Description
Object description
Filipino civilian member of Philippines Youth Congress and Philippine Communist Party in Philippines, 1940-1942; member of United Front and Hukbalahap in Philippines, 1942-1945; member of Communist Party of Philippines in Philippines, 1945-1950; member of Hukbalahap during Huk Rebellion in Philippines, 1950-1952; political prisoner in Philippines, 1952-1962
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Philippines, 1915-1940: family; education; initial interest in politics; relations with parents. Aspects of period as member of Philippines Youth Congress in Philippines, 1940: joining organisation, 1940; organisation's objectives and membership. Aspects of period as member of Philippines Communist Party in Philippines, 1941-1942: joining party, 12/1941.
REEL 2 Continues: activities of Manila Youth Branch; problems of influencing people; her decision to leave Manila at start of Pacific War. Aspects of period as member of United Front resistance movement in Philippines, 1942: setting up of guerrilla group in Tanay, 1942; anti-Japanese attitude; decision to send her to Communist Party school prior to going to central Luzon, summer 1942.
REEL 3 Continues work for United Front in Manila, 8/1942; hiding from Japanese. Recollections of period as member of Hukbalahap in Philippines, 1942-1945: journey to central Luzon; hiding from Japanese in village; capture of her comrade by Japanese; her work editing Communist Party of Philippines newspaper.
REEL 4 Continues: non-Communist guerrilla movements; those who collaborated with Japanese; Communist Party of Philippines publications; educational party work in central Luzon; escape from Japanese raid; narrow escape from Japanese in Manila; problems of guerrilla work in Manila; guerrilla administration in countryside; rice harvesting; deteriorating conditions under Japanese.
REEL 5 Continues: a captive Japanese army doctor; hostility of liberating Americans towards Hukbalahap reaction to massacre of Squadron 77, 2/1945; decision to disband guerrilla units, 1945. Recollections of period as member of Philippine Communist Party in Philippines, 1945-1950: her post-war journalistic and youth work; agitation against Bell Trade Act; contact with Communist American service personnel.
REEL 6 Continues: aid received from American servicemen; visit of American service personnel to guerrillas; increasing pressure of left wing political movements by Philippines Government, 1946; decision to re-launch armed struggle, 1947; her request to change from youth to women's work; her problems antagonising Filipino party members; campaign about slum conditions in Manila, 1947-1948.
REEL 7 Continues: agitation over Manila slum; her meeting and marriage with Bill Pomeroy; visits to guerrillas in southern Luzon; marriage to Bill Pomeroy, 1948. Recollections of period as member of Hukbalahap during Huk Rebellion in Philippines, 1950-1952: assignment to join guerrillas in the mountains in Luguna Province, 4/1950; educational programme for guerrillas.
REEL 8 Continues: military mistakes made by guerrillas; problems of finding food in forest; supplies received by guerrillas; increasing military pressure on guerrillas during 1952; circumstances of her capture, 1952.
REEL 9 Continues: further details of circumstances of her capture, 1952. Aspects of period as political prisoner in Philippines, 1952-1962: her treatment by captors; technique for dealing with interrogators; conduct of her trial, 1952; her plea of guilty to rebellion.
REEL 10 Continues: campaign for release; question of impossibility of living in Philippines or United States of America; decision to settle in GB; getting to GB; settling down in GB; prior recollection of political mistakes made by Philippine Communist Party during 1940s-1950s; treatment received in prison in Philippines, 1952-1962.