The Philippines During the Second World War
How Japan Viewed the Philippines and Southeast Asia
Japan always thought of the Philippines and Southeast Asia as a place for expansion. Japan considered it as a place for settling of its expanding population, a source of raw materials, and a market for its products.
During the American period the Japanese start to permanently settle in the Philippines for economic opportunities by building factories and shops in Manila.

The Road to War
In the 1930’s, Japan experienced economic crisis, militarists took over the Japanese government.
Professing a belief of Japan’s destiny to expand, Japan’s leaders annexed Manchuria in 1931 and defied global censure by withdrawing from the League of Nations.
Japan started provoked an undeclared war with China and occupied several parts of that country. Massacred 100,000 people of Nanjing.
In 1940, Japan allied itself with the Axis powers and stared to occupy French-Indochina
Because of the atrocities of Japan. America imposed an embargo on oil and scrap metal exports to Japan.

Preparing the Philippines for Independence and War
To prepare Philippines militarily President Manuel Quezon summoned Gen. Douglas MacArthur as Adviser to Philippine Commonwealth.
He was given the carte blanche to produce defense plan for the Philippines including recruitment of troops, the acquisition of equipment and building of camps.
However, due to lack of funds was not able to prepare the Philippines as planned.
The training of soldiers was undertaken with the implementation Preparation of Military Training (PMT) and Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC). They were trained poorly, their camps were built haphazardly and there was lack of ammunitions and military equipment.
Americans were reluctant about arming Filipinos with thousands of rifles and wary over fully armed Philippines. Instead of selling arms they were loaned to the Philippines. The arms sent to Philippines were WWI vintage.
With the pitiful state of Philippines defense, President Quezon contemplated neutralization after independence. He went secretly to Japan to discuss the prospect of neutrality. He also considered placing the country under British Commonwealth. Both measure were opposed by Gen. MacArthur.
With the growing differences between Quezon and MacArthur, Quezon asked National Assembly to establish Department of National Defense in 1939. This would clip the powers of MacArthur over the Philippine military.
By 1941, the new American fist tank units and B17 bombers began to arrive in Manila. New rifles like M1-Garand were issued to members of Philippine Army. But it came too little and too late as war clouds began to gather in the horizon.

Prelude to War
On August 19, 1940, President Quezon declared a limited state of national emergency and created the Civilian Emergency Agency. As early as April 1941, the CEA conducted air raid drills in Manila while the American residents quietly began to leave for US mainland.
The US had no clear plans what to do with Philippines if it was invaded by Japan.
MacArthur asked the President of US to recall him to military service and be appointed as head of the unified Far Eastern Command.
In July 1941, Roosevelt ordered the mobilization of the Philippine Army and integrated it with the Philippine Division of the US Army forming the United Sates Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) and Mac Arthur was named as its commander.

Outbreak
While negotiations between Americans and Japanese were on going in Washington, Japanese naval bombers attacked Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The attacked left 2,897 dead and destroyed 8 battleships and other vessels. With an open conflict. President Roosevelt asked the US Congress for a declaration of State of War against Japan.
On the following day Japan allied itself with the Axis Powers.
The following day Philippines was attacked.

Precious Hours Lost From American Inaction
Though there was an 8 hour lull between the attack on Pearl Harbor and The Philippines, there was no action from Gen. MacArthur to launch a preemptive strike against Japanese bases in Formosa.
Most of the American Planes including the newly arrived ones were destroyed.
To spare the city from further destruction, Gen. MacArthur declared Manila an open city on December 26, 1941. Bur despite the declarations Japanese attacks continued. MacArthur ordered the USAFFE to Bataan and wait for reinforcements.
President Quezon and Vice President Osmena were evacuated to Corregidor.
At the beginning of the occupation, many inhabitants fled to neighboring provinces for fear of Japanese atrocities. But later returned after proving their fears were unfounded.
The Japanese authorities declared American Sovereignty over the Philippines ended and that Filipinos should cooperate with them in restoring peace and order.

