  We consider the lattice field theory involving two flavors of staggered
quarks which interact with $U_A(1)$ gauge fields in the strong coupling limit.
For massless quarks, this theory has an $SU_L(2)\times SU_R(2) \times U_A(1)$
symmetry. We show explicitly how pions emerge through the phenomena of
confinement in this theory. We also show how one can incorporate the physics of
the anomaly in this theory. Thus, our approach is a good pedagogical tool to
explain how pions arise in real QCD. Another advantage of our approach is that
we can easily design efficient cluster algorithms to compute a variety of
quantities close to the chiral limit, thus allowing us to understand the low
energy physics in a QCD-like setting from first principles.
