1945 Battle of Manila (Anti-US Military BARRF Alert!)

INQ7 ^ | 1/31/05 | William Esposo

[qam1]

THIS February will mark the 60th anniversary of the unwarranted death of over 100,000 civilians whose lives were sacrificed in the 1945 Battle of Manila. The casualty count was that immense because advancing US troops and their commander, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, did not consider that these non-American civilian lives deserved to be protected and secured by US troops whose role after all is to absorb the risk of war. But I wonder if anyone has even cared to remember this national tragedy?

Next to Warsaw, Manila registered as the city most devastated by World War II. Early accounts obviously peddled by the victors had imputed the enormous civilian casualty to acts and atrocities perpetrated by retreating Japanese forces. But historians had since debunked this reason. It was the US’ relentless bombardment and razing of Manila coupled with the callous disregard for civilian lives that turned any inhabitant in no man’s land a sitting duck for the remorseless American assault on the Philippine capital city in 1945.

However, this is not to deny the fact that Japanese forces had indeed committed some of the most barbaric and the most vicious atrocities that matched the brutishness of the ancient savage. The retreating Japanese forces showed no mercy. They raped and they slaughtered with wanton abandon. Babies were flung to the air and skewered by bayonets as they fell. Samurai swords swished in a mad harvest of decapitated heads.

But for all the terrifying stories of Japanese atrocities, the greatest number of civilian casualties was dealt by the careless and cold-blooded American bombardment. Post-war photos bear testimony to the virtual annihilation of all landmarks south of the Pasig River. The US forces were situated north of the Pasig River and by February 1945, there was hardly any Japanese air force to contend with. Manila was held by Japanese marines who were cut off from the main Japanese force that retreated to Northern Luzon with the legendary “Tiger of Malaya”, Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, to make their last stand there.

MacArthur liked to avoid unnecessary engagement of troops. For the most part, his Pacific campaign strategy – dubbed the envelopment strategy – avoided unnecessary troop engagement and instead isolated enemy bases from their supply lines. MacArthur posited: “Never take with bravado what you can attain with strategy”. And that is exactly how over 100,000 innocent lives ended up as sacrificial lambs to MacArthur’s troop preservation strategy. Instead of sending in US troops – whose job is to take combat risks and minimize civilian casualties – MacArthur opted for the deployment of the artillery and the air force to clear the Japanese held section of the city. In the process, Japanese defenders as well as innocent civilians were killed; with the greatest number of casualties being those of the civilian non-combatants.

Yet days earlier, the US commanders opted to send their troops to secure American prisoners in the University of Santo Tomas. How else can we view this contrast in US military approach except to conclude that the lives of US troops may only be risked when Americans and only American lives are on the line?

If you happen to be one who still believes in the old propaganda line that the 1945 Battle of Manila was a battle for Filipino liberation, you may want to read “The Battle for Manila” by Anderson, Connaughton and Pimlott. Well-researched and insightful, the book dissolves the propaganda myths and opens one’s mind to the truth and ugliness of this episode of the Pacific theatre of the war. Liberation gave the Battle of Manila a noble sounding cause but in reality it was a mere retaking of lost US strategic territory.

The Filipino’s easy gullibility to the propaganda cover-up surrounding the facts behind the 1945 Battle of Manila clearly exposes our shallow sense of history. Ironically, we keep quoting a favorite Filipino maxim: “ang hindi marunong tumingin sa pinanggalingan ay di makakarating? sa paroroonan” (one who cannot appreciate his origins will not get to his destination). Somehow the meaning of this otherwise profound advice has been narrowly confined. Many people understand it to be only about repaying a “personal debt of gratitude” (or utang na loob) rather than looking back at one’s historical roots.

Having such a superficial sense of our own history, it is not surprising to see educated Filipinos having a better grasp of the American, French and Russian Revolutions rather than their own 19th century Philippine Revolution. Let’s not even go that far – barely 19 years after the historic and awe-inspiring 1986 People Power revolt, many of our youths hardly even look back to try to grasp and understand that shining moment of our nation’s history.

Over 65% of the Philippine population is young and many of them now even think that living conditions were better during the Marcos era. I can’t blame them for thinking thus. Three years into her presidency, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is certainly making it look like life was a bed of roses during the Marcos term. A nation that regards Marcos as a good leader can only have a very shallow sense of history. It means that people can only appreciate and recall things relevant to their particular generation as though these things existed in a vacuum and unconnected with the historical tapestry of the past.

The baby boomers like me who lived through our heyday as the second most prosperous Asian country after Japan, (this was before Marcos became president) know the truth about the Martial Law era. But to the Gen Xers and Gen Yers who did not live through the early 60s, Macapagal-Arroyo’s dismal performance makes Marcos, and even Estrada, look good. The fiscal numbers and the misery index easily ‘rationalize’ that impression.

Three different generations bearing different perspectives to the national problem indeed create what it takes to be a divided people. This is the stiff price we are now paying for not knowing our history and the truth about our problems. Knowledge and information in the head more than money in the pocket are what separate the haves and the have-nots. Collect all the wealth and divide it equally among the people and in ten years time the more knowledgeable and better informed will again emerge as the upper class in the socio-economic ladder.