The Desperate Stance at Bataan
The combined Filipino-American forces withstood the attacks of the enemy. The Japanese amphibious landings were annihilated. The stubborn defense of Filipino-American forces required the Japanese to acquire additional reinforcements from China.
The Japanese time table to capture the Philippines was only 60 days but the campaign lasted for almost 3 months
The Fil-Am forces was demoralized when they found out that no reinforcement will be coming to their aid.
At Corregidor, President Quezon was aghast at the American policy and threatened to negotiate an armistice with the Japanese to save the Filipino boys at Bataan but was prevented by MacArthur.
Later President Quezon was evacuated from Corregidor to Australia, then to US where set up a government in exile. He would never return to the Philippines alive, he died from tuberculosis on August 11, 1944 at a sanatorium in Lake Saranac, New York.

Evacuation of MacArthur and Abandonment of USAFFE
Sensing that Gen MacArthur was too valuable to be captured or killed by the enemy, President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines. He was taken to Australia and promised to return to the Philippines “I shall return”
The departure of McArthur let the morale of the soldiers to its lowest point and began to lament “no mama, no papa, not even Uncle Sam”.
On April 9, 1942 the Commander of USAFFE in Bataan General Edward King surrendered his entire command to the Japanese.

The Death March
The USAFFE in Bataan surrendered to a smaller enemy force. About 76,000 Fil-Am troops to 54,000 Japanese. Few thousands were loaded on trucks to the prison in Capas, Tarlac. The rest endured the grueling trek called Death March.
Those who were weak to move were shot or stabbed by a bayonet. Some were able to escape by hiding among the people along the road but if Japanese someone escape they would kill another.
The reason for the cruelty of the Japanese is cultural. Surrender is never part of their vocabulary. Japanese soldier is expected to fight to the death and a soldier who surrenders is worse than vile animal. Hence, those who surrendered were treated with utter disdain.
Other reasons are language barrier and the fact that they are operating in potential hostile territory.
Further, there was a logistical factor. The Japanese had no sufficient food and medicine.
Aside from beating and outright killing, the Japanese looted their prisoners.
From Bataan to Mariveles where they began their march to San Fernando, Pampanga was more than 60 kilometers away. The road from Mariveles to Pampanga was littered with dead bodies. They were especially cruel to the members of the Philippine Scouts who were expert sharp shooters.
The march lasted from April 10 to 15. Of the 76,000 USAFFE prisoners only 56,000 arrived at the camp.
An estimated 12,000 men died during the march while few thousands managed to escape. While in the camp many prisoners died from malnutrition, dysentery and cholera. As many as 500 prisoners died a day and only about 33,000 were left when Filipino prisoners were released in June.

Fall of Corregidor
With the surrender of Bataan, the Japanese concentrated their effort to capture the island fortress of Corregidor. Using artillery as well as relentless airstrikes the guns of the fortified island were silenced one by one. On May 5, the Japanese force landed on the island.
Gen. Jonathan Wainwright the Commander who succeeded Gen. McArthur was confronted by Gen. Homma to surrender not just Corregidor but all USAFFE forces in the country. Realizing his hopelessness, Wainwright ordered other commanders to lay down their arms.
With surrender of Wainwright organized resistance against the Japanese ended.

The Philippine Government under Japanese Domination
The Philippine Executive Commission was given executive and judicial power. The legislative branch was abolished as the real legislative functions were exercised by the Japanese Military Administration.
Among the departments, the department of justice suffered the worst interference from the Japanese authorities.
The Kempeitai or Japanese Military Police would come before the courts and asked for the dismissal of cases in which they were interested.
Justice Secreatry Laurel issued a memorandum prohibiting the dismissal of cases except as a result of due process. However, Laurel was invited to Fort Santiago and was asked to rescind his order but he refused.

