Survivor of horrific 1945 Battle of Manila to speak at California bookshop

Evelyn Berg Empie recorded her experience in her first book, A Child in the Midst of Battle: A Family’s Struggle for Survival in War-Torn Manila. HANDOUT

SAN PEDRO, California – A survivor of the horrific 1945 Battle of Manila i(Feb. 3 – March 3, 1945), in World War II will speak at Philippine Expressions Bookshop and share her firsthand experience during the month-long conflict that left over 100,000 civilians dead devastated the city once known as the Pearl of the Orient.

Evelyn Berg Empie recorded her experience in her first book, A Child in the Midst of Battle: A Family’s Struggle for Survival in War-Torn Manila, co-authored by her son, Stephen H. Mette, and features original watercolors and drawings by Xavier Aboitiz. Videos on the Liberation of Manila will be included in the book talk.

Empie will speak at Philippine Expressions Bookshop’s Conversations with Evelyn Berg Empie: A Survivor of the Battle of Manila. This second Book Talk for 2023, commemorates the Battle of Manila will be held on Saturday, March 4, 2023 from 2 to 6 p.m. The Book Talk is free and open to the public, but RSVP is requested due to limited space.

Philippine Expressions Bookshop is located in the historic Arts District of San Pedro, the Port City of Los Angeles, at 479 W Sixth Street, Suite 105, San Pedro, CA 90731.

The Japanese resistance and massacre of civilians and crossfire from American artillery rendered Manila one of the most ravaged cities by the end of the war.

“Imperial warplanes swarmed in the sky, dropping their loads of destruction on the city at every time of the day and night. The ack-ack of antiaircraft fire was deafening. Tracer bullets shredded the night sky. Whenever we heard the planes approaching we scurried into a large closet beneath the stairs. We held our breath at the sounds of the bombs falling – a horrible whistling sound you don’t forget – and braced for explosions that rocked the earth.”

So begins the extraordinary journey of a ten-year-old Empie, who along with her family and the people of the country she loved, endured the nightmare of Japanese occupation in wartime Manila.

Evelyn Berg Empie is a 5th generation Spanish mestiza born in Manila and was schooled at Assumption Convent. Her mother, Fe Mandelbaum, was Spanish/American whose mother, Carmen Romero descended from old Spanish clans and father, Francis “Cheri” Mandelbaum, was an American architect. He went to Manila in 1904 to work for the American government, building up the new territory they had just acquired from the Spanish. Mandelbaum also built homes for the wealthy in prewar Manila, and taught architecture at the University of Sto. Tomas, where he was interned as a POW because he was an American citizen.

Evelyn’s father, Ernest Berg, on the other hand, was born and raised in Germany and came to Manila in the late 1920s. When war broke out on Dec. 8th, 1941 he had already built 32 Red Star Auto Stores throughout the Islands, and Berg’s Escolta, a well-known modern department store during its heyday.

Evelyn was repatriated in the U.S. after the war and has settled with her family in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. She has five grandchildren and continues to live to tell her story.

Her son, Stephen H. Mette, is an award-winning poet. His books include: the novel, The Thanksgiving Trip, and a volume of short stories titled, Wild Life and other Adventures. He lives in Southern California.