70 years on, survivors keep memory of Battle of Manila alive

Later, as a textile businessman, Litton often visited Japan. ... “I never met a more hospitable, a more cultured, a more accommodating people,” he said. “How could a people like this have produced an army as barbaric as the one that came here and Nanking? ... Nobody has yet explained that to me.”

That wants its own Quote of the Day page.

Manila was the second-most devastated city in World War II after Warsaw, Poland, said historian Ricardo Jose of the University of the Philippines. He called the city one of the worst battlefields in the world.

This is something you rarely hear, and I wonder if it's not residue of the Eurocentric Colonial days where Manila is considered a secondary outpost when compared to the war in Europe at the time. I'm a bit ashamed to say I didn't know this.

I never met a more hospitable, a more cultured, a more accommodating people, he said. How could a people like this have produced an army as barbaric as the one that came here and Nanking? ... Nobody has yet explained that to me.

It's one of the great questions in regards to the war and perhaps this is the question that Japan itself still cannot reconcile. Modern Japan's Fathers, Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers were part of one of the most heinous, vicious, sadistic armies to have ever walked the earth. The rest of the world knows and remembers it all too well, yet Japan seems unable to fully accept it and unwilling to really properly acknowledge it. And I guess what makes me say that the most is pretty much every Japanese person I know has essentially no knowledge of what Japan did in WW2, which I just find extraordinary. It's also sad and quite unjust to all of Japan's victims.

The right-wingers are going to have a fit about this article.

History that should be preserved and never forgotten, both to honour those that paid the ultimate price and to ensure that history never repeats itself.

Does PM Abe have anything to say about this? Perhaps he would like to say none of this ever happened.

Naw, none of this happened and we are on a PR blitz to prove it so.

Another example of living proof that mass attrocities occured. Instead of discrediting what happened, there should be an open and honest discussion of what happened. If the IJA were there to liberate PI from the colonial masters and offer them something better, why did they need to massacre women and children?

What's amazing when you read accounts such as this is the fact that some people in Japan have this collective ignorance and/or amnesia about their WW2 history. Can it really be possible all these people fabricated their experiences?

About 16,000 Japanese soldiers and 1,000 U.S. troops died.

That's a terrific kill ratio by the Americans. 16 to 1 kill ratio. At least the Japanese soldiers were fanatics, good at killing and torturing civilians though.

Mass killings by Japanese soldiers..

He was tortured by the Japanese before he and his family were interned.

Chapman, an 80-year-old former lawyer, said internees looked like “walking skeletons” and starvation deaths were routine

All denied by Japan. Wait until the usual people come around to dispute all these as lies.

“I never met a more hospitable, a more cultured, a more accommodating people,” he said. “How could a people like this have produced an army as barbaric as the one that came here and Nanking? ... Nobody has yet explained that to me.”

Nobody has explained it because those responsible don't acknowledge it and they don't teach it to future generations. Instead, they tell the opposite stories about how Japanese forces honorably fought to the last man when the wicked Americans came to kill them. I've seen and heard those Japanese stories.

Just because a person seems hospitable, cultured, and accommodating doesn't mean you know what's going on inside their head. I've met plenty of people like that here and then when they start drinking, their true feelings come out.

“Christians are taught to forgive, but we are never taught to forget. We cannot forget,” he said. “All we need is that they recognize what they did and apologize.”

I would nominate this as a second "Quote of the Day", and I wish the Japanese leadership would take it to heart. With Abe and his commmittee deciding on a new statement, they are simply picking old wounds. Many, many people and countries have forgiven, but so long as Japan keeps raising the issues to try to put themselves in light, forgetting is impossible. And Japan has only themselves to blame.

When i was in 5th-6th grade, friend's grandmother (an elderly Filipina) told of us about these atrocities. As the yrs went by, I heard similar stories from other filipinos. And Koreans. And Chinese. . . . . Get the picture?

Why go to such lengths to whitewash these crimes and cover up history by the Japanese?

They are either ashamed of these war time crimes and their forefathers...

