Echoes of past war resound as Manila recalls Liberation (Never Forget the 100,000 Killed)

manilatimes.net ^ | Thursday, February 03, 2005 | Manila Times

[John Filson]

Echoes of past war resound
as Manila recalls Liberation

 
Memories of a fierce battle that left Manila a vast wasteland 60 years ago will be summoned at an oral-history conference on Thursday and Friday.

The conference, entitled “The Battle for Manila: The Price of Freedom,” is sponsored by the National Historical Institute (NHI). It will be held at the Resource Center, NHI Building on T.M. Kalaw Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Battle of Manila, which raged from February 3 to March 3 in 1945, was marked by savage street-to-street fighting between US soldiers and well-entrenched Japanese troops. A highlight of the battle was the liberation of 3,500 American and allied detainees interned at the University of Santo Tomas on February 5.

The fighting was at its fiercest in Intramuros, where the Japanese made their last stand.

As many as 100,000 Filipinos were believed to have died in the Battle of Manila, besides the thousands of American and Japanese casualties.

Discussants at the conference are doctors Benito J. Legarda Jr., Ricardo Jose, Jose Pobre, Luis Taruc, Prof. Antonio Custodio, Felisa Syjuco-Tan, Manuel Co­layco Jr., Col. Emmanuel de Ocampo and Crispin R. Abulencia.

Surviving members of various guerrilla movements and members of the Lila Filipina, an organization of comfort women, will also discuss their experiences.

For details, contact Dr. Agusto V. de Viana or Carminda Are­valo of the Research, Publication and Heraldry Division at 301-7729 and 523-9043.

[John Filson]

See Untitled (short & worth reading), 68skylark's post of wretchard's Belmont Club commemorartion of the dead.

As wretchard suggests during these days of harsh criticism for America's use of nuclear weapons in Japan, the Filipino dead are not remembered in beautiful candles floating down darkened rivers or in flights of doves soaring into the blue sky...

Who will remember?

[John Filson]

ping

[atomicpossum]

I've been reading some of the stories of Japanese atrocities in Manila as the US forces arrived-- for those who want to castigate the US for its barbarism in the boming Hiroshima and Nagasaki, learn what those bombs brought to an end. Hitler gets all the press, but his allies on the other side of the world had nothing to learn from him in the field of barbarism.

[ncountylee]

Thanks Harry!

[68skylark]

Thanks for the ping. Maybe you can help me clear up something. Didn't I read somewhere that there are some urban legends in the Philippines that blame Gen. MacArthur for a large number of Filipino deaths at the time the Japanese were driven out? I thought I heard that somewhere, but now I don't recall where. Maybe I've got that wrong.

[John Filson]

Also, these Filipinos were innocent people, unlike the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, who were locked into total war with the allies through their industries and other endeavors.

[John Filson]

Skylark, I don't know if MacArthur is blamed for Filipino deaths before the islands could be liberated. MacArthur is blamed for a lot of things. Some people make a hobby of hating MacArthur. He did come back, however. And the Philippines were liberated. And our own troops suffered during the whole process. It is unfortunate that during the years between WWI and WWII, pacifists and isolationists in America had weakened our resolve to the point that we could not hold the Japanese back in that region of the world. I think there's a lesson to be learned for today, if anyone will listen.

[Charlespg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Massacre

I did not know that the japs had massacred 25 German citizens at Manilla's German club or this

Even though the Spanish flag was prominently displayed at the Spanish Consulate, the Japanese fired the building and more than 50 people were burned alive or killed with bayonets in the garden. The Casino Espanol and library were burned. The House of the Auxilio Social and Patronato Escolar Espanol were bunged. It is estimated that 90 percent of the Spanish properties in the city of Manila were destroyed.

http://www.battlingbastardsbataan.com/som.htm

[SBprone]

The Japanese seem to have murdered an awful lot of people just for the sheer pleasure of it. Ritual beheadings and such were condoned if not encouraged to such an extent that recreatioinal murder must be considered a national policy of Japan at that time.

That can never be said of of the United States in that conflict.

To this day the Japanese are so sorry................................. for their own losses!