“Fearless.” That is what everyone called her.Not Grandma, not Lola, not Grams.But Fearless with a capital “F.”No matter how many times I’ve heard the family story told around the dinner table, it’s still my favorite to hear over and over again, because it stars strong women in my family who survived WWII during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.And not just any old heroine. My great-grandmother Rita on my mother’s side, the half-Spaniard and half-Filipino beauty who married a handsome and kind Filipino-American man who fought for the American side during WWII.You see, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it was a shock to the whole world. Not only did the U.S. get pulled into the war after that, but the Japanese also attacked the Philippines the very next day on December 8, 1941, wanting to extend their reach of military might and expand their empire.The Filipino and American soldiers who were stationed in the Philippines combined their forces to fight the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula. On April 9, 1942, they were forced to surrender, and the Japanese made them do what the locals called the “Death March.” History calls it the “Bataan Death March.”In this Death March, the Japanese rounded up the Filipino and American survivors of the Battle of Bataan and made them march a 65-mile arduous trek to the prison camp, Camp O’Donnell.Many died before they even reached their destination. If any of them collapsed while marching, they were shot. Locals who witnessed the march whispered about the atrocities they saw, some too horrible to even write down on paper.It was by the grace of God that Rita’s husband, my great-grandfather Vincente, was stationed overseas in the United States when the attack on the Philippines happened, so he was saved from the terrible fate that fell upon those stationed in the Philippines. But this also meant he was separated from his family, and with the Japanese occupation in the Philippines, there was no way for them to communicate safely. They had to send their prayers up to the heavens to keep their family members safe, especially since Rita was a mother of seven children at the time.When Rita was questioned by Japanese soldiers about her husband’s whereabouts and what he did, she simply said, “He’s dead,” and pretended to be a widow the entire time the Philippines was occupied.Rita instructed her children to play pretend that their father was dead, too. They understood it was to protect the whole family. They didn’t want to risk declaring to the enemy they were American allies and that their own father was fighting on the U.S. side and stationed overseas.They knew without a doubt they’d be killed for that, especially after what happened with the Bataan Death March. To stay alive and keep up the good fight, they had to keep their father’s true identity and living status a secret.When the Japanese were fully in command with no further military opposition, they forced everyone to go back to school and work and act like things were normal – even though things clearly weren’t.Curfews were put into place. Lights had to be out at night. Anyone caught outside after curfew hours were taken away as spies, interrogated, or just shot dead. One can only imagine what daily life must’ve been like to live under that sort of rule for three years.After the American allies won the war and the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, great-grandfather Vincente was able to be reunited with Rita and his family, and the rest is history.But let it never be forgotten, the lives of my ancestors who came before me. I will always carry the legacy of the strong women in my family, especially that of my Fearless Great-Grandmother Rita. May her legacy of fierceness live on in me.