My proposal for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is to conduct research for my literary historical novel, "The Butterfly Catcher". In turn I will engage the local and literary community in a creative writing seminar at the University of the Philippines Baguio, entitled "Masakit Dito: Ang Puso Ko" ("It Hurts Here: My Heart"). I will feature stories in various mediums by local writers discussing the long-term effects of World War II in the Cordillera region.

For the National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship, I plan to document my research journey through my ongoing podcast tentatively entitled "My Fulbright Year with NatGeo". I will interview scholars and those who found themselves caught in the fray of World War II in the Philippines as well as their descendants telling their stories. It is my plan to travel the Cordillera mountains, barangays (small towns) by the sea, to Manila and incorporate an interactive map and feature my stories through an interactive journalism platform like Storyform or Shorthand, adding audio and video along the way.

A Synopsis of My Proposed Novel: "The Butterfly Catcher"

"Wherein orchids in their deathlike beauty unfold like torpid butterflies..." ~John Fowler

Corporal Tsukuda, a wounded Japanese soldier, runs blindly into unknown jungles after witnessing many murders committed by his people to the Filipino people such as the up-and-coming opera singer, Bituin Sarayaga, who was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Army. Her parents were killed and she was kidnapped, detained, and raped daily by a slew of Japanese soldiers to only commit suicide the night Tsukuda escaped.

2nd Lieutenant Kimura and Colonel Yamada are Tsukuda’s superior officers and unrelenting, vicious nemeses who give chase non-stop into the mountains in order to capture Tsukuda at all cost. They also plot and scheme to arrest Tsudkuda’s family who reside in the rice planting village in the Tohuko region of Japan for his defection.

Earlier, SGT Cloud, a Native American soldier, escapes into the jungle with other survivors who end up running an underground commando, executing ambushes with the help of other Filipino soldiers to try and save their troops from the enemy. They also witness the aftermath of Manila Massacre and head off into the mountains in hot pursuit of the Japanese Army that retreated into the mountains.

19-year-old Beatriz Tagataw was always a curious child who liked to stray away from her tribe to imagine and explore her world chasing butterflies alongside trails. She is part of the poor indigenous rice planting tribe who tilled the infamous Filipino rice terraces. One day, Beatriz stumbles onto the injured Tsukuda who is lying low in the high grass; she is frightened but leads him out of the open field to a more secure area, her hiding place, where she kept her live butterfly collection. As he starts to recover, he reassured her no harm by showing her a picture of his daughter named “Cho”, which means butterfly, as he points to the butterflies flying all around them. Beatriz reluctantly helps Tsukuda recover from his wound knowing the Japanese will soon invade her village. As days passed, their friendship grew into a deep affection. Tragically, Beatriz is captured and tries to escape to return to her tribe while Tsukuda desperately tries to rescue the young tribal girl whom he grew fond of. Finally, Beatriz escapes and finds her way back to her burned-down village to only discover Tsukuda’s picture of Cho on the ground and fears him dead.

The U.S. Army, including SGT Clouds' unit and the Filipino guerrilla forces, eventually trap and corner the Japanese soldiers, leading to the downfall of the Japanese foothold and reign during WWII’s Pacific Theater.

Hence, time has lapsed. The war is long over. There is a newspaper article that reported news of Japanese soldiers still living in the Philippines since WWII. A middle-aged Japanese woman makes her trek to the Filipino mountain region in search for her long-lost father. She finds him elderly and ailing, accepted and assimilated into the Ifugoan tribe. He tells her of the little girl who loved butterflies and that she had saved him in order to live to see his “butterfly” again. A more older-looking Beatriz then hands her a worn, black-and-white picture of a little Japanese girl. “We were all like butterflies beating our wings frantically against our cages,” Beatriz tells her. Lastly, the female narrator in the prologue is revealed to be Tsukuda’s daughter, Cho.

Why I Chose the Idea

This is not just another WWII story. This story occurred in the Philippines and is told through the perspective of people of color: a Filipina aboriginal girl and her family, a Filipina Comfort Woman, a Native American and African American soldier and a Mexican fighter pilot, all who found themselves in the Philippines fighting the Japanese during the Japanese Occupation there.

I chose to relay this story because it provides an opportunity to weave in history and depict the drama through rich images of a particular place in time that was once marred by war. The setting is filled with lush green jungles, waterfalls and rice terraces in the mountains weaving to the sky juxtaposed by the harsh, machinery of violence and combat, serving as a compare and contrast to Japan’s breathtaking terrain. It is my hope that “The Butterfly Catcher” serves to educate and become a vehicle for understanding. When brainstorming the idea and hashing out details, visualizing the scenes and my characters helped me investigate the story even more, through action, scenes and dialogue—in order for the usual fictional devices to connect, not only dependent of language, but by “showing” the characters’ motivation and story development through each action and scene. It is my intent that being in the historical setting, researching the factual accounts where these events have occurred will put flesh to the bones of my characters so-to-speak and present this story with more historical accuracy.

Draft of Chapter Three

Book Trailer for Proposed Research for My Novel

Who am I? My Biography.

Cristina Querrer was born and raised in the Philippines, post Vietnam War, during the Marcos regime, pre-Mount Pinatubo eruption, as a (US Air Force) military child. She graduated high school from former Wagner High School, Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, in 1985. Her works have appeared in The Columbia Review, The Adirondack Review, The Fairfield Review, Stirring, and in print anthologies such as Pinoy Poetics, Babaylan, Bombshells, The Mom Egg, and Field of Mirrors. Querrer has two published books of poetry, “By Astrolabes & Constellations” and “The Art of Exporting”. She has an MFA in Creative Writing, is a Master of Library and Information Science graduate student at University of South Florida, and a U.S. Army veteran. Querrer is working on her first historical literary novel, "The Butterfly Catcher", based in the Philippines during World War II.

My Podcast

Interviews

Literature Class Interview with American University at Phnom Penh, Cambodia