During the 1950s, one heard many stories about the personal tragedies that Filipino families suffered in the 1945 Battle of Manila. Up to the mid-50s, many Filipinos continued to seethe with so much hatred for the Japanese – it became prudent for a Japanese to avoid visiting Manila. A decade after the war, I remember how my mother would shake with rage every time she saw any Japanese. She relived the loss of her dear father, our Scottish grandfather who came here in the early 1900s, fell in love with the country and our grandmother, and decided to call the Philippines home.

It was February 14, 1945 and my mother and her family were in the relative safety of a bombed house’s basement near the De La Salle College – which was also the site of a massacre of civilians by the Japanese. The main Japanese defense line was just meters away in Vito Cruz and it was obvious that shells raining around the area were US shells directed at the Japanese. Our grandfather was felled by one such shell that exploded behind him, a shell that was fired upon the orders of, ironically, a fellow Scot (Douglas MacArthur’s roots are in Scotland and his biography acknowledges how MacArthur took immense pride in his Scottish lineage). Our family knew that our grandfather was felled by an American shell but still the strong emotions were reserved for the Japanese who invaded this hitherto perfect paradise and showed brutality never before experienced in the hands of previous invaders and colonizers.

On Valentine’s Day, 1945, a day dedicated to love, our Scottish grandfather, 1920 and 1921 Philippine Open Golf Champion Ian Macgregor was killed. It was typically Celtic of him to die on the eve of Allied victory.

Many Filipinos who suffered personal losses from Japanese atrocities during the 1945 Battle of Manila have long forgiven the Japanese for the anguish that they inflicted. To forgive is Christian and laudable. But as a people we should never forget. Forgiving allows you to move on. Forgetting dooms you to repeat the traumatic experience.

You may email William M. Esposo at: w_esposo@yahoo.com

[Constantine XIII]

Well, that would be 80 million hard working conservative Catholics.

You tell me. :P

[dvwjr]

Well, the Filipinos should be proud of this - how many other Nations can have their citizens visit the United States WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. and find their country honored with a pillar enscribed with its name? There are 56 pillars representing the 48 States, the District of Columbia and the 7 Territories of the United States during WWII.

One of those 56 pillars is engraved with the word:

Philippines

Pillars

"Fifty-six granite pillars celebrate the unprecedented unity of the nation during WWII. The pillars are connected by a bronze sculpted rope that symbolizes the bonding of the nation. Each state and territory from that period and the District of Columbia is represented by a pillar adorned with oak and wheat bronze wreaths and inscribed with its name; the pillars are arranged in the order of entry into the Union, alternating south to north across the plaza beginning adjacent to the Field of Gold Stars. The 17-foot pillars are open in the center for greater transparency, and ample space between each allows viewing into and across the memorial."

Example of WWII Memorial pillar

dvwjr

[PotatoHeadMick]

Jeez forgive me! I just answered your historical question...

[Northern Yankee]

Thanks...

Not many know how connected MacArthur felt with the Phillipino people. To say that he ignored their safety during the battle to re-take the Phillipines is absolutely incomprehensible.

[F16Fighter]

Awesome!

[KC_Conspirator]

Next to Warsaw, Manila registered as the city most devastated by World War II.

How is this measured? What about the Russian/Ukranian cities of Stalingrad, Leningrad, Rostov, and Kiev which were torched. I am sure I am missing many more.

Manila was savaged, but by the Japanese.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Give me an email address and I'll send you the pictures.

[LibertarianInExile]

Filipinos have the same attitude about government spending liberals do, whether they're conservative Catholics or not.

[HenryLeeII]

Next to Warsaw, Manila registered as the city most devastated by World War II.

Uh, I think the residents of Stalingrad may want to quibble over that idiotic statement!

[withteeth]

i hope to god you're bluffing.

no thanks, of course. I've had some Snopes warnings going off, but obviously the Japanese were well capable of such atrocities.

[Charlespg]

I remember my grandmother telling me that in WWl there was this story about the Huns. She was not German but she seemed to think that it was later accepted that this was war propoganda. Now whenever I read that about any army (no matter how obviously atrocious they were)I wonder if those particular stories are made up. ...


in the case of WWII and The Japs unfortunately not

[Braak]

Sadly the US Army had no choice with Manila. Seems Homma did order his forces to abandon Manila just like MacArthur had in 1942. But the local naval commander violated orders and ordered his sailors and marines to defend Manila in the usual Japanese style: "to the last man".

Whomever wrote this pap has a laughable understanding of history and of the events surrounding the Battle of Manila. Coming from someone who has written articles on Baatan, I can tell you this. The Filipino people fought the Japanese as hard as we did, and though in 1941-42, we lost to the Japanese, it wasn't for lack of courage. And what those same people risked to help us after the fall of Baatan and Corrigador was nothing short of remarkable. We could learn a lesson there.

And here is the best part, they fought on till we came back. Everybody talks about the French resistance, but why not the Filipinos? Trust me, the ones I met would have thought badly of this idiot, and with good reason.

[sacm]

hey, give the guy some credit. he is a filipino and has a right to air his views about what happened. it didnt happen to your country, it happened to his. his view may be bias and if you object to what he wrote then you too are bias. THERE IS NO BENEVOLENCE IN COLONIALISM. he should know becasue his country was dominated by colonizers for centuries. to let you know about a little secret, the filipino pres is now brainwashing the countrymen to love america for the fact that she is now selling the phil economy to the Americans. why do you think the Philippine peso is now improving???