Tora! Tora!
by Oliver Carlos
December 8 is a memorable date. It’s fiesta day in my hometown Los Banos. It’s also the birthday of my son’s best friend and family physician, Dr. John Carlo “JC” Malabad. This is also the death anniversary of my grandfather Tomas Castillo, Sr. who died of natural causes in 1998 at the age of 83. He’s the original history buff in our family. I think I got those genes in me.
In Philippine History, December 8 is the day the sky was suddenly filled with Tora-Tora planes. It’s the start of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941.
Tora-Tora planes were Japanese warplanes. They may be small, but they’re quick and efficient. They were pretty maneuverable as seen by witnesses in many dogfights. Tora means tiger. It’s also a codename which means that the surprise attack has been achieved. Tora-Tora planes also filled the Hawaiian sky on December 7, 1941 in the Pearl Harbor Attack.
Looking at a globe or world map, we can see the International Dateline (IDL) across the Pacific Ocean, running from pole to pole, separating the biggest ocean. On one side of the IDL is the Philippines, and on the other is Hawaii. Thus we know that December 7 in Hawaii is actually December 8 in the Philippines. The attack which happened at 7 AM Hawaiian time, was 1 AM of December 8, Philippine time.
When the sun came up in the Philippines that day, our sky was likewise filled with the Japanese warplanes. The Asian Axis power carefully plotted the timing of the aerial invasion. The Tora-Toras were deployed here to pulverize the US airbases by surprise. After which, the next thing that happened was that the landing forces of the Japanese Imperial Army arrived on the beaches of Luzon and started their quick trek to Manila.
Let us imagine what was it like on that day. You wake up thinking it’s just another ordinary day, or maybe the extra ordinary was the fiesta you were looking forward to. You do your normal morning routines just like how you do them for the past many days or years. You may be eating breakfast or brushing your teeth that morning. Then suddenly you hear a loud deafening buzzing noise up in the sky. You run out, and your eyes saw the unconceivable! A smarm of warplanes zooming across the sky like locusts on the day of disaster. Great fear must have gripped your heart at that moment.
There was a reversal of roles though, in 1944. It was the turn of US warplanes to fill the Philippine sky by surprise. It was the Liberation Period. The Americans came back to re-take the then-US territory back to their fold. The Filipinos were very hopeful for that day to come, and it has finally arrived. What joy they must have felt when they saw those planes hovering in the clouds.
This scene reminds me about something similar that will happen in the near future. It’s called the Rapture. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 (NLT) Paul’s vivid description of it:
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.”
This will happen in a time when many people may be least expecting it. The Bible didn’t say a specific date, but only the assurance that it will really happen. The bottom line is we must be ready. Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Have you repented from your sins and have entrusted to him your life? God loves you. He wants you to be saved. He wants to take you to be with him for eternity.
