(Main feature story of the Philippine Daily Inquirer on October 21, 1999, printed in the INQUIRER Visayas section.)

IN TIME of war, Mana Azon was engaged to marry an officer of the Japanese Imperial Army, a man she only knew as Captain Sasaki. But the Battle of Leyte intervened, and she never heard from her fiancé again.

She only learned about his fate early this year, 54 years after the victorious return of the Allied Forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur in October 1944.

Mana Azon, a retired public school teacher and a grandmother, is now 80 years old. She lives with her husband in the serenity of a spacious and concrete two-story house facing the sea in Barangay Catmon, 8 kilometers south of Naval, Biliran.

Her ten children are all grown-up with families and homes of their own.

She looked back at the doomed betrothal story of her youth with a mixed display of good humor and acceptance of fate and reality.

Mana Azon is Corazon Nierras-Pajota, a daughter of Eugenio Nierras who was appointed by the Japanese forces as mayor of Biliran, formerly part of Leyte.

Biliran town was the headquarters of the 10th Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Imperial Army. The unit occupied the municipal building and a school building across it. Its area of operation was the northwestern part of Leyte and Biliran Island.

Unlike the tense atmosphere in many other towns of Leyte, Biliran was an oasis of peace throughout World War II, thanks to the leadership and political acumen of Mana Azon's father.

The tranquility was immortalized by Kennosuke Nakajima in his published memoir, ''Leyte Island: Wandering Between Life and Death.''

Nakajima was a radio operator assigned at the Japanese headquarters in Biliran. He survived the battle in Leyte, became a straggler in the forest for several weeks, and later surrendered to the Americans in Ormoc in February 1945. He died in 1997.

''Sunset in Biliran,'' the first chapter of Nakajima's memoir, provides an ethnographic account of the townspeople, local geography, and way of life during the war.

His claim of a peaceful co-existence between the Japanese soldiers and the local residents was affirmed by Mana Azon and her contemporaries who have read the English translation of this chapter.

The town's situation was contrasted with the aloof and even hostile relationship between the residents and members of the Japanese detachment stationed in the mainland town of Leyte, Leyte.

Mana Azon spoke proudly of her father and the critical role their family played during the war. She said their residence was the virtual guesthouse of Japanese Army officials who came to visit the local company headquarters.

Nakajima wrote that the Japanese soldiers referred to the mayor's abode as ''Spanish house.''

This biggest house in the town, which was burned down in the late 1970s, was a two-story wooden structure of Spanish architecture. Dance parties were held there on special occasions, such as birthdays and holidays, and all Japanese officers were invited to attend.

Mana Azon claimed the entertainment parties were reciprocal gestures of her father for the respect accorded him by the Japanese officers and soldiers.

Ordinary soldiers like Nakajima preferred to go to the ordinary houses, which they considered more relaxing and where they could meet young girls of their age and similar humble origins.

Nakajima described the young Mana Azon, in her mid-20s 1944, and a sister as ''very beautiful. Many soldiers had a crush on them.''

Their beauty contrasted with those of three Spanish mestizas described as relatives of the mayor. The three were the Garamendi sisters, daughters from a Spanish family that used to own the nearby Busali Farms.

The sisters were boarded by their parents at the mayor's house for their safety. Despite their beauty, the Garamendis were not popular among the soldiers because their white complexion reminded them of their American enemy.

Eugenio Nierras was known as a stern and authoritarian mayor of Biliran. But his leadership style and policy of honesty and transparency in dealing with the Japanese kept his people safe and secure during the war.

Mana Azon said Japanese soldiers who went out to villages outside the town to confiscate pigs and chickens for food often returned empty-handed.

The villagers' yarn that the livestock were owned by the mayor was sufficient word to set them free. It made the Japanese believe the mayor was that rich.

Mana Azon recalled an incident when a soldier hurried up their house and, without asking permission, tried to take his father's rocking chair. This piece of furniture was probably ordered for the use of a visiting Japanese official.

Alarmed by the act of disrespect, the mayor raged and kicked the soldier, who fell down the stairs. Immediately, Nierras went to the Japanese headquarters and reported the soldier's mischief. The soldier received more punishment in front of the mayor.

Mayor Nierras appeared to have a soft heart for his daughters' emotional needs. When another daughter chose to leave the comforts of home for a life on the run with her husband, a guerrilla leader in Leyte, he let her go.

He promptly reported the ''kidnapping'' to the Japanese authorities. From then on, the street where they lived was guarded by Japanese soldiers at night.