Or they are not, and want to keep it secret from everyone.

Which do you think it is?

Japan's pristine image? WW2 imperial japan has already tarnished japans image, did you ever study history?

Sad how Japan has ignored what it did now 70yrs running, Japan could be in such good standing in this part of the world, but no Japan has taken the low road 7decades & counting & she is & will continue to reap what Japans sewn.

As for the "how could Japan have done all that nasty stuff" well............. the same traits that allowed it to happen in the 1930's-40's is STILL THERE, its just below the surface, mostly dormant but it IS still there. We are getting more & more of a taste of this Japanese trait wrt to all the right wing nut jobs of late in the govt, "newspapers", tv etc, the 2100+ fools looking to sue, the PM is a perfect example............

I think is this year, the 70th anniversary of WWII Japan desperately needs the Emperor to step in & PUSH abe aside & set the record straight, no BS, no vague meaningless crap, tell like it was. If abe is left to deal with this it will only hurt Japan, nothing good can come from this guy wrt to WWII etc NOTHING!

Its such a waste what Japan has done to itself wrt to its history, I hope Japan figures a way outta the mess its created but I am not hopeful, not hopeful at all. Would love to be proven wrong but I aint betting on it!

"why did they need to massacre women and children?"

A Japanese veteran was interviewed by CBS about 10 years ago. He said that once the Japanese command determined that the local population saw the Americans as friends, they sent out an order to kill everyone they saw.

And what is written on the wall panels of the Yushukan, adjacent to Yasukuni Shrine? That Japanese armed forces "liberated" the Philippines from oppressive American colonial rule in 1942. I guess the plan for "liberation" turned to "eradication" or something along those lines when the writing was on the wall in early 1945 and the return of the Americans was just a matter of time.

How disgusting and unfortunate is all one can say. The stories of these people who were just children at the time are awful. Remember, Ukrainians who had suffered terribly under Russian-dominated Soviet rule actually welcomed invading German Nazis as "liberators" when Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941. Of course, they quickly realized that Germans had other plans for treatment of Slavic peoples.

You see, this is WHY Japan and Germany are grouped together insofar as military actions during World War II are concerned.

"Civilians died from malnutrition and American shelling, but mostly, historians agree, at the hands of Japanese troops."

Wow, no word at all from the Japanese apologists and deniers. I guess they'll just pretend this article never happened, either, and insist everyone loves them -- or maybe just that the entire article was 'misinterpreted' and 'nobody said what they meant and it's the opposite'. Or maybe they'll just argue that Abe and right-wingers who were born years after the fact know far better than the people who were there with 'foggy memories'.

In any case, until Japan truly addresses it's history -- not tries to change apologies with panels set up to see how far they can go with minimal impact, or denies history outright -- people will never stop asking why Japan did what it did, and how it can ignore, deny, and insist people forget and instead see the nation as a victim. It should never be forgotten, regardless, as no evil and war ever should, lest it be repeated. Very sad stories from the survivors whose parents and loved ones were massacred by the Japanese troops for absolutely no reason.

And now the Philippines at least has a semi-cordial relationship with Japan. Shouldn't the real story be about certain countries that won't move on?

Shouldn't the real story be about certain countries that won't move on?

Yes, but why bring Japan into it, when we are talking about their victims?

“I never met a more hospitable, a more cultured, a more accommodating people,” he said. “How could a people like this have produced an army as barbaric as the one that came here and Nanking? ... Nobody has yet explained that to me.”

To explain that you first need to discuss it openly after facing up to it, warts and all. This isn't something Japan does well.

Deliberate mass starvation, brutal massacres, rape and torture... I learnt nothing at school of what went on under British rule in Ireland, East Africa or India.

But strangely I learnt plenty about Japanese atrocities in the Far East.

It's not only Japan who needs to take a long hard look at herself....

Manila is the 2nd most devastated city i the orld in WWII, and the truth? The AMERICANS destroyed it. When the Japanese occupied Manila, not a single bomb was dropped. Take a look at Philippine history. Afer the Japanese defeat, instead of rebuilding Manila, The US decided to announce that Philippines is a free country and thus absolved themselves of any rebuilding and reconstruction.

