Last February 19, 2007, on my birthday, Marie and I went to the Ateneo de Manila University to watch a movie that I had been looking forward to see -- Manila 1945: The Forgotten Atrocities, a documentary about the atrocities committed by the Japanese military towards the people of Manila on the eve of Japanese defeat during World War II.

The film -- narrated in part by Cesar Montano -- was as intense as I had expected it, having seen it featured on Manolo Quezon's ANC show, 'The Explainer' weeks before. You hear these atrocities spoken of, or sometimes mentioned in articles about the Japanese occupation, but the reality of it only hit me when I saw Manolo's show, and more so when I saw the documentary itself.

The documentary features interviews with the survivors and/or relatives of these atrocities, and even without the accompanying war footages and photos, these survivors talking about what happened to them or the other victims, stuns you with the force of a bomb making a direct hit. You hear of women raped, male Filipinos beheaded, whole families massacred, and babies thrown and caught by bayonets midair.

The film damns Japan for neither acknowledging nor apologizing for what it did to Filipinos during the war, and also condemns the leaders -- Filipinos and Americans alike -- for letting majority of the perpetrators go without the requisite justice. All in the name of political expediency.

During the open forum, a male member of the audience, who said he was a historian, criticized the movie for focusing only on the atrocities and neglecting to tackle other consequences like the economic devastation wrought by the war. But as Tito Valiente, professor of Japanese Cinema at the Ateneo later pointed out, that the film was made at all was already an achievement, and that the other aspects of the war were beyond the scope and thrust of the movie.

Indeed, the movie was so zeroed in on the atrocities, and so intense that the soundtrack still came across as a tad loud even if Monet Silvestre, the film's musical composer and director, who was present, admitted that he had already toned down the background music so as not to trivialize the suffering of the victims.

Meanwhile, a female Ateneo student asked the panelists (which included director of photography Lucky Guillermo -- Peter Parsons, the writer and director, wasn't able to attend but Cynthia DG Ramirez, the film's production manager, read a letter from him -- historian Ricardo Trota Jose who was in the movie, and his wife Dr. Lydia Yu-Jose of the Japanese Studies Department) of the Filipinos' course of action,  that is, "What now, what to do now that we know this?" Dr. Lydia Jose replied that it affects how you act today. When a Japanese-Filipino event, for example, was scheduled by the Japanese embassy to be held in February, the anniversary of the atrocities, she immediately demanded for it to be moved to a later date. Mr. Silvestre said that there's always something to be learned from history. For his part, Tito Valiente suggested that it would be interesting to try find out why a nation with such a culture as Japan was able to commit such barbarous acts, that is, still try to understand the humanity of the Japanese people.

There was another woman whose relatives suffered or died during the Japanese occupation who stood up during the open forum and thanked the filmmakers for making the film. I now forget what she actually said -- wasn't able to record it because my digital camera ran out of card memory -- but she also gave an explanation of why the Japanese perpetrators were let off the hook. I think it had something to do with a Philippine president or U.S. policy (will amend this entry once I learn/find out what this reason is).

Later, we were able to talk to one of the filmmakers, Mr. Lucky Guillermo, and he said that some Japanese had already seen the movie and were, as expected, shocked and were offering anything they could to help promote the movie. Mr. Guillermo and company were also looking for festivals and other venues to show the documentary and we recommended IndieSine in Robinsons Galleria, which is devoted to films by Filipino independent filmmakers. Mr. Guillermo later e-mailed me about this and I gave him the contact info of the IndieSine people. I hope he already got in touch with them. Or if you know of other festivals or venues, here and abroad, where this very important piece of filmmaking can be shown, don't hesitate to contact Mr. Guillermo at luckyg at ciphercom.net. Indeed, we need to promote movies like this -- sometimes it is only in the act of remembering that we can know how to move forward.