My wife’s father, Ben Feliciano del Rosario, was a wonderful and much loved man.  He emigrated to the U.S. with his family at a great sacrifice.  While in the Philippines he had a good job working for the U.S. Government at the U.S. Airforce Clark Field.  He had a somewhat comfortable life, was able to send his children to the best schools, and could have retired in the Philippines quite comfortably.  However, he knew that even though he could send his children for a good education, the future opportunities in the Philippines were quite limited.  In order to provide his family with greater opportunities, he made the decision to emigrate to the U.S.

Just imagine the difficulties of being in your mid 40s, leaving many family members and friends behind, and starting life all over again in a new country.  A very difficult decision.  Yet, he wanted to provide his family with the best opportunities possible.

The family encouraged my father in law to write his autobiography so that future generations of our family would be able to know of his life in the Philippines and his emigration to this country. We were very fortunate that he was able to accomplish this.

In addition to his autobiography, we asked him to write about his life during the Japanese occupation. This was a subject he really didn’t like to talk about. But we prevailed in getting him to write about it. He was concerned because of the graphic and cruel nature of some of these events.  We convinced him to tell his story exactly like it was. Even though some of it is difficult to read, future generations need to know the difficulties of war during that time.

Please note that these two documents are exactly as Ingkung Ben wrote them, including spelling.  I feel this better portrays my father in law and his story. He was truly a wonderful man.  Please enjoy!