McArthur was to blame for the death and starvation of many Filipinos. The Japanese army never intended to defend Manila but was hoping to move their forces via North and escaping towards Okinawa but McArthur decided to cordon manila and prevent any japanese to escape thus the terror of Manila began when the Japese has nowhere to run.

Blame the Americans. Philippines was never an enemy of Japan.

@erbaviva

Maybe the Filipinos know something you don't.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines%E2%80%93United_States_relations

The United States has consistently been one of the Filipinos' favorite nations in the world, with 90% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and 91% viewing Americans favorably in 2002,[1][2] 90% of Filipinos viewing U.S. influence positively in 2011,[3] 85% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. and Americans favorably in 2013 and 92% of Filipinos viewing the U.S. favorably and 89% having confidence in United States president, Barack Obama in 2014, making the Philippines the most pro-American country in the world. [4]

"the Philippines, then an American colony" Oh yeah, we conveniently forget about that part of history. Japan modernization was after Euro-American modernization=Imperialism. Europeans were just as brutal in their rampage over the globe. I have no doubt about the brutality of the Japanese military and the suffering of these people. I am not a denier. I am also not a denier of the brutality of European world domination called Imperialism. White history is just as bad as revisionist Japanese history.

@gokai

Exactly. Glad somebody has a sense of the equivalence of the horrors perpetrated by all the imperialists, of whatever nationality.

The LDP is determined to revise the constitution, which won't only allow Japan engaged in war outside of it but also reduce some articles about human rights as Amnesty International warned the country by name. There are increasing signs that it is going to be reduced into the “former glory”. Paralleled with this, I found some relatively “small” incidents frightening-for example, an article such as this (http://www.bengo4.com/topics/2662/), where a comedian tells a couple of stories related with freedom of speech. According to her, she couldn't get a permission for using a public hall simply because the title of the activity: Heiwa Ten or Peace Exhibition included a word heiwa or peace, which is, based on their explanation, connected to a “left-wing way of thinking.”

Tamarama, your quite right in what your saying, do you as a Japanese person, think that they should teach the whole story in Japanese schools today? so that the children are not blinkered or sheltered from Japans military actions?

I was put in a Japanese International school in the 90s at the age of 6. Having parents of Australian & British descent, I was not allowed to tell my grandfather about my schooling, as he'd served in WW2. As a young boy, it was hard for ,e to understand, but it became very clear as I learnt about history & what the soldiers went through at the hands of the JIA...

Calling the Philippines an "American colony" is incorrect - it was an American protectorate. There is a huge difference, in this case being that the Philippines became independent just after the war, a few years later than the US had promised, but certain events had occurred in the meantime.

When GHQ on Sep. 15, 1945 condemned the Japanese army for burning tens of thousands of civilians to death in Manila (never mind the number of victims in the Philippine–American War of 1899–1902), the Asahi newspaper wrote in its editorial of two days later that what GHQ said was too preposterous, and that it should be verified properly. The time when the Japanese army allegedly slaughtered 70,000 civilians coincided with the ten days when the US Forces did indiscriminate bombings and bombardment from warships on Manila . Some scrutiny might be required. Then the head of the Asahi newspaper was summoned to GHQ and ordered to suspend publication of the newspaper for two days.

@gokai_wo_maneku and lucabrasi

Nobody ever denied the UK and US committed atrocities in their imperialism and these facts are (generally) well taught at schools. I had a good education about the UK's often brutal rule over India, Africa etc. and of the US colonists mass murder of native Americans. Remember though that these events happened more than 100 years ago, while Japan raped and murdered across the entire Asian content just over 70 years ago as if nothing had been learned from the Wests colonialism. But worse, Japanese continue to deny any horrors were ever committed and don't want their children to learn the truth.

Sometimes it is difficult to believe that humans are capable of being so cruel to each other. I guess it is something I should just learn to accept as part of human nature. Even today, we see the beheading of innocents by fanatics. It is nothing new, but it remains something awful.

