for his mother to raise the whole family and to take care of him and his siblings, so he started working on the age of ten. He helped out at home and at the shop that his father left for his family. At first, he wasn’t professional, but during his teenage years, he learned many different skills and has different kinds of experience. He knows how to played different instruments. He serenades and plays for the enjoyment of playing and having others listen to him. Pablo loves drawing, and painting. Around his house, he has many of his works on the walls to flaunt his abilities in art. His happiest time during his teenage years was when he play music, hangout, have fun with his friends.
Pablo married Lolita Simmons in the latter of his 20’s. In America, they both worked toward a house in which Pablo still lives in til this day. To get the house, he started his own business as a craftsman. The he had a business which was going very well in the Philippines, he lost his business and employees when he came to America in 1973. He already knew how to speak English when he arrived in the U.S. because he learned it in school in the Philippines. In about two months, he was hired as an assistant painter in Burlingame, but soon he was hired to become a professional painter to paint a car. Late instead of working, he ended up starting his own business, he open an auto body shop. He is still working now, he doesn’t want to retired because he love his job. Pablo never likes to just sit down and watch TV. He wants to move around and do things instead of being still. At the time that this is written, Pablo is 80 years of age and is still out and about.
Abraham Lincoln High School:
So the subject of this interview is Mr. Simmons. Today's date is May 15, 2011. This interview is being conducted at uh his house as a part of Abraham Lincoln High School Oral History report project. Um Mr. Simmons would you please affirm that you have signed the Deed of gift authorizing the Abraham Lincoln High School Oral History Project to make this interview available to future researchers? Just make sure you read over it, make sure you signed everything
Time: 00:37
Pablo Simmons:
Yea I signed everything and whatever is remembered the will at heart of the public or the government or someone.
ALHS:
Don’t worry it’s not going to be used for any commercial use or any money making purposes. So thank you and we can begin our interview, and to tell you this is going to take about an hour or so. So you don’t need to answer quickly, you could answer as long as you want and think as long as you want. Ok? So when and where were you born?
Time: 01:24
PS:
I was born in the Philippines in the heart of Manila. The city Cabite in the Philippines.
ALHS:
And when where you born?
Time: 01:38
PS:
When I was born January 25, 1931. It's so old
ALHS:
So what are your earliest childhood memories, what can you remember back then?
Time: 01:59
PS:
Well I remember when my childhood when I was around 4 years old. I remember some of my experiences with my mom and some of my friends at the time. In my experience little by little as I grow old and then while I go to school I enjoyed my brother and sister, living with them, and my father and mother still alive at the time. That's all I remember, and I think in my childhood that's what I remember yea.
ALHS:
Ok, so you grew up in the WWII era. So how did you take the new of the Japanese invading the Philippines? And what was the experience before and after the Japanese came to the Philippines?
Time03:10
PS:
Ok what I remember of my young experience. I heard about when my dad was telling us that there will be a war with the Japanese, when he was still alive at that time. Until I reached my age of 9 years old when my dad passed away, and at that time 1941 I remember thatthe Japanese claimed war. But they ahead of time bombed Honolulu, Hawaii. That's what I remember December 8 I remember that 1941. Imagine that I still remember that yea.
ALHS:
(laughs) so what was the experience before they came and during the time they were there, and the war happening in the Philippines?
Time: 4:18

