Until the 43rd Infantry Division entered his life, José Estrella lived on Luzon and helped his parents in the family rice paddies. Before the war he had tried to join the U.S. Army in the Philippines, but he was too small. The Japanese put him into a forced labor camp, cutting wood for charcoal. One day, 17-year-old José slipped away from a work gang, swam across a river and hid in the bamboo grass, waiting, so "I will be the one in Pozorrubio to find the Americans." Three G.I.s took him to headquarters,...
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