Japanese Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi carried a heavy burden. In November 1942, the USS Washington’s weapons had despatched his battleship Kirishima to the underside of the ocean off Guadalcanal. He survived. In Japanese navy tradition, that survival introduced immense shame.
Two years later, commanding naval forces in Manila, Iwabuchi noticed his likelihood at redemption. Normal Tomoyuki Yamashita ordered him to desert the Philippine capital. Iwabuchi refused, selecting to sacrifice himself and the lives of his males so he may regain a way of honor. His resolution to struggle to the loss of life would remodel Manila into probably the most savage city battlefield of the Pacific Struggle and kill greater than 100,000 Filipino civilians in only a month of fight.
“In a approach we had been all massacred,” survivor Servillano Aquino later testified. “Solely, a few of us had been lucky to have lived via it.”
The Race for Manila
On January 9, 1945, Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army stormed ashore at Lingayen Gulf. Normal Douglas MacArthur had waited almost three years for this second. He had fled the Philippines in March 1942, famously vowing to return.
MacArthur needed Manila, the Pearl of the Orient, instantly. Maj. Gen. Oscar Griswold, commanding the XIV Corps, was ordered to take town.
Maj. Gen. Verne Mudge of the first Cavalry Division was given the orders, “Go to Manila! Go across the Nips, bounce off the Nips, however go to Manila. Free the internees at Santo Tomas.”
Mudge assembled 800 troopers right into a “Flying Column.” They tore south throughout Luzon at breakneck velocity, generally hitting 50 miles per hour. Oscar Nipps, an 18-year-old cavalryman, remembered the urgency.
“We had been 88 miles from Manila when MacArthur despatched the vans to get us,” he recalled. “We made 88 miles in 66 hours, driving via a fight zone.”
From the south, Maj. Gen. Joseph Swing’s eleventh Airborne Division landed at Nasugbu on January 31. On February 3, his 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment jumped onto Tagaytay Ridge within the division’s first fight bounce of the warfare. The paratroopers pushed north towards Manila’s outskirts, the place Japanese defenses had been ready.
Maj. Gen. Robert Beightler’s thirty seventh Infantry Division superior from the north. The Ohio Nationwide Guard outfit was often known as the “Buckeye Division” and had already earned its fame in brutal jungle preventing on Bougainville.
What awaited in Manila would eclipse all the pieces they’d seen earlier than.
The Filipinos Who Made Victory Potential
Filipino guerrillas proved important to the battle. Captain Manuel Colayco, a newspaperman turned intelligence officer who had survived the Bataan Demise March, guided the Flying Column via the outskirts of Manila. He led them round mined roads and ambush factors the Japanese had ready.
Josefina Guerrero was a 27-year-old girl affected by Hansen’s illness. Her sickness made Japanese troopers recoil in worry. “I am a leper,” she would cry if a sentry approached her. Nobody needed to look her. She turned the proper resistance member.
In late January 1945, Guerrero obtained her most harmful mission. “You had higher go to confession and make a very good admission of guilt,” her commander advised her, “For you’ll not be coming again.” Her job was to hold a map of minefields guarding Manila to American headquarters 35 miles north.
Regardless of paralyzing fatigue and complications, she taped the map to her again and set off on foot. She walked 25 miles to Hagonoy, took a ship round an energetic fight zone whereas outrunning river pirates, then walked one other eight miles to Calumpit. When she arrived, the People had already moved to Malolos. So she circled and stored strolling.
She delivered the map to Captain Blair of the thirty seventh Infantry Division. Her intelligence allowed American troops to navigate the minefields safely. Guerrero then superior with them into town, tending to wounded troopers and civilians and carrying youngsters to security via enemy bullets.
Maj. Gen. George F. Moore, the previous commander of harbor defenses at Corregidor who had spent three years as a Japanese POW, later stated Guerrero had, “extra braveness than that of a soldier on the sphere of battle.” She obtained the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm in 1948.
