One of the most traumatic events suffered by many Filipinos was the worldwide upheaval known as World War II. It was not enough that the Filipinos, Cebuanos included, had to endure the humiliating indignity of bowing very deeply to a Japanese sentry; they had to withstand tortures, displacement, imprisonment, privation and despair, interrogation and execution inflicted by a cruel and sadistic conqueror. Many of them were in fact incarcerated by their tormentors in the confines of the beautiful, Neoclassical Cebu Normal School building, designed by their American mentors with durability, functionality, and timeless magnificence in mind. Several more were beheaded or shot to death by their ruthless captors.