EMILIO GRUPE, A FORGOTTEN HERO
W117 “They tortured Emilio from 11 p.m. to 3:30 in the morning, and they did it in my presence,” Campbell told The Herald during a 2011 interview. “Finally, I screamed at them, ‘Stop it! You’re acting like animals!’ At that point, they finally noticed I was pregnant, so they took him into the bathroom — six of them — and continued to beat him.
On Aug. 30, 1944, Grupe and others were taken to the Chinese cemetery in Manila, where they were beheaded [in the presence of Richard Sakakida - Registrar] and buried together in a mass grave.
The above two paragraph came from this article from the Monterey County news, dated 4th Sep 2015. The author did an article on Aunt Alice in 2011, when she was still living in Salinas. This is an update.
Below here is the whole article:
MONTEREY COUNTY. Former Monterey County resident Alice Campbell was seven months pregnant with her third child, Peggy, the night the Japanese military police burst into the home in San Juan, Manila, that she was sharing with her first husband, Emilio Manuel Grupe, and their other two children, Frankie and Betty.
It was just after 11 p.m. on Feb. 13, 1944, when they came through the door, accusing Grupe of transmitting information to the Americans that resulted in the destruction of a convoy and the death of thousands of Japanese troops.
“They tortured Emilio from 11 p.m. to 3:30 in the morning, and they did it in my presence,” Campbell told The Herald during a 2011 interview. “Finally, I screamed at them, ‘Stop it! You’re acting like animals!’ At that point, they finally noticed I was pregnant, so they took him into the bathroom — six of them — and continued to beat him.
“When they finally brought him out, his eyes were just slits, his cheeks were all swollen, and he couldn’t raise his arms.”
In fact, Grupe was guilty as charged. The native Filipino was a radio engineer with the RCA Corp. who became an intelligence operative — a captain in the Filipino military collaborating with the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) in Japanese-occupied Manila, part of a closed-unit intelligence group known as the Elizalde Espionage Ring.
In the early morning hours, the Japanese military police whisked him away to the infamous dungeons of Fort Santiago.
On Aug. 30, 1944, Grupe and others were taken to the Chinese cemetery in Manila, where they were beheaded [ in the presence of Richard Sakakida - Registrar] and buried together in a mass grave.
Seventy-one years later, Grupe’s sacrifice has been recognized by the Republic of the Philippines, which on Aug. 4 presented Campbell (who turns 101 on Sept. 15) with six medals honoring her husband’s contribution to Philippine independence.
Grupe’s posthumous honors include the Philippine Independence Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Republic of the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation Badge, the Philippine Liberation Medal, the Philippine Defense Medal and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal.
He had been recruited by U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur via a Filipino senator, Jose Ozamas, who knew of Grupe’s radio skills. Grupe and a neighbor, Charles M. Holmes, teamed up shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in December 1941 to install an emergency transmitter for the U.S. Navy in two jai-alai buildings in Manila.
After the fall of Manila, they constructed two small transmitters for the Filipino guerrillas, delivering them to a guerrilla leader in northern Luzon.
In August 1942, Grupe smuggled transmitter parts from the Japanese — who believed he was working for them — which Holmes delivered to the guerrilla forces.
By 1943 and ‘44, Grupe, Holmes and others were monitoring listening posts, picking up radio signals from Mindoro and news broadcasts from Australia.
“Emilio and his comrades contributed immensely to the successful landing of the liberation forces and they may have prevented the death of many Allied soldiers and civilians alike,” said Maj. Gen. Delfin N. Lorenzana, AFP (Ret.) and Special Presidential Representative and Head of the Office of Veterans Affairs, who presented the awards to Grupe’s widow.
Before he was executed, Grupe and fellow POWs endured horrific treatment at the hand of the Japanese.
He and others were held in a 5-by-6-foot cell that filled with water, often neck deep, whenever the nearby river flooded. The cell had an elevated wooden floor with a small trap door on one end, under which was a 5-gallon can was used for sanitary purposes.