PS:
ok, I remember because from where I was born in the small suburbs in Manilla. We moved to Nubanitesit’s a city located in the south and when my dad. I heard about my dad wanted us to move because he needed to start with his own business. Yea and so we moved to that small barrio in the Philippines there I remember that where I was going to school and going back from school to home. I still remember my dad working in a small shop, and we had a good type of hood. I remember how generous is the Filipinos at the time, it is very peaceful at the time because since my age I remember my neighborhood they were so good and I lived there very peacefully until the war broke. That was the time one year when my dad was still living 1940. I remember that when he passed away, I remember that time it was so sad and it was hard to be with my mom. She was the one working with us to survive, because you know at that time everything was very peaceful. If you lost one of the pillar at home of the family, it’s hard for a woman to feed and to give some support with my sister and also me, so that's all I remember at that time. But when the Japanese made war and invaded the Philippines, what I remember is they were very cruel soldiers and I remember 19 ..when I was still a little boy that timewe never quit from Nubanites going to the capital of the city, Manilla city. I remember that timeI saw itin my young age that the Japanese really are marching occupying the Philippines and there are millions of soldiers at that time. Um there’s different kinds of people. You can smell it’s like litter (laugh) it smells like litter, and um there are young people but mostly there just working and their time are too small compared to the (laugh) American time. So anyhow at that time it’s hard to live because you know they are very cruel people soldiers really. When you meet them you have to go.. it’s hard because at my age in every experience. One more thing, we are all thinking about if the war would continue how can we survive with the hand of the Japanese. Because since 1941 thru 1945 when the American soldiers occupy the Philippines that time the Philippines I remember that time it was so hard. But 1943 that’s the time that become also cruel, they confiscate a lot of not a .. some of the goods of a Filipino, especially the rice’s the food. I remember also that because my uncle join the Guerilla against the Japanese he said come on go guerilla, there are… He was very active of fighting the Japanese, they tried to stop the plane and killed some soldiers Japanese. You know I remember that when I was living in Vincent Ave. That two times the Japanese, they stopped at the front of our door and we never know what they are gonna do. We lock the door and they bang the door and went up to the house where we live at that time when they got my uncle, they forced me at my age 10 years old, or 11 years old. They caught my brother my elder brother and then they force us, put us up to their front to be like a ransom for my uncle because they could not find my uncle. There I guess my uncle, his name is John Simmons, he is not a soldier but he is a guerilla maybe he is a member of Anderson I remember that name American name. They carried us to a place according to a spy my uncle is right there in the barbershop, but didn’t find him. But in my age I feel that I don’t know what will happen to me and to my brothers because we are a big job of the Japanese. Then because of my childhood I make up my mind, I think about maybe that is my choice to suggest my feeling to satisfy that I mentioned them, I don’t know about this im too young. Why do they have to get me and my brothers and when he saw me crying, maybe he feel something also. That in my way of childhood crying and he told me that ok when I put my hand on my back and when I give my sign like that, run as fast as you can, and that’s what I do. I run, but about two blocks away im running so fast that I remember oh my brother. But I cannot go back, because you know that the time for me to escape and I escaped.
ALHS:
So what happen to your brothers?
Time: 13:12
PS:
I think he was being carried to the Japan he was being imprisoned Japan Harrison. I remember that two months before they kill my brother. But anyhow at the time I remember also that 1944 that is one of the most very physical of the Filipinos of the civilians living in the Philippines, in the heart of the city. I saw a lot of people dying, they died on the street no nutrition, and they have big wounds swollen, very sad. Some of them just died on the street and the Japanese when they smell that stink, they call some Filipinos and then all of the money that some people been keeping to that person. The Japanese just go ahead get the money and put the dead at the cementary.
ALHS:
So they publique killed the Filipinos and just took them off to the cementary?
Time: 14:53
PS:
It doesn’t kill of the Filipinos. Those are really what have been mentioned about the spy because you know some Filipinos are maybe they want to join the Japanese, because the Japanese inforce them to join, as a soldier. But some Filipinos, for example two system some are American some are Japanese. Just because the Japanese force them to be a soldier. But at the time really when the American come back, I remember that the Filipinos had the police in the city. Operating some of them when we heard about when the Americans will come back and return to the Philippines. I remember they mentioned that you had to go home at night don’t come out anymore. You got a lot of Japanese money buy it don’t keep it. At that time its hard because you know there is no more food you can buy. No more yea! On the market, no more. Some Filipinos are just killing rats, mouse. They cooked it because you know there is no more food.
ALHS:
Why weren’t they able to grow their own crops and their own food?
Time: 16:46
PS:
Well they confiscate all of the food of the Filipinos at that time, and some Filipinos I remember that there is no more any department store that you can buy clothes no more. Some Filipinos ive seen the sock you know they used the bag of rice(laugh), not the plastic but the made of coconut paper. One sock of that you know there is no more you can buy anymore (laugh). Some Filipinos just know how to make a bunch (laugh) made of that kind of sock but they are rough kind of sock. You know I remember that at that time when the American were really at the time of fighting the Japanese in the plane at this American air craft. I remember that they hit one of the b24 and it has been shot down in Manilla bay that’s what I remember. I don’t know what happen to that pilot because he (laugh) jumped from the b24 I saw the parachute. After that one day I remember that it was on the headline of the newspaper that the pilot falls down in Manilla bay, I don’t know what happen then maybe they killed him I don’t know. So that’s what I remember at the Japanese time.
ALHS:
Ok so, After the Americans came back and took over and helped take back the Philippines. Were the Filipinos able to grow back their crops and go back to normal or what happen after the American came back?
Time: 19:12
PS:
That’s what’s very interesting because at the time of the Americans come back to the Philippines. They were really so generous, they are clothing a lot of the young kids and some Filipinos are cheering and then giving them a cup of coffee even though they don’t like them drinking, everybody is enjoying. You know I saw at that time one day after, I remember that a Filipino with the handkerchief tied around his head, they called him and we called him Hopebalaha. The meaning of hope is a member of hope or a soldier, civilian soldiers like a guerilla. Bala means laban means against the Japanese, hopebala against the Japanese and they are the one the first one who riding on the Japanese car. You know there is no more car running at that time, there is no more gasoline (laugh) there is no more gasoline to support the trucks or vehicles. There using a charcoal bed a charcoal bed means a charcoal made of the coconuts, charcoal bed yea. With a container in the back of the car, no more gasoline the Japanese took everything, so that’s what I remember.