The Hunters ROTC guerrillas, composed largely of younger navy academy cadets, fought alongside American forces from Nasugbu all the way in which to the Manila Normal Publish Workplace. Beneath Lt. Col. Emmanuel V. de Ocampo, they supplied what intelligence officers referred to as “one of the best intelligence knowledge on Luzon.”
Filipino troopers and resistance fighters would play a significant function in aiding the U.S. Army in liberating Manila.
Liberating the Prisoners
Shortly earlier than 9 p.m. on February 3, the Flying Column’s Sherman tanks crashed via the gates of Santo Tomas College. The Japanese had held civilian internees there for almost three years. Many prisoners had been close to hunger. Some had misplaced a 3rd of their physique weight.
Because the column approached the gate, Japanese troopers opened fireplace, placing Colayco within the midsection. He died seven days later in a subject hospital. The college later erected a plaque in his honor on the spot the place he was mortally wounded.
9-year-old Angus Lorenzen was among the many 3,700 internees. After American troopers dug a foxhole close to his household’s shanty, he peppered them with questions on their weapons.
“One in every of them handed me a sweet bar,” Lorenzen recalled many years later. “And, oh boy, you already know, I hadn’t had a sweet bar in three years.”
The Japanese garrison commander had ready a horrendous contingency to stop the liberation. Drums of gasoline sat across the compound with detonators in place. He deliberate to burn the internees alive. The velocity of the tank assault prevented the Japanese from finishing up the plan.
The subsequent day, the thirty seventh Infantry Division freed greater than 1,000 POWs at Bilibid Jail. Males who had survived the give up and Bataan Demise March three years earlier had been lastly free.
Because the division started pushing into town on February 5, the Japanese set Chinatown ablaze. Flames trapped 2nd Lt. Robert Viale’s platoon from Firm Ok, 148th Infantry whereas a machine gun blocked their solely escape. A number of civilians had been with them. Viale led an assault on the place.
As he climbed a ladder and ready to toss a grenade, it slipped from his hand, falling between his males and the civilians. He dropped from the ladder and shortly smothered it together with his physique. Although he was killed, his sacrifice allowed everybody to flee. Viale obtained the Medal of Honor posthumously.
MacArthur declared Manila was liberated a day afterward February 6. In actuality, the battle had simply begun.
The eleventh Airborne Assaults Iwabuchi’s Fortress
Whereas MacArthur introduced victory prematurely, Iwabuchi’s Manila Naval Protection Pressure was nonetheless holding a lot of the metropolis. He commanded roughly 17,000 sailors and troopers. Many had been naval personnel who knew nothing about infantry techniques. They had been nonetheless anticipated to die like every other Japanese defender.
The Japanese had reworked Manila right into a killing floor. Greater than 350 antiaircraft and dual-purpose weapons guarded town. Some got here from wrecked warships within the harbor. Pillboxes ignored most intersections. Mines and improvised explosives lined the streets. Buildings turned bunkers.
Approaching town from the south, the eleventh Airborne slammed into the Genko Line. This defensive belt stretched throughout Manila’s southern edge with minefields, pillboxes, and naval weapons creating interlocking fields of fireside. The Japanese Naval Air Service had positioned antiaircraft weapons at Nichols Area to shoot American planes overhead or goal straight on the advancing paratroopers.
The battle for Nichols Area was one of many bloodiest of the whole Luzon marketing campaign. Fortified pillboxes guarded the set up, defending all roads resulting in the airstrip, supported by dual-purpose weapons. From the outer rim, the Japanese poured in fireplace from five-inch naval weapons.
One airborne officer took the oppurtunity to ship a message up the chain of command.
Inform Admiral Halsey to cease searching for the Jap Fleet. It is dug in right here on Nichols Area.
Lt. Andrew Carrico of the eleventh Airborne later recalled the struggle.
“Day-to-day we superior as finest we may,” he stated. “Some days we didn’t get very far, generally yards. A lot of the interval between February 4-22 was fairly heavy preventing on a regular basis.”
The paratroopers lastly took Nichols Area on February 12 after per week of brutal fight. They then started a flanking motion round Fort McKinley later that day.
