APPENDIX A – EPIFANIA SUMAOANG INTERVIEW Date: January 27, 2016 Interviewee: Epifania Apolinar Sumaoang Interviewer: Jeannie (Damon) Magdua Location: Seattle, Washington Transcribed by: Jeannie (Damon) Magdua Start of Video File 1 Jeannie Damon: Ok. This is Jeannie Damon and I’m here in Seattle, Washington on January 27. It’s approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, um, January 27 of 2016, and I’m here interviewing Epifania Apolinar Somaoang and, um, I’m going to ask questions of her about her war bride experience and her life in general. Epifania Somaoang: Ok JD: Ok. First, I need to ask you if you could please state your name for me for the recording. ES: My name is Epifania Apolinar Somaoang. JD: Ok. Thank you and I just want to make sure, is it ok for me to record you and use your recording for my research at the University of Washington. ES: Yes. You can do that. JD: Ok. Thank you. Ok. Alright, so, we’re gonna go through the questions, um and, you know, just answer the best you can. If there are questions you don’t have answers to, just say, “I don’t know.” ES: Ok JD: Alright. So, first, please describe to me the town or city you grew up in in the Philippines. ES: That’s in Palompon, Leyte, Philippines JD: The island of Leyte. Ok. And what’s the name of the town again? ES: Palompon. Palompon, Leyte JD: Ok ES: Philippines JD: And about what size was this town? ES: That’s in the west side of Leyte, the town of Palompon. Fannie Sumaoang January 2016 Transcript – 1 JD: Ok ES: We are … Tacloban is in the north and Ormoc is in the … ah… maybe it’s in the middle, Ormoc, that’s in the same Leyte JD: Ok ES: And they got different town in there. (1:50) So, I’m cannot remember how I describe you, though Leyte I know is Tacloban. That’s where Imelda is, where they … and then Ormoc and then you come to west side, Palompon, Leyte. That’s where my hometown is. JD: Ok. And, um, can you describe to me the house that you grew up in. ES: Oh. Before the war? Oh my, before the war, it’s alright because we are … we are… at that time, before the war [inaudible] though with Japanese, we are eight kids. Uh huh. And it’s, uh we just, it’s big house, high … we have, I think, eight steps going up. The downstairs, nothing in there, except chickens and pigs. So, it’s ok. It’s only whole house and then one bedroom where my father and mother stay and the baby, but otherwise, as children we sleep in the floor cause we don’t have beds. We just put mat in the floor and it’s time we go sleep, we sleep there and early in the morning, we get up and roll up the mat and put away. That’s it. JD: And you said there were eight children?430 ES: Yeah. JD: And where are you in the line-up? ES: Oh. I’m the oldest. JD: Oh, you’re the oldest? ES: Uh huh JD: Ok. ES: In the family, and then my sister who is passed away already, my brother. So, that time, we are only three girls, but the other died during the war. She’s a baby. Uh. She’s a baby, guess she got scared or something because we run around for how many years trying to hide when they think the Japanese coming. JD: That’s very sad. Ok. Um. So, you said that there were seven brothers and sisters and your parents. Uh. What language or dialect did you speak at home? 430 At the time of the war, there were eight children. Fannie’s mother had more children after the war for a total of twelve children. Fannie Sumaoang January 2016 Transcript – 2 ES: Oh. Visaya JD: Visayan? ES: Yeah JD: And which language do you speak at home now? ES: English JD: English ES: Uh huh JD: Ok (4:38) ES: Even when I got married with my husband we speak English because he’s Ilocano and I’m Visaya, we don’t understand each other [laugh] JD: Ok. So, you never learned Tagalog? ES: No. At that time, no. JD: Ok, and um, when did you first learn English? ES: Oh, even we are kids we go to school because we are under the Americans. Philippines is under the American. We go to school, we speak English. If you out of the fence of the school, they give us ticket. And so right if we get out we speak our own language. JD: So, inside the school grounds you had to speak English all the time. ES: Yes. Uh huh. Otherwise, somebody tried to hear you talking Visaya, they give you ticket and then when you go to school … the school … the teacher will fine us and they will let us work … uh … clean up the room. Yeah. Then when I was first grade, second grade, you know, we are kids, we still do our work. In the yard of the school, we clean it up in there. Nobody will clean it for you. You know, cut the grass all the time. JD: Did you have American teachers or Filipino teachers? ES: What do you mean? JD: Were they American, the teachers, or were they Filipino? ES: No. Filipino. Filipino teachers, but they are speak English because they are mostly … them, they, during the, uh, American, they speak English, they go to school, too, before they teach us. Yeah. Fannie Sumaoang January 2016 Transcript – 3 JD: Ok. Great. Um, so, when you were learning English, was, do you think that was difficult for you, or was that easy? ES: Well, it was difficult because we don’t, we, at that time, we speak English when we go to school, but when we go out, we speak Visaya, my, our own language, so, it’s not, it’s better to learn little bit, when we do it, it’s easy [inaudible] learn the easy way when we are in the lower grade, but when they go higher, they could do better. JD: Ok. Um, are there any particular lessons that you remember from English? For instance, my mom can remember reciting, “milk, milk, I like milk. Thank you mommy.” Do you remember that one? ES: No. We didn’t, we not have milk so much in there, but you know what they teach us? Uh, we’re first grade, we teach us count, counting, and then the food like food, banana, apple or something like [inaudible] there is not much apple there, but orange, those kind of fruit. And, they teach us how to work on the animal, like pig, chicken, like that. I remember that, but I was not so smart when I was first grade. I don’t, because my parents uh didn’t speak English either. It’s just maybe say yes or no because they didn’t go too much in school. You know, in (8:54) .. in those time, when I was growing, even my parents, they said I don’t have to go to school because when I get married, the husband support us, but they believed that, but we still go to school. I still go to school. I just, I didn’t go too much in grade, but they still go to school. JD: Ok. ES: Like my brother, sister, my sister sit next to me. I don’t know how much she speak English, but we do speak English in school, but not at home. Not at home. We don’t do it, because my father my mother don’t speak too much English, you know. They, I guess, I don’t know how old are they when they get married, of course they don’t go to school anymore. That’s how it goes. So, we speak Visaya. I don’t expect to be here in the States [laugh]. But during the war, I learned lots of things, too, because the Americans came there and we mingled with them. I think there was seventeen. I speak English with them when they ask me, “How did you learn how to speak English?” Well, I said, “We got school here.” And we are under the American. We don’t have independence at that time. JD: Right. ES: I could say yes or no. [laugh] (10:43) JD: Right. ES: Yeah JD: Ok, um, so, let’s see. So, if you were in Leyte, um, how far was it to the closest military base. Do you know? ES: The base? Fannie Sumaoang January 2016 Transcript – 4 JD: Yeah ES: It’s in my yard. JD: The military base was in your yard? ES: Yeah. They were there, because there were batallion came in. America [inaudible] force, uh, the Japanese were our town, Leyte. End of Video File 1 Start of Video File 2 ES: Leyte area. They go Tacloban, Ormoc, Bongabonga, Palompon. They are the one they force us to come back to town, otherwise you are in the mountain, but when the American arrive, I remember that we are in the mountain hiding from the Japanese. When the Japa .. uh, when the American arrive we are high ... we climb, we walk to the mountain and then we could see the water with ship where my father go fishing, the big boat will come in, you know, and then the barges come in and then we jumping, jumping.