Japanese occupation of the Philippines

• 1. The First Ten Hours

  ›

  Japan invaded the Philippines on the 8th of December 1941. This attack occurred just ten hours after the strike on Pearl Harbor. American aircraft suffered severe damage during the initial aerial bombardment. Lacking air cover to protect their forces, the American Asiatic Fleet withdrew to Java on the 12th of December 1941. General Douglas MacArthur received orders to leave his men at Corregidor. He departed for Australia on the night of the 11th of March 1942, traveling a distance of 4,000 kilometers away from the front lines. The 76,000 starving and sick defenders in Bataan surrendered on the 9th of April 1942. These soldiers were forced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March. Between 7,000 and 10,000 men died or were murdered during this forced march. The remaining 13,000 survivors on Corregidor surrendered on the 6th of May.

• 2. Marches And Massacres

  ›

  Most of the 80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at Bataan were forced to undertake the Bataan Death March. They marched to Camp O'Donnell prison camp in Capas, Tarlac, located 105 kilometers north of Mariveles Bataan. Thousands of men weakened by disease and malnutrition died before reaching their destination. More men died from Japanese mistreatment in the first four months in the camps than had died in the four months of battle previously. Throughout the Philippines more than a thousand Filipinos were imprisoned as comfort women. Some victims were as young as 10 years old. Each Japanese military installation maintained a location called a comfort station where these women were held. Women kidnapped from the population were routinely gang-raped, tortured, and humiliated. Many suffered wounds such as breasts being cut off when they fought back against soldiers. Decades after the war, victims initiated efforts to have their documented slavery inscribed to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. Japan's government blocked the inscription using monetary contributions to threaten UNESCO. The Japanese also killed Filipino infants as an act of entertainment and stress-reliever during the occupation.

• 3. The Puppet State

  ›

  The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government structure in the Philippines. Although the Japanese had promised independence for the islands after occupation, they initially organized a Council of State through which they directed civil affairs until October 1943. They declared the Philippines an independent republic at that time. Most of the Philippine elite served under the Japanese with only a few notable exceptions. The puppet republic was headed by President José P. Laurel. Philippine collaboration in the puppet government began under Jorge B. Vargas. He was originally appointed by Quezon as the mayor of the City of Greater Manila before Quezon departed Manila. The only political party allowed during the occupation was the Japanese-organized KALIBAPI. Quezon's political rival, former president Aguinaldo, sided with the Japanese invaders as a collaborator. In exchange, Japan initially planned to appoint Aguinaldo as President of a Japanese puppet-state but later gave him the position of National Distribution Corporation head. This placed him in charge of rationing prime commodities for the Japanese war effort.

• 4. Sixty Percent Of The Islands

  ›

  A highly effective guerrilla campaign by Philippine resistance forces controlled sixty percent of the islands. These areas were mostly forested and mountainous regions where Japanese control could not easily reach. Postwar investigations showed that about 260,000 people were in guerrilla organizations. Members of the anti-Japanese underground were even more numerous than these figures suggest. Such effectiveness meant that by the end of the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces. General MacArthur formed a clandestine operation to support the guerrillas. He had Lieutenant Commander Charles Chick Parsons smuggle guns, radios, and supplies to them by submarine. The guerrilla forces built up stashes of arms and explosives while making plans to assist MacArthur's invasion. They sabotaged Japanese communications lines and attacked Japanese forces from the rear. Various guerrilla forces formed throughout the archipelago ranging from groups of US Armed Forces in the Far East who refused to surrender to local militia initially organized to combat banditry. By the time of the Leyte invasion, four submarines were dedicated exclusively to the delivery of supplies.

• 5. The Return And The Rubble

  ›

  General MacArthur kept his promise to return to the Philippines on the 20th of October 1944. The landings on the island of Leyte were accompanied by a force of 700 vessels and 174,000 men. The initial Leyte landing was followed by landings on Mindoro, Luzon, and Mindanao. During the campaign, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted a suicidal defense of the islands. Cities such as Manila were reduced to rubble. Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi disobeyed Yamashita's command to withdraw from Manila without combat to avoid the destruction of the city. His disobedience ended up with the Battle of Manila which led to the devastation of Intramuros and its almost 400 years of historical heritage. One of the few survivors of the Manila massacre during the Battle of Manila was Maria Elena Lizarraga, daughter of Don Tirso Lizarraga. Fighting continued until Japan's formal surrender on the 2nd of September 1945. The Philippine Commonwealth troops and the recognized guerrilla fighter units rose up everywhere for the final offensive.

• 6. Death And Demographics

  ›

  The Philippines had suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical destruction by the time the war was over. An estimated 527,000 Filipinos, both military and civilians, had been killed from all causes. Of these, between 131,000 and 164,000 were killed in seventy-two war crime events. Filipino deaths during the occupations are estimated to be more around 527,000 including 27,000 military dead and 141,000 massacred. There were also 22,500 forced labor deaths and 336,500 deaths due to war-related famine. The Philippine population decreased continuously for the next five years due to the spread of diseases and the lack of basic needs. This decline stood far from the Filipino lifestyle before the war when the country had been the second richest in Asia after Japan. According to a United States analysis released years after the war, US casualties were 10,380 dead and 36,550 wounded while Japanese dead numbered 255,795.