Guerilla Priest

Guerrilla Priest" is based on the memoirs my parents wrote of their experiences in the Philippines in World War II. I have combined their accounts into a third-person narrative. At the beginning of World War II, Al Griffiths was priest-in-charge of St. Paul's Mission in Balbalasang, Kalinga, Philippine Episcopal Church's most isolated mission. With the support of Balbalasang's Chief Puyao, Griffiths helped the miner Walter Cushing organize the first guerrilla resistance to the Japanese in northern Luzon. Their 121st company of guerrillas ambushed the Japanese at Lamonan and inflicted significant casualties. After General Wainwright surrendered on Bataan, Cushing ordered Griffiths to cease his guerrilla efforts. Knowing that the Japanese wanted to capture him, Griffiths and his family, together with mission nurse Dottie Taverner, went into hiding in the forest. They were captured in March 1943 and interned in Camp Holmes near Baguio and later at the Bilibid Prison in Manila. General MacArthur's 37th Infantry liberated them in February 1945. My father wrote his account of the war in 1946. He ends his narrative with their arrival in prison camp. My mother wrote hers in the early 1950s. Her narrative includes her prison camp experience. Above is from the author