On February 13, the advance stalled at a remaining pillbox blocking the strategy. PFC Manuel Pérez Jr., lead scout for Firm A of the 511th, flanked the place alone. He killed 18 Japanese troops with grenades, rifle fireplace and even his naked arms when an enemy soldier knocked his weapon away.
After Pérez’s heroic cost, the paratroopers of the eleventh Airborne had been in a position to knock out the remaining defenses and resume their advance.
As their positions had been slowly being overrun, the Japanese detonated a mass of buried naval depth expenses, inflicting the eleventh Airborne to endure heavy casualties. Ignoring the losses, the paratroopers assaulted the fort anyway. The 511th led the break-in, and by February 18 the realm fort was cleared, lastly breaking open the Japanese line of defense.
The preventing for Fort McKinley price the eleventh Airborne one in every of its best officers. Colonel Orin D. “Exhausting Rock” Haugen, commander of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was injured by shrapnel and died on February 22.
On February 23, the paratroopers and the Hunters ROTC performed a raid on Los Banos internment camp, liberating greater than 2,000 American and European civilians 40 miles behind enemy strains.
By this level, half of the 511th PIR had been killed or wounded. Their speedy amphibious assault, adopted by their first fight parachute bounce of the warfare, managed to chop Japanese forces in Manila off from provide, reinforcements and escape.
Pérez was killed in motion by an enemy sniper a month later. He obtained the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions.
The thirty seventh Infantry Division Crosses the Pasig
Because the paratroopers started their assault on Japanese defenses within the south, the Buckeye Division continued transferring into the northern parts of town. On February 7, Normal Beightler ordered the 148th Infantry Regiment to cross the Pasig River and clear the Paco and Pandacan districts.
At 3:15 p.m., soldiers boarded assault boats at Malacanan Palace and commenced paddling throughout. The primary wave encountered no resistance, touchdown on the Malacanan Gardens. However the Japanese 1st Naval Battalion counterattacked shortly, pinning down the People. Japanese rocket artillery started shrieking overhead. Although inaccurate, the nerve-wracking weapons impeded the American assault.
The bitterest preventing occurred on Provisor Island, a small industrial heart containing town’s steam-driven energy plant. A Japanese battalion held off Beightler’s soldiers for days. On February 9, the thirty seventh Infantry Division misplaced 19 useless and 216 wounded in a single day. It was greater than the division had suffered in the whole Luzon marketing campaign to that time.
The 129th Infantry Regiment misplaced dozens of males killed and wounded securing the target. Nonetheless, the division had lastly damaged into the southern parts of town.
The Battle of Manila
MacArthur had forbidden air strikes and restricted artillery to guard civilians. That order was ignored as the fact of Japanese resistance turned obvious. By February 9, American shelling had set whole districts ablaze.
Normal Beightler later stated, “If town had been to be secured with out the destruction of the thirty seventh and the first Cavalry Division, no additional effort might be made to save lots of buildings. Every little thing holding up progress can be pounded.”
Troops from the first Cavalry started pouring in from the south and east, dealing with fierce resistance from Japanese defenders. Throughout town, the thirty seventh Infantry needed to transfer methodically in opposition to ready Japanese defenses. Enemy snipers, anti-tank weapons and machine weapons waited round each nook.
On February 9, Non-public Cleto Rodriguez of Firm B, 148th Infantry Regiment, confirmed how particular person troopers may break the Japanese defenses. His platoon was pinned down 100 yards from the closely defended Paco Railroad Station. Three firms of Japanese marines had been fortifying the constructing.
Rodriguez, a 21-year-old computerized rifleman from San Antonio, left the platoon on his personal initiative. Accompanied by Non-public John N. Reese Jr., he superior to a home 60 yards from the station. For an hour, underneath fixed enemy statement, the 2 males fired at targets of alternative, killing greater than 35 Japanese troopers.
They pushed nearer. When Japanese replacements tried to succeed in the pillboxes, Rodriguez and Reese opened fireplace, killing greater than 40 and stopping all subsequent makes an attempt. At 20 yards from the station, Rodriguez threw 5 grenades via a doorway, killing seven extra enemies, destroying a 20mm gun and wrecking a heavy machine gun.
