Waiting for General MacArthur
by
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The Japanese planes emerged from a bank of clouds, glistening in the sun like a school of bangus (milkfish) in the sky. The anti-aircraft guns around Manila opened up in a deafening barrage. The air raid sirens screamed and went on screaming like the world had gone crazy. Darkness invaded Manila. Total blackout was enforced for the first time. The children stayed in their room, quiet as mice. They had not recovered from the air raid, they sat down on the floor, their backs against the wall. Whatever they were thinking, they kept to themselves. The house was still and quiet The only light in the house came from the the votive oil lamp from the wall altar of the Virgin Mary.
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About the Book
Virgilio’s story had to be told. The time had come when Virgilio Gonzales just had to tell his story. It could wait no longer. The time had not softened the memories of his youth, when the Japanese occupied the Philippines, his native country, during World War II. The story, as all powerful stories, had to come out into woods that would last. And so the now 80-year-old Danbury resident sat down down to write. It took four years to complete and publish “Waiting for General MacArthur.” Virgilio can now hold the soft-cover book in his hands. I, for one, am glad he sat down fours years ago to finally tell his story. - Jacqueline Smith, manging editor of the News-Times, Danbury, Connecticut.
About the Author
Virgilio I. Gonzales was born in 1932 in Cavite City in the Philippines. He grew up during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in WWII. He studied and graduated with a chemistry degree from University of the Philippines. He married a fellow chemist Maria Corazon Jimenea, and they have three children--Arsenio, Leilani and Leo. In 1978 he emigrated to the United States and in 1982 he petitioned his family to join him in Danbury, Connecticut, where he worked as a chemist at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. He retired in 1997 and enrolled in a short novel writing course at the Western Connecticut State University. “Waiting for General MacArthur” was the product of that course. It took a lifetime to write the book.