@Tamarama

The Philippines was an American colony, not a European colony.

So what do you mean with "This is something you rarely hear, and I wonder if it's not residue of the Eurocentric Colonial days where Manila is considered a secondary outpost when compared to the war in Europe at the time." ?

@igloobuyer

I had a good education about the UK's often brutal rule over India, Africa etc. and of the US colonists mass murder of native Americans. Remember though that these events happened more than 100 years ago

Those events may have started more than 100 years ago, but the British were still doing some pretty brutal stuff in Kenya in the 1950s. And we haven't exactly been the best at acknowledging or apologizing either.

"Calling the Philippines an "American colony" is incorrect - it was an American protectorate."

It is correct. It was in fact a colony, as it was ruled by an "insular government" based in Washington. Taft was the first colonial governor.

The Americans didnt want to call it a colony because they wanted to project a more positive image than the Europeans. But it was a colony.

we haven't exactly been the best at acknowledging or apologizing either.

True or not, that's neither here nor there with regards to Japan's responsibility in dealing with its past aggressions.

There's an old Filipino joke / folklore, it goes like this: "the Japanese are coming. Help! Run! Run for your life." ( in reference to JIA occupying the Philipines during the war).

The flip-side goes like this: "the Japanese are coming. Horray, lets go greet & welcome them." ( in reference to Japan's post war economic growth, in hopes of Japanese creating jobs for Filipinos).

Go Figure-

You've got to wonder, if the Philippines wasn't still a third-world country in desperate need of cash, would they actually be so silent about their own suffering during the war.

@soldier2

Well said!!

@igloobuyer

I think colonisation almost always starts with a lot of blood but after a while the blood becomes less because it is clear to the subjugated that they can't win (after many of them died). A war of independence brings new bloodshed. Japan was still a 'fresh' colonizer when they commited the Nanjing massacre.

The American natives are totally subjugated and outnumbered and live often in deep poverty. Seeing how they lived made me very sad.

@1glenn

Steven Pinker argues in his book 'The Better Angels of Our Nature' that the world is slowly becoming more peaceful, let's hope he is right.

And now the Philippines at least has a semi-cordial relationship with Japan. Shouldn't the real story be about certain countries that won't move on?

scipantheist-- it is. Or did you miss all the stories recently about Abe deciding to issue a new statement this year in order to put Japan's atrocities in a more favorable light?

"'the Philippines, then an American colony' Oh yeah, we conveniently forget about that part of history."

Uh, no we didn't but nice try. Nobody disgusted and horrified by the actions of Japanese armed forces against civilians in Manila in 1945 has "conveniently" forgotten about the crushing of Filipino independence fighters by American armed forces some 40 years prior to that. My guess is that most people who condemn Japanese armed forces for what they did in that country during World War II are of the opinion that the Philippines should have been granted unconditional independence in 1898, period.

The truth is that Japanese armed forces and commanding officers blew it during World War II. Provided with a golden opportunity to forge potentially good relations with people who had lived for decades or centuries under Western colonial domination, Japanese forces ended up treating native peoples in Southeast Asia so horribly that they squandered whatever good will may have existed in early 1942 when the conquests occurred. I mean, by war's end Burmese natives were fighting with the British against the occupying Japanese. Contemplate that for a second, given how much Burmese people hated the British colonial regime.

A few of my relatives perished in that war. Some were even tortured. My mother was 8 at that time but all she could really remember about the Japanese was that every time they visit her house, the officers gave her candy and carried her on their shoulders because she reminded them of their kids back home in Japan. The Japanese were well mannered towards my mom's family in Manila. I guess in war, there's still some good left in some people. I just wanted to share this since many people think all Japanese soldiers were bad.

@Palarong Pinoy

I just wanted to share this since many people think all Japanese soldiers were bad.

Thanks for the story, but I doubt anyone would think that.

the Americans destroyed Manila and brought it to ashes. The Japanese Imperial Army did not drop a single bomb in Manila. That is a FACT.

