WWII Photo from the Philippines

This picture was found in a box with my father-in-law’s WW II materials. The caption he typed below the photo is self-explanatory. This photo and other materials were published last summer in an article written by a gentleman for psywarrior.com. Believe it or not, I have recently been in contact with the grandson of the man on the right, Mayor Catalino Hermosilla. He was thrilled to find this photo of his grandfather on the internet! Apparently, photos of his grandfather are very rare and very few survived the war. Mayor Hermosilla passed away in March of 1945 of a massive heart attack at the age of 47, shortly after this picture was taken. It made my day to hear from the Mayor’s grandson, who is currently writing a biography of his grandfather and hopes to use this photo in his book. According to his grandson, the Mayor was “a catalyst in saving civilian lives from the hands of the brutal Japanese military personnel.”
The Mayor’s grandson lives in CA and is retired from the US Navy. He is very grateful to have found this rare photo and to have been able to thank those responsible for posting it on the web. This story once again shows that the internet is an amazing thing.....in this case, connecting the descendants of two men who lived thousands of miles away from each other, but whose paths crossed during a time of war.