Prisoners were observed by guards through a slit in the door and were forced to sit or squat, facing the wall, for 16 hours each day. They were permitted to lie down and sleep for the other eight hours.
Grupe also was forced to work for the Japanese forces, repairing RCA transmitters on warships.
Two months after he had been captured, Grupe was brought back to his home by Japanese guards to retrieve transmitter parts. During that very brief visit, he was permitted to hold his 2-week-old baby, Peggy.
It would be the last time his family saw him. In mid-May, as MacArthur’s forces were liberating the Philippines, Grupe and others were transferred by their captors to Bilibid Prison in Manila.
“I was told he had been taken to Bilibid,” his widow told The Herald. “Whenever they sent somebody to Bilibid, it was the end. We knew they were going to be killed.”
Three months later, he was beheaded for espionage.
“Shortly before March of 1946, I was called to witness the exhumation of the bodies at the Chinese cemetery for identification purposes,” Jose Maria Ygoa reported in a military affidavit in January 1949. “Grupe was my brother-in-law — brother of my wife — and had lived with us from the time he was 4 years old until he got married to Alice Young Grupe Campbell (April 27, 1941).”
After her husband was arrested, Campbell and her three children were placed under house arrest. With three children to raise and no idea where her husband was, she persevered. When the concentration camp at Santo Tomas was opened to the Red Cross, she volunteered, walking there daily to visit her sister and brother-in-law, who were being held there.
The Americans began to bomb Manila Sept. 22, 1944, finally defeating the Japanese in 1945. When occupying troops moved in, Campbell began working for the Army in the supply department.
That same year, she sold the lease on her home, her furniture and her diamond engagement ring, and took her children to America.
“The sad part is that Aunt Alice never received acknowledgement of her husband’s contributions from the Veterans Administration in the United States, and therefore never received any veterans pay or benefits,” said Linda Igoa, whose husband, Joe (a Fresno attorney) is a blood relative of Emilio Grupe. “She literally sold everything they had in Manila, came to the United States with three young children, and started over.”
Alice Grupe met Ray Campbell in San Francisco. They got engaged on Alice’s birthday in 1948. A year later, they moved to Pacific Grove, where Ray worked at Holman’s Department Store, selling and repairing vacuum cleaners.
Eventually, they opened Campbell’s Appliances, a business they owned and operated together in Pacific Grove for 27 years.
Betty, Peggy and Frank were soon joined by two half-siblings — Ray’s children, Nina and Eddie. All used the name Campbell throughout their school years.
Linda and Joe Igoa stumbled across the story of Emilio Grupe while investigating family genealogy last July, and eventually located Alice Campbell’s adult children, who were living in Salinas.
“They told us Emilio’s story, which opened up a whole new investigation for us,” Linda Igoa said. “We found a contact for Louis Jurika (nephew of WWII legend Chick Parsons), who knew the general (Maj. Gen. Lorenzana) we needed to reach.”
Lorenzana examined documents and affidavits the Igoas had found through their research, and within a month had presented Grupe’s widow with six medals.
“Alice is living with her daughter, Nina, and son-in-law, John, in Fernley, Nevada, and she’s so content and happy,” Linda Igoa said. “She literally sleeps with her medals every night. She reads and re-reads her certificates. Emilio was the love of her life.”
WAR HERO’S WIDOW RECEIVES MEDALS 71 YEARS LATER
W118 Former Pacific Grove resident Alice Campbell (101 on Sept. 15) shows a certificate and six medals bestowed upon her late husband, Emilio Grupe, honoring his valor and contributions in the Philippines during World War II. (Courtesy photo)
Note 1 from Karl: It is a very small world indeed; I learned that the 2nd husband of Alice Campbell is the brother of my Navy Shipmate Les Campbell; about 10 years my senior and we are still very active writing mates.
I think I will present more information about this forgotten hero in the future
Note 2: The information about this reply was presented before and in this thread:
corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1107/richard-sakakida-hero-turncoat?page=2You have to scroll down to on the page to the entry dated 10th Sep. 2015.