Short answers, pulled from the story.
At least 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed during the Battle of Manila from the 3rd of February to the 3rd of March 1945. Deaths resulted from deliberate massacres carried out by Japanese forces and from artillery and aerial bombardment by both American and Japanese forces. One estimate attributes approximately 40 percent of non-combatant deaths to American artillery operations.
Japanese troops, trapped within a tightening perimeter with no plan to withdraw, turned on the civilian population as their positions became increasingly untenable. Encouraged by their officers and facing certain death, they carried out violent mutilations, rapes, and large-scale killings in schools, hospitals, and churches. They also forced Filipino women and children to act as human shields on the front lines.
Sanji Iwabuchi commanded the Imperial Japanese Navy's 31st Naval Special Base Force and led the defense of Manila with 12,500 naval troops. He defied direct orders from General Tomoyuki Yamashita to withdraw, choosing instead to fight a last-ditch battle. Iwabuchi had survived the sinking of his battleship off Guadalcanal in 1942, an event seen as a stain on his honor, and may have been motivated by a desire to die in battle. He committed suicide at dawn on the 26th of February 1945.
The University of Santo Tomas was converted by Japanese occupying forces into the Santo Tomas Internment Camp to hold civilian prisoners, including Filipinos, Americans, and U.S. Army and Navy nurses known as the "Angels of Bataan." Of 4,255 prisoners held there, 466 died in captivity. The camp was liberated on the 3rd of February 1945, when five tanks of the 44th Tank Battalion breached the compound at 9 PM.
Intramuros, the 16th-century walled fortress at the heart of Manila, became the final Japanese stronghold. American forces launched a 140-gun artillery barrage at 07:30 on the 23rd of February 1945, followed by infantry assaults through breaches in the walls. Army historian Robert R. Smith noted that the artillery preparation "practically razed" the ancient walled city. Intense fighting continued until the 26th of February, when Rear Admiral Iwabuchi and his officers committed suicide.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commander of Japanese Army forces in the Philippines, was executed in 1946 for war crimes committed by Japanese forces under his command during the battle. Yamashita had actually ordered Japanese troops to withdraw from Manila before the battle began; Rear Admiral Iwabuchi defied those orders and fought the suicidal last stand.