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Liberation of Manila: February 1945 |
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After retaking Leyte, Lingayen and other parts of the Philippines, the American forces drove resolutely towards Manila and converged there in the early days of February 1945. As they advanced south into Manila, the Japanese resistance became increasingly stubborn.
Here's an account of one of us who was in the south where the Japanese consolidated their defense.
"The Japanese were implementing their scorched-earth policy and we watched helplessly as flames began licking the rear of our home. We had no choice except to run out even if we knew that danger lurked outside. Stories had reached us that occupants of houses that burned down earlier sought refuge in nearby churches where they were found and massacred by the Japanese. Others who were caught outdoors were killed - some of the women were raped and babies were heartlessly thrown up in the air and run through with bayonets as they came down. Faced with Hobson's choice, we scampered across the street onto a lot that now contained the rubble of homes that had been razed by the conflagration. We sought cover behind remaining walls or twisted corrugated sheets and lay close to the ground. From his crouch, one of us spotted combat boots coming in our direction. He thought we were sunk. But as his eyes turned upward, he excitedly exclaimed 'Americano, Americano!'. The jubilation of being liberated was heartfelt."
But elsewhere in Manila, the battle for Manila still raged. In some sectors, there was bitter street and house-to-house fighting. MacArthur's declaring Manila an open city at the start of the war to spare it from devastation became a farce when American military authorities decided on a heavy bombardment of Manila's southwest to dislodge the Japanese from their defensive positions. Located in the southwest, the Ateneo de Manila where civilians also sought refuge was destroyed by American artillery fire. Many historic landmarks, especially those in Intramuros or the Walled City, were destroyed. It took a month of bloody combat before Manila was deemed liberated.
As we were to find out later, the Japanese planned to make a last-ditch defense in northern Luzon or Baguio City. However, contrary to the plan, some Japanese belonging to the navy, reinforced by some army troops remained in Manila and got set to defend it.
Postwar analysts declared that next to Warsaw, Manila was the Allied city that suffered the most devastation in World War II. Civilian casualties, earlier attributed to Japanese atrocities, were found to also have been caused by the heavy artillery attack by the Americans. And it was this relentless assault that destroyed historic landmarks south of the Pasig river. It is also said that the strategy of avoiding unnecessary loss of lives of American GI's was employed in Manila as it later was in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The logic of this strategy is debatable and one's position on the subject largely depends on one's point of view.
The rehabilitation of Manila has been painfully slow. Sixty-three years after the war, Manila has not fully recovered.
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