WORCESTER - They are old now, a fading generation. That, at least, is how Dr. Valerie Veridiano, a physician at Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital, describes the World War II veterans who served in the Philippines and who stop her frequently when they visit the hospital. "'Are you from the Philippines ?' they ask me directly," Dr. Veridiano said. "I said, yes, and there is a twinkle in their eyes and they begin to tell me their stories."

The stories are of young men, many just 17- or 18-years-old, fresh out of high schools, thrown into a brutal conflict miles away from home, and among cultures and people that were new to them. Some of those stories were repeated yesterday at Shore Park on Indian Lake , where more than a dozen of the veterans turned out for a Filipino-American Friendship Day celebration cookout.

The event, sponsored by the Central Massachusetts Filipino-American Association, of which Dr. Veridiano is president, honored both the veterans, as well as marked that country's independence from the United States in 1946. The Bataan Death March, in which some 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers were forced to march more than 60 miles through intense heat and with little food and water to a prison camp, stands as an example of the brutal campaign waged by the Japanese in the Philippines. By the end of the march, some 5,000 to 11,000 soldiers died, and of those who made it to prison camp, about 513 survived the torture, other brutalities, and malaria and dysentery that followed.

Yet under the shade of the Shore Park trees, where the U.S. and Filipino flags flapped side by side, hot dogs sizzled on the grill and children roughhoused with one another, the veterans reminisced less about tragedies of the war and more about the simple acts of kindness and decency that they encountered in the Philippines .

"What I recalled most was how nice the people were," said John W. Perry, a Leicester resident who served in the 754th Tank Battalion of the 37th Infantry Division, and who spent 35 months in the Philippines . "The people were starving and had to beg for food, but they were not pushing or shoving. They were dignified."

Ziggy Podmostka, a Worcester resident who helped in the maintenance of squadron aircraft and the berthing and feeding of unit personnel during the war, remembered being invited to "homes made of bamboo floors," and watching Filipino women cooking chicken wrapped in leaves. "They shared the little that they had, and we gave them everything that we had," he said. "That was the biggest education I ever got in my life."

Richard A. Lemoine, of Upton , brought with him a wad of the Japanese currency that was being used in the Philippines during the war, letters that he had written home, and a bound, photo book of his unit's work in the Philippines . As a machinist during the war, his job was to rebuild and repair damaged equipment, and pull patrol duties once a day, while in the Philippines .

Edward N. Clarke said he was among 130,000 young leaders who were trained by the nation's Ivy League and other colleges to aid the war effort. He initially joined up to become a fighter pilot, but he was reassigned to a landing craft. When he arrived for his duties in the Philippines , he was told the vessel had been sunk. While waiting for his next ship command, he said he was put in charge of a huge hospital carved out of the jungle in anticipation of the casualties military planners believed an invasion of Japan would incur. Mr. Clarke, of Paxton, said he believes that about 1 million Americans and some 10 million Japanese would have been killed or wounded if the invasion had taken place. The war was ended by the bombing by the U.S. of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic weapons, after which the Japanese surrendered.

masque acide hyaluronique When the war was over, Japanese soldiers, hungry and malnourished, would sneak out of the jungle to join the American chow line, he said. "It is beyond me how they thought we would not recognize that they are Japanese soldiers," he said. Mr. Clarke helped in the rebuilding of Filipino villages devastated by the war and noted that the first thing the villagers wanted to rebuild was their churches. "My own recollection of the Philippines was not about the bullets that flew, but about the people that I helped," he said.

Cyrus Topol, of Worcester, a gunner's mate on the USS Missouri, said he arrived in the Pacific at the end of the war. But while there were no more Japanese sea battles, the Kamikaze pilots were still active and he and his shipmates got little sleep as they kept a vigilant watch, he said. "I knew history was being made," he said of the ceremonies marking the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri, Sept. 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay,

After the Japanese left the ship, Mr. Topol said he observed Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his staff "slap each other on the back and practically did a jig of happiness. Later, they repaired to their quarters to uncork a couple of bottles of spirits, which the captain often said he kept on board, just in case of a snake bite." Mr. Topol laughed at the recollection.

Dr. Veridiano, whose organization boasted about 100 Filipino-American families, said she is always astonished how men who have seen the brutality of war cling primarily to warm and fond memories of the experience. "We owe you a lot," Dr. Veridiano told them. "God knows what would have happened to us, if you were not there. Thank you very much."