Many people died with the bombing, and the Japanese Imperial amy were massacred, 60,000 of them against 1,000 American soldiers. When the bombing became so fierce and the Japanese can not run because of the military cordon, the started to kill civilians out of despair. McArthur should have foreseen this happening because Manila is heavily populated. He should have allowed an escape route for the Japanese army and engaged them on ther way out of Manila thus prevening the loss of many lives.

but US is never wrong.

Philippines loves America. Philippines also loves Japan. but whitewashing history is for the victors

@erbaviva

"... they started to kill civilians out of despair."

Really? My own reaction to despair is to curl up in the foetal position and wait till the feeling passes, maybe with the aid of a bottle or two of cheap red.

Going out and killing innocent people wouldn't help much, I don't think.

Wow, just wow.

I have read the various posts and have just read @erbaviva's post. Incredible. When I read this article early today, my first thought was, what compelling 1st hand accounts of the horror of war, in this case acts committed by the Japanese military. And my next thought, which I expressed, was that this history should be preserved, both to honour those that paid the ultimate price and to ensure history never repeats itself.

Those that have first hand knowledge of WW2 are quickly passing away and will no longer be with us. We have a duty to learn everything we can from them, regardless of who did what, so that we understand all of the horrors and mistakes of that terrible war and can pass this knowledge down to succeeding generations.

War is a horrible thing. I am not going to get drawn into a moral equivalence discussion, because that misses the point. When people of any side deny the horrible things that happened or try to justify some actions that are indefensible, it disrespects the memory of those that paid the ultimate price.

The testimony of these 4 individuals is compelling. And shocking. If they attributed atrocities and wrongdoings to the Japanese, we disrespect them if we choose to disregard their testimony or misuse it in some way.

Whatever happened in Kenya or other colonial outposts are not relevant here. Whatever happened 40 years prior in the Philippines is not relevant here. What is relevant is these individuals and their experiences during this battle. If Japanese troops committed atrocities, nothing justifies that.

BTW, @erbaviva, whatever info you have about the circumstances that led to the Japanese troops being stuck in Manila, nothing justifies the soldiers "to kill civilians out of despair"! WTF? These are soldiers. How can you even write a sentence like they had "to kill civilians out of despair".

People in this forum can debate the broader issues and ideas, but I, for one, would like to, for now, quietly remember what happened in Manila and those that paid the ultimate price.

@Palarong Pinoy, my mother felt the same way. She was 8 during the liberation of the Philippines (once Spanish territory-named for Philip II). The Japanese colonel who took over my grandparents home in Cebu had children back home and missed them. He treated my mother and her siblings well. They did have to sing "Sakura" to him very often, but he never really mistreated them. When the final days of Japanese occupation came, he actually was the one who told them not to follow the orders and get grouped with all the other 'foreigners' in Cebu City (they're originally from Spain). He saved their lives by telling them that, since the 'foreigners' who had been gathered in town, while at the start of the Japanese invasion were seen as not part of the conflict nations, at the end when the US troops landed in Leyte, the Japanese saw all whites as enemies. Those foreigners were eventually killed. My family was spared because of the gut feeling of that colonel. Not all of them were "bad".

From wikipedia. Japanese mmassacre only comparable to american invasion of the philipines. Where 500,000 civilians were killed. I dont really know why people were so harsh 70 years ago.

Another typical anti-Japan article from AP. WWII has been over for 70 years. Both American and Japanese naval ships are welcomed into the Philippine's waters where they have provided disaster relief. The Phillipines are a democratyic country allied weith the US and Japan. And the idea that somehow the United States never did anyhing to the Phillipoines but Japan did is laughable.

"The overall cost in human lives of American actions in the Philippines was horrific. One scholar has concluded concerning the American occupation that "In the fifteen years that followed the defeat of the Spanish in Manila Bay in 1898, more Filipinos were killed by U.S. forces than by the Spanish in 300 years of colonization. Over 1.5 million died out of a total population of 6 million"

http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/war.crimes/US/U.S.Philippines.htm

Maybe AP ought to get off their ridoculous anti-JP stance and start doing somne real journalism. Or are they on the PLA payroll? Seriously.

erbaviva: When the bombing became so fierce and the Japanese can not run because of the military cordon, the started to kill civilians out of despair.

