MANILA MASSACRE BEFORE THE LIBERATION

Earlier on February 4, 1945, General MacArthur had announced the imminent recapture of Manila while his staff planned a victory parade. A stiffening resistance of the Japanese army was reported to further advance to the city.

The Manila massacre was just a piece of news for me then. I have not seen the actual event. We were in Pasig with my grandparents and other relatives. It was a blessing in disguise that my father was with the guerrilla forces. He came back just in time for us to evacuate. Manila was not declared by the Japanese General Yamashita as what MacArthur did on the onset of War. If the family was in Manila during that time, I wouldn't be writing here now. There would be no Umpha for my Kai-Kai. The Manila massacre, February 1945 was the atrocities conducted against Filipino civilians in Manila. The death toll was at least 100,000 people.

Subjected to incessant pounding - and facing certain death the beleaguered Japanese troops took out their anger and frustration on the civilians caught in cross fire, committing multiple acts of severe brutality, which later would be known as the Manila Massacre. Violent mutilations, rapes, and massacres on the populace accompanied the battle for control of the city, which now lay practically in ruins.

The massacre was at its worst in the Battle of Manila. The Manila massacre is one of the several major war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army from the annexation of Manchuria in 1931 to the end of World War II in 1945. It was a major event in Japanese war crimes, where over 15 million Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indonesian, Burmese, Indochinese civilians, Pacific Islanders and Allied POW's were killed.