A WARTIME friendship that first went to the books has been interpreted in various art forms and will be shown to the public during the first art exhibit to be held in Biliran Province.

On March 22-24, the Atitipalo Visual Arts Group of Palo, Leyte, will present "Sunset in Biliran: An Art Exhibit."

Sponsored by the municipal government of Biliran, in collaboration with the Biliran Historical and Cultural Society and Peace Development Fund, the exhibit will be held on the ground floor of the Tonelete Home on San Roque Street in Biliran town.

The exhibit aims to highlight the peaceful World War II experience of Biliran town, as immortalized in two books of memoirs of Pvt. Kennosuke Nakajima, a radio operator assigned at the local headquarters of a company of Japanese Imperial Army soldiers.

Nakajima was the only soldier assigned to Biliran who had survived the war. He died in 1997.

Francisca Laurente-Chan, 77, Nakajima’s best friend in Biliran during the war, will cut the ceremonial ribbon of the exhibit.

She is presented as "Elsa" in the Nakajima memoirs and details of his visits to her house and their friendship are memorialized in the two books, both written in Japanese.

The first book, :"Leyte Island: Wandering Between Life and Death," was published in 1986. The second, "Leyte’s Songs for the Dead," was published in 1988.

The Atitipalo group of artists is composed of Raul Agner, Leo Acebedo, Rico Palacio and Archie Zabala, all natives of Palo, Leyte. It has mounted the most number of exhibits among all art groups in Leyte-Samar.

Its last exhibit, "Echoes of Balangiga," was held in Tacloban City from September to October 2001, and spanned the centennial of the Balangiga Massacre in 1901 and the 57th commemoration of the Leyte Landing.

Representative art works from the same exhibit were shown in Hiroshima, Japan, in August 2002, during the 57th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.

Agner, leader of the Atitipalo artists, provided an overview of the exhibit. He wrote:

"Kennosuke Nakajima's memoirs reads like an ethnographic account of Biliran's people and their culture. It is full of imagery and easily lends itself to a 'horror vacui' rendition on canvas, suited to the Atitipalo group's community-oriented art's partiality to indigenous forms, patterns, color and sensibilities.

"But what is most arresting is this WW II Japanese soldier's disenchantment and final abandonment of war, to a point of sounding like a peace advocate, his radio operator’s duties and military uniform notwithstanding.

"Having been fed with the indelible image of the 'Hapon' as a ruthless soldier, present-day Leyteños, including the artists, find Nakajima a refreshing, admirable and a very rare exception.

"As partners with the Peace Development Fund and the Shitaba Seminar students, the Atitipalo artists see him as an inspiring symbol for peacemaking and an even more interesting thematic subject for art-making."

The artists received a grant to produce their works from Peace Development Fund, a small nongovernment organization funded by book royalties of Prof. Tomoe Shitaba of the Tokyo International University in Saitama, Japan, and occasional contributions from his seminar students who have joined the annual Philippine study tour since 1996.

The PDF co-sponsors the exhibit, along with the Biliran Historical and Cultural Society, the provincial-level group initiated by Gov. Rogelio Espina and is involved in the preservation and promotion of the history and culture of this island-province.

Although Naval, the capital town, was considered an exhibit venue, the final decision favored Biliran town, whose residents and young people are the best keepers of the memory interpreted by the artists.

"The young people of Biliran town would take greater interest in, and could better appreciate the exhibit because it presents the experience of their forebears," said Catalina Velasquez, 76, a civic leader in Naval and Chan's contemporary in Biliran town.

To maximize the educational impact of the exhibit, the Biliran municipal government will display local museum items in the same venue. The items won a prize during the inter-municipal historical display booth contest in Naval on the occasion of the 11th anniversary celebration of Biliran Province on May 11 last year.

Letters have been sent to various school administrators to allow elementary, high school and college students in Biliran town to view the simultaneous exhibits.

Excerpts of the Nakajima memoirs that have been translated to English and related wartime accounts about Biliran town are available online at http://www.oocities.org/rolborr/sunintro.html.

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