Pribbles and Prabbles or Rambling Reflections on Varied Topics: Illustrated by Anecdote, Reference, and Quotation (1906)

Ruben Molina returns home to San Ramon after nine years at a mental hospital. His re-appearance flings the town into a turmoil. Agitated, the municipal officials plot to intimidate him into leaving once more. His town mates avoid him. He is set upon by thugs. Puzzled at his reception, Ruben probes into the past, determining that the answers are recessed in The Japanese Occupation. A veteran of The Bataan Death March, he became a guerrilla leader. We accompany him in his journey, examining the ambivalence, dependence, and duplicity of the colonized against their former masters, The Americans.Now under the aegis of Colonel Uyedal, a Japanese Military Governor, they had settled into a period of uneasy peace, disturbed by the persistent resistance. Although aware they had already lost the war by their naval defeat at Midway, Uyeda is constrained to stabilize his region, and successfully exploits the peoples’ vulnerability. Lucas Damian, the town mayor and Ruben’s former guerrilla commander is a major factor in the attempt to evict him from town. Ruben’s quest for answers is a catalyst for the story.