ALHS:

Ok so, school must have been different with the war happening. Were you able to…did you have trouble at school or did you go to school during that?

Time: 21:29

PS:

Ah…no. At that time we never know how long the Japanese occupy the Philippines and my mom told us if you want to go to school…if you want to go to school…yea, why not. You go to school and learn a little bit at that time of the Japanese. One year, I as elementary (laugh) as fifth grade, I was also a school student of the Japanese time. I know a little of the Filipino language…not Filipino language…Japanese language yea. They call it Katakana and it’s very hard time for a citizen living in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese and then when the Americans come back. Every Filipinos enjoy…we are so very happy. We are so very happy because we have been separated. 1945 until I remember when the Japanese surrender. I still remember that time…1945 yea. I remember the time also…they cheer when the Japanese surrender when the atomic bomb really hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that’s what I remember yea of the Japanese time.

Time: 23:15

ALHS:

Okay so, we are going to take a break since the camera is about to die, so yea, okay.

ALHS:

Okay, when did you start working?

Time: 23:28

PS:

When I start working?

ALHS:

Yea

Time: 23:32

PS:

My age when my dad passed away because we have a shop and my dad is a manufacturer especially like making many kind of materials. He’s very creative… when he passed away. Maybe inherited to him. I do a lot of different kind when I still my age ten. I start working in our…at home doing something what my dad teach us to do. Imagine that I start working, but not professionally. I do little by little and then in my teenage, I got a lot of different kinds of experience too like…not only working. I like music, I know how to play instrument…yea and I do a lot of drawings and paintings. I really love it and until now when I take a rest from my shop…at home. I always sometimes thinking to paint…paint, paint, paint. Canvas painter and I got a lot of skill and I never give up. In my way, I just don’t want to sit down or nothing, I just work and I got a lot of friend and sometimes I was been invited by my uncle and the problems in Bulacan, it’s in the northern parts of the Philippines. and we are serenading the whole night. We play music, guitars and singing. Serenading everyone pretty women and sometimes they…sometimes it’s a whole night. Some neighbors really like…that’s the way of the Philippines… to serenade with women and some neighbors. That’s the time…my happiest time, but I learn such many things in my childhood until as being a teenager and then what else. I got a lot of friends and then and you know… the way of living in the problems. I was been also with my sister in capital, I live there with my sister. That’s where I spend a lot of time living with my sister and I got a lot of friend in that place. They know me and I become a member of the Congo playing music I miss all of this . They always play harmonica. I know a little bit playing guitar so that’s my happiest and you know. I am so picky of women, but I like pretty women. I like to meet…it’s good, but you know…I experiences also… your experience you have to, but you have to always choose whatever the bright way, the straight way of living. Until I meet a woman, your grandmother. Her name is Lolita. That is my experience…yea. I know somebody loves me when I…they like me. Sometimes a woman…when I go and look at the window. Some walking on the (alley they throwing me something and giving me some nice things. You know the girl, then teenager. The complexion and everything. I am so picky but I have a lot of understanding…feeling something good to my neighbor, to some friends. Yea… that’s my life as a teenager. But not so many, I am so picky. I just pick up… but I always love music and painting