29/08/2026
With Victory Day in Kiangan coming up on September 2, who remembers back in the '80s when regular Japanese visitors would come to Kiangan Central School? 🇵🇭
They brought free pencils, those thick “Kolor di Hapon” crayons, and the most lavish harmonicas complete with a crash lesson.
Although those gifts were always for a selected few, the rest of us still crowded around with eyes wide open, hoping to land a pack or at least catch a whiff of that new-crayon smell.
These freebies kept us fully entertained while the adults quietly hiked up Mt. Atade right behind the school grounds.
They came back several times over the years, but as kids, we were beyond contented just receiving (just seeing) the gifts. It still felt like a Christmas exchange (minus the live chicken tied to the leg of a desk for Madam!) 😊
Mt. Atade sits right along the ridgeline of Million Dollar Hill—the high ground overlooking town. It earned its moniker because US forces spent millions dropping artillery, bombs, and na**lm on the area in WW2. As our elders recalled, every square meter of ground was hit so hard that the soil was pulverized to dust.
Looking back as adults, the picture gets so much clearer. "Million Dollar Hill" wasn't just a colorful nickname, and those "tourist" hikes up Mt. Atade definitely involved much better topographical maps, metal detectors, and compasses than our entire AFP had at the time. 😁
As Kenny Rogers sang: "If you want to find gold, go lookin' in the mountains..." 🤣
Mt. Atade stands as it always has, but the "Million Dollar" moniker is slowly fading—fading with the WW2 stories of our elders, and the "tourists" sweeping away with whatever those on its slopes. 🪙
Drop your KCS memories below! 👇
