I’m now in the Tokyo Narita Airport. I’ve left the Philippines and am on my way home. It’s good to be on my way! The last couple of days in Manila were very busy with little time for myself which is also very good. Last night as I was packing, one of the fellows from work called from the lobby. He was very curious to see what the hotel rooms in The Belleview looked like so I invited him up. He visited for a few minutes and then left for home. We talked a little bit about vacations and whether or not he and his family ever took a family vacation. They have not done so, yet, because it is so expensive. There are too many other things that he needs to spend his money on for his young family. If he could go on a vacation, he would want to go to the beach. That apparently is the most expensive vacation for Filipinos although the prices to me seemed to be very reasonable.

I got up at 4:25 a.m. and after showering and dressing, finished packing. My driver was there as I came down from my room at 5:20 a.m. I was at the airport by 6. Lots of different security check points. The car was checked as we entered the airport. I and everything with me went through X-Ray and metal detectors to go into the airport terminal. Then there was a security screening before I got to the ticketing agent to check my luggage. Then there was x-ray and metal detector after going through Immigration as well as a pat-down. Finally, when I got to the gate we went through another check — a hand check of all carry-ons, a shoe inspection, and another arms-spread wanding before I could enter the gate area. I’m pretty sure that little got through all those checkpoints.

The airplane was one of the upgraded 747-400 models from NW. I really like the new business class seats. They fully recline — flat! There is no first class on these upgraded airplanes, only business class and economy. We were almost an hour early getting to Tokyo and I spent the time reading backed up e-mail. I’m down to about 8,000 unread e-mails….!!

The airplane that we’re taking to Los Angeles hasn’t arrived, yet so we’ll be at least an hour and a half late leaving here. No problem (yet) on the other end as I’ve more than a four-hour layover in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, I’m in Northwest’s Business Class Lounge plugged into their high-speed wireless connection. I’ve got a couple of work things to do and then I’ll just surf the web or something until they call my flight. The lounge is very busy. It looks like lots of other flights are full or nearly full today, which seems a bit strange for a Thursday.

One of the historical things I learned on Saturday about the Philippines was about Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippine National Hero. According to the people at the office, there is only one National Hero and he’s got that distinction. He was the rallying point of the revolution in 1898 that helped defeat the Spanish and end their occupation of the Philippines, even though he had been dead for almost two years by that time. It was his writings and his defiant execution by the Spanish that focused the Filipinos and allied them with the United States, who were also at war with Spain. Admiral Dewey as part of that war defeated the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay which further enabled the Filipinos to carry out their own revolution. Then, the United States completely ignored the agreements made with the Filipino rebels, installed our own puppet government and began our own occupation of the Philippines which was only ended by the Japanese in WWII. After the war, the U.S. stayed in the Philippines, but by this time a fledgling democracy had been established and we no longer controlled the government. The U.S. military stayed in the Philippines until 1991 when the Philippine government refused to renew the bases agreement and we were essentially forced to leave.

So, Dr. Jose Rizal is a National Hero (with proper capitalization). I’d be hard pressed to say who the U.S. National Hero would be. We have a number of heroes, some have more clay in their feet than others, but there probably isn’t any single person whom we would annoint with that title. The concept is interesting to me that there would be one and only one National Hero.

Another person in the news in the Philippines is a fellow named Luis Taruc. The Wikipedia article in the link doesn’t mention anything about Luis Taruc during WWII. He organized and lead the guerrillas fighting against the Japanese occupation and was superbly successful. This was the most successful resistance movement in all of Asia during the war and was so because of his leadership. Submarines full of supplies, guns, ammunition, and radio gear were dispatched by the Allies to deliver to Taruc and his fighters badly needed supplies and to obtain the intelligence they had gathered. The loss of life in the successful reoccupation of the Philippines in 1945 was significantly reduced by his work against the Japanese. The local newspapers talked about him in this light, largely ignoring what happened after the war. He’s another complex person, driven by idealogy and altruism, and is considered by most of the farming peasants in the Philippines to be a hero. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Japanese and Taruc’s subsequent disallusionment with democracy in the Philippines, he turned his military skills once again to the overthrow of a government. For almost two decades he lead the Huk communists in a war against the Philippine government. He’ll probably never be a National Hero and may well soon be forgotten by the world. I certainly don’t wish to idolize him in any way, either. He just points out that heroes are often defined by the winning team. Had the Spanish not been defeated, Dr. Jose Rizal would perhaps not even be a footnote to history. Had the Huks prevailed, Luis Taruc would probably be today’s National Hero. Interesting thought.

With that, I’ve left Manila and am headed back to my normal life. I had a good trip. On the one hand it seemed like I had hardly arrived when it was time to leave. On the other hand, it seems like I’ve been there for an eternity. Regardless, I’m on my way — that is, if the airplane ever arrives!