Working low on ammunition, the 2 males fought their approach again to American strains. Reese was killed masking Rodriguez’s withdrawal. In two and a half hours, the pair had killed greater than 82 Japanese troopers, utterly disorganized the enemy protection and paved the way in which for the next seize of the railroad station.
Rodriguez turned the primary Mexican American to obtain the Medal of Honor within the Pacific Theater. Reese obtained the award posthumously.
That very same day on the Manila Fuel Works, Pvt. Joseph Cicchetti of Firm A spent 4 hours underneath fireplace, assembling litter groups and rescuing 14 wounded males. A shell fragment killed him whereas carrying one other soldier to security. He earned the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions.
The thirty seventh Division’s official historical past captured the scope of the horror in a single sentence. “For many who missed Normandy or Cassino, Manila would do.”
Beightler later addressed Ohio legislators about what his males endured.
“Day and evening, week after week, preventing, dying, snatching a wink of sleep in a rubble heap with bullets splattering the partitions round, dashing into nearly sure loss of life with by no means a semblance of faltering,” he stated. “Such was the lifetime of the doughboy preventing in Manila.”
The Japanese Atrocities
As their perimeter shrank, Japanese troops turned their consideration on Filipino civilians. Struggle crimes investigators later described the massacres as “an orgy of mass homicide.” The killing was systematic.
Japanese orders captured after the battle said, “When Filipinos are to be killed, they should be gathered into one place and disposed of.” Arson turned the popular methodology to spare ammunition, herding teams of civilians into buildings earlier than setting them ablaze.
Lt. John Hanley and his platoon from the thirty seventh Infantry surveyed the Dy Pac Lumberyard in northern Manila. Among the many weeds, they discovered our bodies in flower-print clothes, nightgowns and toddler sleep fits. Japanese troopers had beheaded the lads and bayoneted girls and youngsters, together with infants.
At De La Salle School just a few days later, Japanese marines bayoneted 41 folks within the chapel. The victims included 16 spiritual brothers in addition to girls and youngsters as younger as two years previous. A survivor recalled that after the bloodbath, Japanese troopers returned “to snicker on the dying.”
The Bay View Resort turned what survivors referred to as a “rape heart.” For greater than per week, Japanese troops assaulted lots of of girls. Esther Garcia Moras later testified. “I used to be raped between 12 and 15 occasions throughout that evening. I can’t keep in mind precisely what number of occasions. I used to be so drained and horror stricken that it turned a residing nightmare.”
At Fort Santiago, the Japanese herded the civilians into dungeons. Dr. Antonio Gisbert survived to inform of it. “I’m a type of few survivors, no more than 50 in all out of greater than 3,000 males herded into Fort Santiago and, two days later, massacred.”
Storming the Walled Metropolis
By late February, Iwabuchi’s remaining forces had retreated into Intramuros. The traditional Spanish-era fortress had partitions 22 toes excessive. An estimated 2,000 Japanese defenders occupied the 160-acre citadel. They held hundreds of Filipino civilians as human shields.
9 battalions of American artillery pounded Intramuros from February 17 to 23, firing 185 tons of ammunition.
Army historian Robert R. Smith wrote that XIV Corps and the thirty seventh Division “deliberate an enormous artillery preparation” together with “direct, point-blank fireplace from ranges as brief as 250 yards.”
Beightler surveyed the aftermath.
We made a churned-up pile of mud and scrap out of the imposing, basic authorities buildings.
Infantry from the thirty seventh Division stormed the breaches on February 23. The 148th Infantry attacked via the holes made within the partitions between the Quezon and Parian Gates. The 129th Infantry crossed the Pasig River and attacked close to the Authorities Mint.
They fought via the ruins room by room. The Japanese launched about 3,000 Filipino hostages throughout the preventing however solely after murdering a lot of the males within the group.
