Dominador Marcial was born on February 12, 1918, in Cavite Philippines where he lived the average life of a Filipino. The “average” life of a Filipino was harsh due to constant depression and poverty, and Dominador lived in a small house. Every day he had to go to school and work to support his family. When Dominador was six years old, Avelina Danti was born on March 3, 1924 on the other side of town. These two people would become future husband and wife but not meet for long years to come.
Life proved to be too hard for both Dominador and Avelina. Dominador dropped out of school in 4th grade, and Avelina dropped out in 2nd grade. The year is now 1940 and the two still never met yet. It was during this year, when the Japanese Empire began it’s domination throughout the Pacific, that the bombs began to drop. Avelina was only sixteen and Dominador was 22 when the Japanese started to invade the Philippines. As bombs continued to drop on Cavite, people in town hid in underground bunkers and were forced to live there for days even weeks. Reduced to feeding on cassaba, or sweet potato, and corn for several days, the Filipinos of Cavite suffered a heavy loss.
Hundreds of people who did not make it to the underground shelters in time were killed. People were forced to live in the shelters included wounded and the sick. Disease would spread if people did not get out. So people began to move out of shelters and back into homes while the war was fought further north. Guerilla warfare against the Japanese included many citizens throughout numerous cities and villages. While Avelina was selling fish in the market area when the Japanese reached Cavite and raided the city for every man to be put out in ranks. Dominador was working the family farm when the Japanese came and took him. The Japanese invaders forced a captured Guerilla soldier to point out other Guerilla war fighters in the ranks of men while his/her head was covered in a mask. The Japanese would then take the men pointed out and then execute them. The Japanese would do this in almost every town and in hospitals that aided the Philippine’s army. Dominador was not pointed out but many of his friends were.
The Philippine government called for a draft and enlisted many new recruits including Dominador. So now he was officially involved in WWII. The Philippines was in need of aid from The United States Military and they answered. With U.S. troops fighting in the Philippines and other islands of the Pacific, the Filipinos thought they had the help they needed. Bombings from the Japanese continued and Avelina was forced into constant hiding and working.
In the year 1942, the Battle of Bataan began. After three grueling months of hard fighting, some 76,000 Filipino and U.S. troops surrendered to the Japanese on April 6, 1942 some 10,000 were U.S. soldiers. Dominador was one of the 76,000 soldiers who surrendered, and these POWs (prisoners of war) were forced on the Bataan Death March. The Bataan Death March was a 100 mile march to large POW camp emplacements ran by the Japanese. The Japanese did not expect such a large force to surrender and thought the fighting would continue on. With lack of room for the 76,000 prisoners, they forced them on this treacherous six day march on some of Philippines harshest terrain.
On the Bataan Death March, the prisoners did not receive much water or food the whole way. Over 10,000 prisoners died including 5,000 Americans on this march from dehydration, malnutrition, exhaustion, disease, and from beatings and torture dealt by the Japanese captors. The march finally ends when they reach Camp O’Donnell, a prison camp in the Tarlac province. Around 16,000 died in the camp while some were able to escape, around 54,000 people reached these POW camps. Problems for the Japanese increased and they granted the Filipinos amnesty and released them. The story was not the same for American prisoners; they were moved to a camp in Cabanatuan where they were later freed in 1945 in The Great Raid.
Dominador was freed and moved back to Cavite where he later married Avelina Danti. They became Dominador and Avelina Marcial, and they had a happy life after the war and had six children, one of whom would become the mother of Jerrold and Christel Simms. Life was still difficult for Marcial family, the first two children did not complete school in order for them to help the rest of the family survive and attend school. Alex Marcial, the third born, was the first Marcial to finish college and become famous for tennis. One daughter, Fedilita Marcial, married an American soldier and moved to Guam. Fedilita then petitioned Dominador to Guam while the rest of the kids were old enough to take care of themselves and work. Since Dominador was a POW during WWII, the President of The United States granted him and other ex- POWs amnesty to live in America.
Dominador and his family moved to America where they still live today. Now his family lives in Los Angelis, Oahu, and in Manila, Philippines. In all, Dominador suffered a bayonet laceration on the arm, and terrifying memories of death and war, but he gained freedom and a family that would continue for generations. Dominador went back to the Philippines where he then passed away in peace on September 1987 in his home country which he bravely defended. Today he has a large family with many new grand children being born in the U.S.
My sister, a few cousins, and I were first generation of Dominador Marcial’s family born in America; he would be so proud to see how his success and his trials gave us a better life than he had. If not for my grandfather, I would not be here in America today.
