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THE

BATTLE

FOR

MANILA

RICHARD CONNAUGHTON JOHN PIMLOTT and DUNCAN ANDERSON

PLATYPUS PUBLISHING

#)q~ This book is dedicated to the noncombatant men, women, children, and infants who were killed during the Battle for Manila, February 13 to March 3, 1945

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Cover, book, and layout design by Jose B. Diego Edited by Manuel L. Quezon ill Proofreading and copyediting by Nicole Boback, Javier V. Rufino, and Marianne Carandang

ISBN 971-92190-3-3 07 06 05 04 03 02

Published by

Platypus Publishing, Inc. 4th Floor PIECO Building 2242 Chino Roces Avenue Makat; Oty 1200 PHILIPPINES http://www.platypus.ph Special Asian edition, not valid for sale in North America

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying. recording or otherwise), without prior written permission of both the copyright OwtJers and the above publisher of this book.. Permission is granted (or the reproduction of brief extracts solely for the purpose of review or citation,

CONTENTS

Foreword ........... .. .................................................................... v Maps .......................................................... ..... ......................... xiii

I. Pearl of the Orient .................................................. ............. 13 II. The Japanese in Manila: January 1942-1945 ..................... 35 III. Envelopment ................................. .. ................................... 73 TV. Over the Pasig .......... ............ .. ........................................ .... 99

v. The Battle Joined ................... ............................... ...............

131

VI. Within Walls ....................................................................... 149 VII. The Unwanted Battle: An Appraisal ................................ 167

Appendix ................. ....... ................................. ......................... 195 Bibliography ..................................................... ........... .. ........... 201

FOREWORD

THIS BOOK ORIGINATED as an idea of a committee, the Memorare-Manila 1945 th Committee, to tangibly mark the 50 Anniversary of the liberation of the Philippines in 1945. The selection of three British writers to undertake the writing of the history of that liberation may at first seem odd - not simply the question of their nationality, but the fact that three writers were involved. The nationality angle no doubt helped in steering a neutral, and hopefully balanced, course among a plethora of mixed interests and emotions. A threesome proved beneficial when writing against an immovable deadline: fourteen weeks from start to finish. What made the project viable was the serendipity and preparedness of many of those who had shared in Manila's tragedy to unburden themselves of those experiences for the first time. It was having access to this evidence which made this book the highly personalized book that it is. It is a tragic story, simply told. Sadly, tragedy also reached out and touched one of us: in 1997, Dr. John Pimlott was killed when a device he was examining exploded. There was a pattern to the way the survivors' interviews were conducted in Manila. On the first day, notes were taken of individual experiences and written up at the conclusion of the interview. The next morning, interviewer and interviewee would reassemble to confirm the veracity and completeness of the statement given the previous day. I still vividly recall one such event, when I handed an account to a participant. "I cannot read your writing," he said apologetically, "please read it to me." 1 then read out to him, slowly and in measured tones, the story of the last hours of his family, resurrecting ghosts which had remained dormant for half a century, locked tightly away in a secret, personal history. I read aloud how his family had been

THE

BATTLE

FOR

MANILA

terrorised and then systematically murdered by bayonet, bullet, and fire . I looked across at him, his eyes brimming with tears, and I then realised why it was so important for Manila's victims and relatives to come to terms with this tragic part of their young nation's history. What stands out in my experience during the compilation of this history is the attirude of the Manileiios toward their liberators and oppressors. When the Americans came in 1945, their regiments were comprised of different men from those who had begun the war in 1942. Attrition had taken a fearful toll in the uncompromising war in the Pacific. The siruation facing the Americans, with the end of the war in sight and families at home to rerum to, was significantly rosier than that of the Japanese survivors fighting amidst the ruins of Manila. For them, their military code permitted no surrender. Understandably, therefore, the Americans were not going to take inordinate risks to winkle the Japanese out. They had the firepower and time in which to snuff out dogged Japanese opposition. The tragedy for the city's noncombatants was that, for them, there was no hiding place. In the ensuing, unwanted battle of Manila, the Americans suffered 6,500 casualties, the Japanese 20,000, mostly fatalities, and more than 100,000 of Manila's own citizens were killed and a similar number injured. The Manileiios showed almost no discernible hostility towards their liberators throughout the period of their extended suffering. It was all accepted as part of the price to be paid for ultimate freedom. What proved to be truly srunning was President Elpidio Quirino's act of forgiveness . Mter all, he and his family had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, thus this act of forgiveness was the ultimate act of compassion and humility. Few men come quite so close to saintliness. Despite the city's destruction in the war, it is still possible to trace the battle in clearest outline. The University of Santo Tomas is much the same as it was. The size of the walls of the great fortress of Intramuros distinctly mark out the perimeter of that particular conflict and embrace Fort Santiago with all its horrors and dark secrets. The administrative buildings destroyed in the war have been rebuilt in the same Washington style, and nearby is the famous Manila Hotel. Few buildings have played a more prominent role in a nation's history. If you move away from the city center toward the Rizal stadium, La Salle College, the Masonic temple, and the homes of the McMicking and Perez-Rubio families are still there to be found. Whether battlefields are in rolling countrysides or urban areas, there is no substirute for walking these courses to reach out and touch history, to help understand how and why events happened as they did. If this book does contribute towards the understanding of the events in 1945 Manila, then it will have been worth the effort and worthy of those who died. The importance of the Battle for Manila was that it rehearsed in 1945 the depths of the problems and challenges to be faced in the new millennium in what is, regrettably, increasingly prevalent urban conflict. Lessons learned from Manila's past battle can be reinvested to save the lives of our own service people and non-combatants in the furure.

FOREWORD

vii

Looking through reviews of this book on the Internet, I came across one written by a person from San Lorenzo, California, and I repeat it here because it encapsulates everything this book is intended to represent: My mother was born and raised in Manila and met my father there. I grew up hearing these stories first hand and saw the war damage with my own eyes. For myself, my mother and her family and friends, this book was an emotional juggernaut and extremely difficult for us to read. It's easy to say in hindsight that what we (America) did was wrong but, on the other hand when your friends, family and city are raped and mutilated before your very eyes. there is no easy solution. History and war are seldom brought to the reading public on a personal level like this. This book personalizes them. The people and places are reaL I know they are reaL My family was there. It will not have escaped the reader's attention that The Battle for Manila is the end of a story which has no apparent beginning. It was to research that beginning that I returned to Manila to write MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines, an account no less dramatic than that which followed. Asian historians may well recall Field Marshal Bill Slim's Defeat into Victory, the story of how the British in Burma 8'lffered one of many regional defeats, until the 14th Army turned the tide against the Imperial Japanese Forces in Burma. This book is the book of victory: I wanted to find out why that victory had been necessary. I am saddened that the title has upset a number of Filipinos, many of them senior, distinguished people. Objectively, what I researched of the conflict in the Philippines in 1941-42 was to my mind the defeat of the Fil-American forces. As I say, there are some who disagree with the use of the word "defeat" but that is their right. To return to the subject of this book, it was in Manila, in 1994, that I was asked to support the eventual publication of the book in Manila at a price which would make it accessible to a wider readership. As an outsider, I am pleased to have helped compile this particular record of the region's history. There is still much ground to be turned over for wider, extensive research into the region's rich history; and what better than that a higher proportion of that study be conducted and sponsored by the region's people themselves.

RICHARD CONNAUGHTON

Nett1ecombe, Dorset, England April 2002