The first Cavalry Division, preventing south via the port district, reached Manila Bay on February 12. Over the next days they seized Fort San Antonio Abad and Rizal Stadium. Because the thirty seventh assaulted Intramuros on February 23, the first Cavalry pushed towards the Customs Constructing.
As they approached the constructing, Japanese fireplace reduce down a troop commander within the open.
PFC William Grabiarz sprinted from cowl to pull him to security and took a bullet within the shoulder. When he could not transfer the officer, he used his personal physique as a defend. Grabiarz died underneath enemy fireplace, although the officer survived. He earned the Medal of Honor for his sacrifice.
The preventing for the surrounded authorities buildings dragged on for days. The Legislature Constructing lastly fell on February 27 after artillery lowered the north and south wings to rubble, leaving solely the central portion standing. Infantry of the 148th Regiment then fought hand handy via the wreckage. The Finance Constructing, the final Japanese strongpoint, fell on March 3.
On the finish of February, Iwabuchi gathered his remaining employees within the Agriculture Constructing. He bid them farewell and dedicated suicide. His physique was by no means discovered. He obtained a posthumous promotion to vice admiral.
A Metropolis of Ashes
When the preventing ended, Manila lay in ruins comparable solely to Warsaw and Stalingrad. Greater than 600 metropolis blocks had been flattened. Seventy p.c of utilities, 72 p.c of factories and one hundred pc of the enterprise district had been destroyed.
American forces suffered 1,010 killed and 5,565 wounded. Filipino navy and resistance losses are unknown. Over 16,000 Japanese troopers had been killed within the metropolis. However the civilian toll dwarfed all navy losses. At the least 100,000 Filipino civilians died. Some estimates attain 240,000.
American artillery might have brought on 40 p.c of civilian deaths after restrictions had been lifted on February 9. The remaining fell to Japanese bayonets, arson and gunfire.
A report from the 112th Medical Battalion, a part of the thirty seventh Infantry Division, described Manila south of the Pasig River as “a fantasia of loss of life and destruction.”
“100 Filipinos died for each one U.S. soldier,” famous historian James M. Scott. “It actually was a battle borne on the backs of the lads, girls, and youngsters of Manila.”
The Reckoning
MacArthur ordered rapid documentation of Japanese crimes. Investigators fanned via the ruins, interviewing survivors in hospital beds and photographing bloodbath websites. Their work produced hundreds of pages of sworn testimony.
Normal Yamashita stood trial for the atrocities in October 1945. He had ordered Iwabuchi to evacuate Manila, although that order was ignored as Iwabuchi’s troops dedicated most massacres. Whereas these males had not been underneath Yamashita’s direct command, the blame fell squarely on his shoulders as the general commander.
The navy tribunal discovered Yamashita responsible. He was hanged on February 23, 1946. The decision established command duty as a precept of worldwide regulation.
1st Cavalry veteran Robert R. Harrison returned to the Philippines many years later for reunions with Santo Tomas survivors. He by no means forgot what he witnessed.
“I do not suppose it is doable to completely get better from the results of a lot loss of life and destruction and the dehumanizing influence of extended warfare,” Harrison stated. “I do not need this to be self-serving. I am not making myself right into a hero. I am simply one in every of a gaggle of individuals.”
At the moment, the Memorare-Manila 1945 Monument stands in Intramuros. A bronze sculpture depicts a grieving mom cradling a useless little one. The inscription honors the 100,000 civilians who perished, “Let this monument be the headstone for each one.”
Manila survivor Isabel Caro-Wilson, interviewed years later, provided a response that a lot of her countrymen share.
“I can not be indignant all my life,” she stated. “Have I forgiven? After all, I’ve. However I have not forgotten.”
The Battle of Manila was the bloodiest city battle American troops fought within the Pacific Struggle. Of the 22 Medals of Honor awarded to troops throughout the Luzon Marketing campaign, six got to troops of the eleventh Airborne, 1st Cavalry and thirty seventh Infantry Divisions preventing in and round Manila. When civilian deaths are included, Manila ranks as one of many deadliest battles in all of World Struggle II.
