The Forest: A Personal Record of the Huk Guerrilla Struggle in the Philippines
by William J. Pomeroy


Bill Pomeroy came to the Philippines as an American soldier in World War II. During the war, Philippine Huk Guerrillas battled Japanese occupiers. One of the Huk was Celia Mariano. After the war the Huk continued fighting for the freedom of the people against the Philippine government and oppressive landlords. Celia and Bill married and Bill joined the Huk movement.

In 1950 Celia and Bill left Manila to join the Huk guerrillas in the Sierra Madre mountains as they struggled to free the islands from foreign influence and the power elite. The Forest tells the story of their two years living with the Huk and training them in revolutionary theory in various mountain camps. It has short chapters in chronological order with months marked out as if it was a journal. As a personal account by the only American in the Huk movement it is a valuable inside look that can help us understand what it was like in such a group at the time.