Many soldiers might have had a crush on her, but it was Captain Sasaki who won the young heart of Mana Azon. He probably achieved his feat by befriending her mother, through his knowledge of accupressure that relieved her aching back and head. He also had facility with the English language, borne by his alleged education in the United States. He was about 27 years old.

In the early days of courtship, Mana Azon said she would be called from her bedroom by her mother to entertain the captain. A bit bratty in her youth, she would put down the book she was reading and went out to the living room uncombed and with an unmade face. Her unkempt appearance would force the love-struck Japanese officer to hurry back to headquarters to get talcum powder and assorted cosmetic items for her use.

The relationship presumably bloomed during those evening dance parties at the mayor's house, until an engagement for a marriage after the war was agreed upon between Mana Azon's family and Captain Sasaki.

But in July 1944, the good relations between the Japanese soldiers and the residents were soured by orders from higher command of the Japanese Imperial Army. The company in Biliran started to conduct intensive drills in the plaza and confiscated rice stocks from boats traveling through the narrow Biliran Strait.

The whole town was also fenced with barbed wires.

In early August of 1944, the 10th Company was ordered to pull out and beef up the defenses of eastern Leyte in preparation for the coming of the Americans.

Nakajima wrote that their departure one evening was supposed to be a secret. The order was for nobody to tell the townspeople about it, so that they would not be alarmed. Nakajima himself could not say goodbye to his local friends.

But the guerrillas had predicted the Japanese movement by watching from behind the mangroves the loading of cargoes in the boats. They had been alarmed by the sudden shift in Japanese attitude and prepared on the outskirts to defend the town.

Mayor Nierras and his family found excuse to leave town and went to Calubian. The whole town itself was almost empty of people, who fled for fear that the Japanese would do something drastic, like burn the town or massacre them.

Their worst fears did not happen.

The church bells were rung not long after the Japanese boats had left port, and the people held an instant celebration.

In early October 1944, Mana Azon received a letter from Captain Sasaki, who wrote from Dulag town. He reminded her of their engagement. That was the last communication from him. Soon after, MacArthur returned and the battle broke out in Leyte.

Mana Azon thought all the while that Captain Sasaki died in Pinamopoan, the oldest village of Capoocan town. Folklore has it that Japanese reinforcement troops were bombarded in their boats by American warplanes off the village.

After the war, Mana Azon went to Manila to continue her studies. Subsequently, she married Amador Pajota and they settled in Barangay Catmon, where she taught in the village elementary school until her retirement.

In 1974 and 1976, Nakajima traveled to his wartime station to find the body of a Japanese pilot whose plane crash-landed in Naval during the Leyte battle and disappeared. The pilot was captured and executed by guerrillas. His body was buried behind the Naval Central Elementary School building.

Nakajima failed in his first attempt. During his second trip, he accidentally met a son-in-law of Mayor Nierras, who invited him and his group to stay at the ''Spanish house.''

After a week, Nakajima met Mana Azon during a party to celebrate the success of his mission. She asked him about Captain Sasaki.

Mana Azon could not recall knowing or having met Nakajima. She remembered only the Japanese team that stayed in their house in Biliran. But Nakajima vividly remembered their meeting, enough for it to be detailed in a sequel of his memoir titled ''Leyte's Songs for the Dead.''

Nakajima knew Captain Sasaki during the war. But he was not aware of his relationship with Mana Azon until their meeting in 1976.

Though he was known as ''captain,'' Nakajima said Sasaki's actual rank was warrant officer, not captain. However, he was also aware that Japanese officers who carried swords were known as ''captains'' in the Philippines during the war.

Nakajima learned that Sasaki was seriously wounded in combat near Dagami town. He was heard to have shouted ''please, bring me with you!'' when he could no longer catch up with the other Japanese soldiers who were withdrawing toward the forest of central Leyte.

Instead of offering help, the company commander reportedly walked to Sasaki and whispered something to him. Nakajima interpreted the gesture as a suggestion for Sasaki to commit suicide.

Sasaki presumably obeyed his commander's order. His body has never been found.

Unfortunately, Nakajima failed to tell Mana Azon about the details of Sasaki's death in 1976. He hesitated then, because Mana Azon was already crying after she had posed her question to him.

''Does your husband know about Captain Sasaki?'' Prof. Tomoe Shitaba of the Tokyo International University asked Mana Azon in March. We visited her in the course of a study tour with five of Shitaba's students to visit places described by Nakajima in his memoir.

''Of course, he does,'' Mana Azon answered and then laughed aloud. ''My husband knows my story. But he has nothing to do with my past. He only has something to do with my present and my future.''

We shared her good laugh.

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