Out of despair? Orders were issued to kill all non-Japanese except for Filipino collaborators ("Special Construction Units").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_massacre

... Dr Antonio Gisbert told of the murder of his father and brother at the Palacio del Gobernador, saying, "I am one of those few survivors, not more than 50 in all out of more than 3000 men herded into Fort Santiago and, two days later, massacred.

One Japanese order read, "The Americans who have penetrated into Manila have about 1000 troops, and there are several thousand Filipino soldiers under the Commonwealth Army and the organized guerrillas. Even women and children have become guerrillas. All people on the battlefield with the exception of Japanese military personnel, Japanese civilians, Special Construction Units, will be put to death." Another Japanese order dated 13 February 1945, read, "When Filipinos are to be killed, they must be gathered into one place and disposed of with the consideration that ammunition and manpower must not be used to excess. Because the disposal of dead bodies is a troublesome task, they should be gathered into houses which are scheduled to be burned or demolished. They should also be thrown into the river."

The combined death toll of civilians for the battle of Manila was approximately 100,000 to 500,000, most of which was attributed to massacres by Japanese forces. Some historians, citing a higher civilian casualty rate for the entire battle, suggest that 100,000 to 500,000 died as a result of the Manila massacre on its own, exclusive of other causes.

@kiyoshi Good triumphed vs Evil in WW2. By virtue, its own reward. Imagine if it history was re-writen by hitler, tojo & musolini . . . Nasty thought.

Another typical anti-Japan article from AP. WWII has been over for 70 years. Both American and Japanese naval ships are welcomed into the Philippine's waters where they have provided disaster relief. The Phillipines are a democratyic country allied weith the US and Japan. And the idea that somehow the United States never did anyhing to the Phillipoines but Japan did is laughable.

"The overall cost in human lives of American actions in the Philippines was horrific. One scholar has concluded concerning the American occupation that "In the fifteen years that followed the defeat of the Spanish in Manila Bay in 1898, more Filipinos were killed by U.S. forces than by the Spanish in 300 years of colonization. Over 1.5 million died out of a total population of 6 million"

As usual, sheer and utter nonsense from Ossan. Here are two more objective/complete sources.

The conflict became the brutal Filipino-American War that officially lasted until 1902. An estimated 4,500 Americans, and at least ten times that many Filipinos died.

Thus began the Philippine-American War, one that cost far more money and took far more lives than the Spanish-American War. Fighting broke out on February 4, 1899, after two American privates on patrol killed three Filipino soldiers in San Juan, Metro Manila. Some 126,000 American soldiers would be committed to the conflict; 4,234 American and 16,000 Filipino soldiers, part of a nationwide guerrilla movement of indeterminate numbers, died. Estimates on civilian deaths during the war range between 250,000 and 1,000,000, largely because of famine and disease. Atrocities were committed by both sides.

Comparing people who died due to famine and disease with victims of atrocity is simply ludicrous, but to be expected from Ossan. Who, once again, wants to divert the focus from the actions of the Japanese by, once again, doing the old "but others did it too" .

"History is always wirriten by the winner."

The common narrative about the Vietnam War wasn't written by the winner. About 95% of the books, movies, etc. about that period were produced by the losers.

@JeffLee That's because the NVA didn't win the Vietnam War. They just reclaimed their pile of rubble after the US left.

“I never met a more hospitable, a more cultured, a more accommodating people,” he said. “How could a people like this have produced an army as barbaric as the one that came here and Nanking? ... Nobody has yet explained that to me.”

I've heard it said before that when Japanese people travel abroad the rules and etiquette that govern their lives gets relaxed somewhat. This certainly true where the samurai and IJA were concerned. Hideyoshi's army destroyed Korea between 1592-98, and the same thing happened between 1931-1945 in east and south east Asia.