Rising Sun Blinking

A Young Boy's Memoirs of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines

In the middle of 1942, the Japanese landed in Iloilo, deep in the heart of the Philippine Archipelago. Earlier, like a skittish octopus, the Japanese Empire had spread its tentacles across the islands, after the last American strongholds of Bataan and Corregidor had fallen.

Jose Lacambra was only eleven years old when the Japanese occupied Iloilo. His firsthand account of the adventures and rites of passage were drawn from a diary he kept during those war years.

With wry wit and a sharp memory for detail, he re-creates the horror, adventure and excitement of those unforgettable years, describing them all with a novelists skill and style.