The Foundation of KALIBAPI
Executive Sec. Vargas issued an executive order forming the Kapisanan ng Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas.
The organization was to promote moral recognition, mental education, physical invigoration, and economic rehabilitation. Benigno Aquino Sr. was appointed its Secretary General all government employees were required to become members of KALIBAPI. It was to serve as the only political party and other political parties are deemed abolished by the Japanese.
The KALIBAPI did not attract many adherents because of the perception that it was a Japanese creation meant to serve its interest.
Complementing the KALIBAPI’s efforts was an organization called the Malayang Katipunan ng mga Pilipino or MAKAPILI which was formed by Benigno Ramos , founder of Sakdal Movement and a long time sympathizer of Japanese.
The MAKAPILI were armed and collaborated with Japanese by pointing out those who were working with the underground movement or who otherwise displayed anti-Japanese sentiments often MAKAPILI members hooded in public to protect their identities use their position to simply settle old grudges against fellow Filipinos.

The Promise of Independence
Japanese military propaganda said that the US would never grant true independence to the Philippines. Its war of liberation would free colonized countries from western bondage. The Philippines would be given independence in the shortest possible time.
The Preparatory Committee for Philippine Independence was formed as it was headed by Jose P. Laurel. The Committee was responsible for the drafting of the 1943 Constitution which provided for a strong executive and it was intended to be temporary. Under this Constitution, the President was to elected by the National Assembly. During the plenary session of the National Assembly, Laurel was elected President of the Philippines and Benigno Aquino, Sr was elected speaker.

The HUKBALAHAP
It was a resistance group formed in Luzon on March 29, 1949 by peasant leaders Luis Taruc, Juan Feleo, and Casto Alejandrino. It became known as Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon. The Huks were originally the armed component of the peasant movement fighting against landlordism. With the invasion by the Japanese the invaders now became their enemy.
The Huks were guided by doctrines such as the iron discipline, which enjoined their fighters to pay for what they take, be courteous to the people, avoid swearing, and other things that would alienate themselves from the people.
One of the large guerilla groups in the country was the Hunters ROTC guerillas which was founded by Miguel Ver and Eleuterio Adevoso of the Philippine Military Academy.
The motives for resisting the Japanese were varied. Some were admittedly pro-American or loyal to the Philippine Commonwealth Government. Others joined the resistance to avenge personal honor being victims of Japanese atrocities. One severe disadvantage of the resistance groups was that they were too fragmented. Often guerilla groups fought each other over prestige, territory, authority, and recognition from the United States.

The Battle for the Philippines
The Americans return to the Philippines on September 21, 1944. Manila experienced its first American air raid. The bombing destroyed many ships in the harbor.
On October 20, 1944, in the shores of Leyte Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed. He was accompanied by Sergio Osmena who had replaced Quezon as President of Philippine Commonwealth. Quezon died of Tuberculosis earlier on August 1, 1944. MacArthur broadcasted his famous words “I have returned”. On October 23 the Philippine Commonwealth was established at the Leyte Provincial Capitol.
Guerilla commanders were instructed to conduct an all-out campaign against the Japanese forces and more supplies had landed by submarines. The guerilla units also cleared the way for the Americans.
On February 3, 1945, an American Tank Unit smashed through the gates of the UST to liberate more than 3000 allied internees. Similarly, the Americans and the Filipino guerillas liberated more allied internees at UP Los Banos.
A large Japanese force remained trapped south of the Pasig River. The Japanese order to hold the city and not to allow it to fall. The defenders began to commit arson, murder and rape. The staff of PGH were killed in cold blood as did the brothers at LaSalle Taft, the Vincentians at San Marcelino, the residents of Paco, Malate, Ermita, and Intramuros.
The Americans began to use artillery and flame throwersto destoy the defenders.
On August 6, 1945, an atomic bombed was dropped in Hiroshima which was followed by a second bomb dropped at Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.
On August 15, the Japanese Emperor announced the Japanese surrender.
On August 17, Laurel dissolves the Philippine Republic.
On September 2, the surrender ceremonies was conducted aboard the USS Missuri near Tokyo Bay. On the following day Gen. Yamamoto Yamashita surrendered to American forces which ended the war in the Philippines. A war crime tribunal tried Yamashita, Gen. Homma and other Japanese officials. Homma was held accountable for the death march while Yamashita for atrocities in the battle of Manila. Both were found guilty and was to death.