3 Review(s)

In 1941, the Philippines was a mountainous island country populated by some seventeen million people that included Hipolita Chapman, the young widow of an American, and her children. But when the Japanese bombed Clark Airfield, Hipolita had to make the agonizing decision to evacuate her family and go into hiding in the mountains for nearly a year. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of their struggles.In a fascinating narrative, Evelyn Chapman Castillo recounts the experiences of her Filipino-American family during the Japanese occupation of her homeland during the Second World War. As she details how her mother kept her family together during the Japanese occupation, she also chronicles their journey to join the resistance movement, the experiences of other family members and their house staff, the bloody assault of the US soldiers for the liberation of Leyte, MacArthur’s landing at Red Beach, the desperate struggle by the Japanese forces to take back the island, and their attempts to survive the indiscriminate bombings by the Japanese on the American-held island.And They Returned chronicles the atrocities of war and one family’s will to survive while providing a window into a Filipino community desperate to preserve its culture.