Commentary

Execution
By Nadine Sarreal

It wasn't easy choosing from among the submitted stories to fill the prize list for the second Ivy Terasaka Short Story Competition. Each of the entries had Pinoy essence and universal heart, the primary elements I sought in the fiction. Ultimately, I pulled my statistical background into use (as rusty as it is) and used nonparametric ranking on the stories. Twice. Three times.

We Filipino baby boomers have heard horror stories of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines . My father was a young boy during World War II. He and his family went into hiding because they were on the Japanese military's "wanted" list. My mother's family fled Manila for the relative safety of Bacolod . Their memories are of deprivation and second-hand humiliation at having to hide in their own country.

Grace Talusan's "Japanese Times" is not a pretty story, but rather, one full of grit and unpleasant things, rooted in a quiet ferocity. Papa gives Titong a bolo on his seventh birthday, his first blade, won in a gambling match. Suddenly, the boy finds himself armed with responsibility and the keen delight of accompanying power over plants, and chickens that his mother needs slaughtered for the annual fiesta. In the harsh world Ms. Talusan has created, Titong's coming of age arrives much too early. He realizes the weapon in his hand is a dangerous extension of himself. The story's arch of violence starts in young Titong's family-his father's alcoholism, his parents who mate like animals on hot Sunday afternoons, their hard brand of love for him-and projects out to the community where men bet bolo knives in gambling games, and neighbors turn each other in to the Japanese soldiers. The final scene pares down the barrio dwellers' existence to an anxious filial loyalty as they watch soldiers execute some of their kabayans.

The sensory images start out sharp and succinct-Papa's sharpened thumbnail in Titong's ear, by way of birthday greeting-and build to the focused crescendo of Jesse's death in the town plaza. I congratulate Grace Talusan on a strong and memorable story.

© Nadine Sarreal

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