Pea visits the Cata-al World War II Museum in Valencia, Negros Oriental, billed as the largest personal collection of WWII artifacts in the Philippines. Its owner, Tatay Felix, explains how the Japanese made their last stand on the ridges of Negros, how American submarines armed Filipino guerrillas, and why he started collecting after his uncle died as a prisoner of war. Pea then tours the collection, from Japanese aircraft parts and machine guns to a giant bolo and 1,000-pound bombs.
About the museum
- Called the only museum of its kind on the island and the largest personal collection of WWII artifacts and memorabilia in the country
- Owner Tata/Tatay Felix has been collecting for over six decades
- Located in Valencia; Pea puts the address and contact info in the video description
Interview with Tatay Felix
- Why he started collecting
- His mother's only brother died as a prisoner of war at Camp O'Donnell in Capas, Tarlac
- Because of that, his mother forbade him from joining anything involving a gun: "You're only worth one bullet. When you're hit, I do not have a son anymore"
- He compares himself to Saving Private Ryan: he couldn't become a soldier
- Most of the artifacts were simply picked up in the forest
- Negros as the last battlefield
- He says this was the Japanese last stand and the last battlefield of WWII; the war ended here, in the mountains of Negros
- The "battle of the ridges": the Japanese occupied the most strategic ridgetops and waited with all their bullets and grenades laid out in front of them so they didn't have to stoop down
- The Filipino fighters got behind them
- How the guerrillas were armed
- A submarine delivered guns and ammunition at Basay, 117 km to the south, bringing two Thompson submachine guns per person (and they were heavy)
- Weapons included Thompsons, the M1 carbine, the M1 Garand, Browning automatic rifles, and machine guns
- His explanation: "We are the only colony of the United States," so the Americans supplied the weapons
- Most of his family members were protected by the Americans and the guerrillas
- When the Japanese retreated into the hills, the Americans followed and set up 155 mm and 105 mm artillery on his family's land to shell the Japanese in the mountains, with the enemy just 100 m away
- Unexploded ordnance
- Says he has defused thousands of bombs, including 1,000-lb bombs
- When opening one he does it alone so that if it explodes it will kill only him
- At 1 m from an exploding 1,000-lb bomb "nothing can be found of your body," nothing to bury; you turn to dust
- His one-liner: "The bomb that is going to kill me, they had not made it yet"
Tour of the collection
- Ammunition: Browning .30 caliber machine gun rounds, Japanese 7.7 mm machine gun rounds, and massive anti-aircraft cannon shells
- Aircraft parts: a fuel tank from a Japanese Zero and another from a Nakajima Ki-27
- Uniforms, including a band with a family nameplate and Tatay Felix's father's first lieutenant uniform
- A silver coin collection; Pea hopes he locks up at night since silver prices are high and it's "worth a fortune"
- Filipino knives with elephant-ivory handles, all from WWII; with permission she shows off a particularly "wicked" one
- A huge blade she dubs "the ultimate MOAB, mother of all bolos" that could "chop off three heads all at the same time"; jokes it might be what Lapu-Lapu used to kill Magellan
- Fragmentation grenade shrapnel, showing the pieces that tear into a body
- Japanese gear: a Type 94 large smoke canister used to hide troop movements, shovels (one missing its handle), and an anti-malaria sprayer with tank, pumps, compressors, agitators, and valves used to eradicate mosquito breeding areas
- A backpack radio powered by a battery at the bottom
- A water purification unit: one hose goes to the water source, the other to the canteen, and you pump for one minute to fill a canteen
- The M1 Garand, which Felix calls "the gun that won the Second World War"
- Bayonet still very sharp; uses eight-round clips
- He says the Japanese copied it, and even the British did
- Hand grenades, all safe because he's removed the explosive content
- German caps and helmets: Pea says (expecting backlash) the Germans had the coolest-looking caps and helmets and real fashion sense, "but I'm not on their side, I'm just saying"
- Russian nesting dolls and Russian caps and helmets, which she finds kind of ugly
- A US Navy uniform that feels older than WWII to her, possibly because of the cap; she asks viewers who know to comment
- Canteens that make her wonder who owned them under fire; she expresses appreciation for the American troops who protected Filipinos in Negros
- 155 mm and 105 mm artillery shells with their shrapnel; "you'll be obliterated"
- Another 1,000-lb bomb, and she wonders how he got it there
- Portable steel matting the Allies laid on muddy roads so tanks and vehicles could pass, like a makeshift train track that can be lifted and moved
- Mortars and cannons "on and on and on"
- An aircraft machine gun (gas-operated, air-cooled, link-belt fed, fully automatic) from the left wing of a downed Nakajima "Nate" fighter, still with its bullets
- A Model 92 heavy machine gun, which she identifies as Japanese from its bell-shaped part and confirms from the museum booklet; "Rambo's got nothing compared to this"
- A gong she guesses may have been used in the mountains to announce the war was over
Closing
- Felix's message to viewers: "We hope to remember the past in order not to repeat it"
- Pea agrees, thanks him, and says the address and contact info for visiting are in the description
