Katinka Floro Rodriguez

Birthdays in the Cemetery Katinka Floro Rodriguez

A child's extraordinary and uplifting memoir - surviving World War II in Manila, Philippines (Black & white edition).

Just after Pearl Harbor Day, a motherless six-year-old girl awakens when a bomb falls a block from her home, the beginning of years of shattering deprivation.

In World War II Manila, Katinka suffers starvation, illness, and cruelty and loses family in the infamous Bataan Death March. She survives the Japanese occupation and the Battle of Manila. By the end of the war, Manila is destroyed and a million Filipinos are dead, but Katinka has endured the worst and now experiences the American liberation and reconstruction.

Packed with historical maps, original photographs, and an illustrated Tagalog glossary, Birthdays in the Cemetery is rich in sensory details about Filipino culture, vivid characters, and humor. This historical memoir offers a rare glimpse into the often-neglected story of World War II in the Philippines.

Katinka Floro Rodriguez has written an uplifting memoir about the human spirit and its triumph over adversity in the midst of death and despair. An immigrant to the United States and award-winning photographer, Katinka tells her story in a way that will touch you with her gentle humor and generous spirit, while shedding light on a rarely-described period in world history.

This is the black-and-white edition of this book.