A picture paints a thousand words, went the lyrics of a song adapted from a Chinese proverb. Thus this gallery of self-telling photographs, mostly of landmarks and buildings described in two books written by Mr. Kennosuke Nakajima, a radio operator assigned in 1944 at the headquarters of a company of Japanese soldiers in Biliran town. The two books, Leyte Island: Wandering Between Life and Death (1986) and Leyte's Songs for the Dead (1988), immortalized the peaceful war years in Biliran town.

Vintage photograph of the wartime mayor's house (Nierras residence) in Biliran, described in the Nakajima memoir. This house was burned down during a fire in the late 1970s. (Photo courtesy of Mrs. Corazon N. Pajota)

Photograph of the old Enage residence in Biliran town, taken in March 1999. Located some 50 meters west of the same block as the old Nierras house (above), it faces the street corner where vehicles turn and exit towards Naval town (to the left of the picture). Both houses might have been built by the same carpenters around the same era, as can be gleaned from a similarity in their construction.

Old store owned by the Tonelete family. Valuable possessions of the townspeople were taken here for safekeeping during the tumultuous weeks before the departure of the Japanese soldiers from Biliran early in Aug. 1944. Most residents left town around that time, fearing drastic action by the Japanese who were conducting intensive war drills in the town plaza and confiscating cargoes of rice from boats sailing along Biliran Channel.

Mrs. Corazon Nierras-Pajota (left) recalls the war years with Mrs. Catalina Tonelete-Velasquez (right), a contemporary and neighbor in Biliran town. Photo taken in March 1999.

Photo taken at the Catmon Elementary School (in Naval) in 1976. A younger Mrs. Corazon N. Pajota (second from left) was visited by Mr. Leonardo Funa (left), her brother-in-law who was then vice-mayor of Biliran, and two Japanese (right) who were guests at their house in Biliran town. Through the help of Ms. Kaoru Kato, a Japanese journalist, the Japanese right beside Mrs. Pajota was identified as Mr. Kennosuke Nakajima. (Photo courtesy of Mrs. Corazon N. Pajota)

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