RP history in the MacArthur Memorial

I had the rare opportunity to feature two special guests on my TV show Straight from the Sky last Wednesday: James “Jim” Zobel, archivist of the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia; and my old friend Louis Jurika. These two gentlemen share my passion for World War II history.

 The MacArthur Memorial, aka MacMem, is the final resting place of American Caesar Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his wife Jean. Filipinos (especially our parents and my generation) revere Gen. MacArthur as a great man for having fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines after the Japanese occupied the archipelago in 1942. This occupation ended on Oct. 20, 1944 when Gen. MacArthur waded into Red Beach in Palo, Leyte and fulfilled his promise to the Filipino people.

The MacMem brochure tells us that it is located at the corner of Bank Street and City Hall Avenue, at the beautifully landscaped MacArthur Square. It houses four buildings, a theater, galleries, exhibition halls and a library that contains all the records, photographs and memorabilia of Gen. MacArthur, from his famous corn-on-the-cob pipe, his RayBan sunglasses and his General’s hat to his Chrysler limousine and yes, lots of documents that the General wanted to preserve for posterity and for the future generations to come. MacMem’s motto is Honor, Duty and Country!

Louis Jurika told me that if you’re a World War II buff like Jim Zobel, especially coming from the Philippines (Jurika’s parents were born in Zamboanga City, while he was born in Manila), then the place to go is the MacArthur Memorial which has a lot of materials about the Philippines during MacArthur’s time. Unfortunately, Norfolk, Virginia is not as accessible to Filipinos unlike California. I, too, have wanted to visit that place. Incidentally, Jim Zobel told me that the MacArthur Memorial Museum is the only one of its kind for an American general. Most of the libraries in the US are usually reserved for past US presidents.

After our hour-long taping, we huffed over to the Casino Español for a dinner hosted by Marisa Fernan (she’s the big boss of SM Cebu), who is also a very close friend of Jurika. She invited Cebu’s foremost historians like Rene Alburo and his wife Erlinda Kintanar Alburo of the Cebuano Studies Center at the University of San Carlos (USC); Gavin Sanson Bagares of Cebu Daily News; Dr. Noel Ponce, an armchair historian; Jose Eleazer “Jobers” Bersales, chairman of USC’s Anthropology Department who is involved in archaeological diggings in Boljoon, Cebu; and Madrilena de la Cerna of the University of the Philippines-Lahug campus.

Though I have been corresponding with Jim Zobel (he insisted that he is not related to the rich Zobels of Manila, but was stunned to learn from Jobers Bersales that the name Zobel came from only one town in Germany and yes, it was the same town of Jim’s ancestors) via e-mail, it was the first time I met him and I knew right away that MacMem had the right guy as its archivist as he not only took his Masters in Military History from Dominion University, his thesis was also on breaking the Japanese code during World War II.

Jim Zobel is a walking encyclopedia of anything MacArthur, from his grandparents down to his son Arthur MacArthur who apparently has changed his name and lived in total obscurity. Jim specializes in Filipino guerrillas and so I asked my uncle Col. Manuel F. Segura, who wrote the books Tabunan and The Koga Papers and whose exploits we already wrote here sometime ago, to join us and Zobel was ecstatic to meet a real live guerrilla whose books he already read.

During dinner, Jim showed us a CD of 50 rare black and white photographs of Cebu before and after World War II, including the construction of the Osmeña Water Works Dam, now named the Buhisan Dam up in Tisa, Barangay Punta Princesa, Cebu City. I learned that the dam was constructed by E.J. Halsema who later became the mayor of Baguio City and built the famous Halsema Highway. MacMem just got the collection of books and documents from James Halsema, son of E. J. who recently passed away.

Unfortunately, Jim Zobel and Louis Jurika had to leave for Davao early the next day, hence they didn’t see much of Cebu. As the evening ended, he bestowed a five-star Gen. MacArthur pin on my uncle Col. Segura and gave Marisa Fernan and me a gold MacArthur coin from the US Mint. I’m sure Jim Zobel, together with Louis Jurika, will be coming back here soon because there’s so much he knows about our country from his office in MacMem.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.