Long Islander whose grandparents lived through Japanese occupation of the Philippines in WWII recalls family's hardships

The Japanese began to bomb American bases in the Philippines hours after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the United States into World War II.

By the spring of 1942, Japanese forces occupied Manila. American and Filipino troops protecting the 7,000-island chain were overwhelmed and thousands were killed on the infamous Bataan Death March. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had ordered Gen. Douglas MacArthur, his remaining troops and government officials to flee their holdout on Corregidor — and the semi-independent U.S. commonwealth, the most important American military outpost in the Pacific, had fallen.

For the family of Central Islip resident and Filipino immigrant Jan Jandayran, the siege had just begun.

The 28-year-old history teacher, military reenactor and news