Part 9 (1/2)

Guards fled from Bibilid Prison, leaving behind 447 civilian and 828 military prisoners, most American. Some were men whom MacArthur had left behind on Corregidor in 1942. It was a merciful surprise that they were left alive, but beyond their emaciation, all the prisoners liberated in the Philippines proved traumatised. The world had changed so much, while they were isolated from it. Col. Bruce Palmer described seeing POWs freed at Cabanatuan: ”I'll never forget the bewildered look449 on these men. They just could not believe they had been released. Our equipment-everything we had-helmets and everything else were so foreign to them. They just thought we were men from Mars.” Krueger's staff officer Clyde Eddleman visited liberated POWs in their hospital tents. A sergeant was ”sitting there on a cot, sort of dazed, and he looked at me and said: 'Didn't you command HQ Company on these men. They just could not believe they had been released. Our equipment-everything we had-helmets and everything else were so foreign to them. They just thought we were men from Mars.” Krueger's staff officer Clyde Eddleman visited liberated POWs in their hospital tents. A sergeant was ”sitting there on a cot, sort of dazed, and he looked at me and said: 'Didn't you command HQ Company450 the 19th Infantry back in 1938?' Yes, I did. 'Well, I was Corporal Greenwood who fought in the lightweight cla.s.s.'” Now, NCO and officer met as men from different universes. the 19th Infantry back in 1938?' Yes, I did. 'Well, I was Corporal Greenwood who fought in the lightweight cla.s.s.'” Now, NCO and officer met as men from different universes.

Block by block, ruin by ruin, dash by dash across streets swept by enemy fire, the Americans advanced through Manila. After the first days, j.a.panese senior commanders could exercise little control. Their improvised battle groups simply fought to the death where they stood. The baseball stadium was ferociously defended-j.a.panese sailors dug in even on its diamond. They held the post office until it was reduced to rubble. On Provisor Island in the Pasig, American soldiers played a deadly game of hide-and-seek amid the machinery of a power station. Maj. Chuck Henne reflected: ”Such...are lonely, personal times451 during which the presence of other troops counts for little. Relaxing is impossible, for uncontrollably muscles tighten and teeth are clenched. The blast of a heavy sh.e.l.l is unforgettable, as is the dud that goes bouncing overhead down a cobblestone street. The close ones leave a chalky taste in one's mouth. Being bounced in the air and stung by blasted debris gets a trooper counting arms and legs and feeling for blood.” during which the presence of other troops counts for little. Relaxing is impossible, for uncontrollably muscles tighten and teeth are clenched. The blast of a heavy sh.e.l.l is unforgettable, as is the dud that goes bouncing overhead down a cobblestone street. The close ones leave a chalky taste in one's mouth. Being bounced in the air and stung by blasted debris gets a trooper counting arms and legs and feeling for blood.”

Americans were amazed by the fas.h.i.+on in which civilians wandered across the battlefield, apparently oblivious of the carnage. A company commander inspecting foxholes was disconcerted to discover some of his men clutched in the embraces of Filipino women. He sighed: ”I hope they don't get VD452.” The streets crawled with dest.i.tute children. A boy named Lee attached himself to the 3/148th Infantry, then after some days tearfully confessed to being a girl named Lisa. She was delivered to a Catholic orphanage.

Again and again, advancing troops suffered unwelcome surprises. When a jeep struck a mine dug into the street, not even body parts of its occupants were recovered-only the cha.s.sis of the vehicle reposed at the base of a crater. While a group of men was being briefed to fall back to a rest area, one of their number standing on a mound suddenly rolled to the ground, stone dead. A stray bullet, fired probably a mile away, had struck him without warning. A colonel from a reserve battalion visited a forward command post. Stepping up to a window, he fell dead to a j.a.panese bullet. ”It was...so common in combat453,” said an eyewitness. ”One mistake and you're dead.” Though there was much talk of snipers, in reality there were few marksmen among the j.a.panese navy contingent. They relied overwhelmingly on machine guns, for which they possessed almost unlimited quant.i.ties of ammunition.

Private Dahlum of the 3/148th454 was point man of a patrol moving down an alley when a j.a.panese officer and six men sprang out. Before any American could react, the officer swung his sword and delivered a fearsome, mortal blow at Dahlum's head. The patrol then shot down all the j.a.panese without further loss. The incident was over within seconds, leaving the survivors scarcely believing that it had taken place. ”Suspecting that every closed door was point man of a patrol moving down an alley when a j.a.panese officer and six men sprang out. Before any American could react, the officer swung his sword and delivered a fearsome, mortal blow at Dahlum's head. The patrol then shot down all the j.a.panese without further loss. The incident was over within seconds, leaving the survivors scarcely believing that it had taken place. ”Suspecting that every closed door455 and dark window screened a lurking j.a.p was nerve-racking,” wrote an American officer, ”and all too often the j.a.p was there. Once across the street and into a building the job seemed less risky as the men turned towards the offending emplacement using demolitions to open 'doors' through fences and building walls. The final move would be fast shooting to cover a demolition team which could close and blast the position using grenades or satchel charges.” and dark window screened a lurking j.a.p was nerve-racking,” wrote an American officer, ”and all too often the j.a.p was there. Once across the street and into a building the job seemed less risky as the men turned towards the offending emplacement using demolitions to open 'doors' through fences and building walls. The final move would be fast shooting to cover a demolition team which could close and blast the position using grenades or satchel charges.”

The most repellent aspect of the j.a.panese defence of Manila was their systematic slaughter of the city's civilians. The j.a.panese justified this policy by a.s.serting that everyone found in the battle area was a guerrilla. Over a hundred men, women and children were herded into Paco Lumber Yard along Moriones and Juan Luna Avenue, where they were bound, bayoneted and shot. Some bodies were burned, others left rotting in the sun. j.a.panese squads burst into buildings packed with refugees, shooting and stabbing. There were ma.s.sacres in schools, hospitals and convents, including San Juan de Dios Hospital, Santa Rosa College, Manila Cathedral, Paco Church and St. Paul's Convent.

Some civilians found themselves herded out of their homes by j.a.panese who a.s.serted that sh.e.l.lfire made them unsafe. They were taken to an a.s.sembly area on Plaza Ferguson, where there were soon 2,000 under guard. Young girls were then separated and removed first to the Coffee Pot Cafe, then to the Bay View Hotel, where brothels were established. The j.a.panese sought to give their men who were soon to die a final exalting s.e.xual experience. One twenty-four-year-old named Esther Garcia later gave evidence about the experiences of her fifteen-and fourteen-year-old sisters, Priscilla and Evangeline: ”They grabbed my two sisters456. They were in back of me. And we didn't know what they were going to do. So my two sisters started fighting them, but they couldn't do anything. So they grabbed my sisters by the arm and took them out of the room. And we waited and waited and waited and finally my younger sister came back and she was crying. And I asked her, 'Where is Pris? Where is Pris?' And she said: 'Oh! They are doing things to her, Esther!' So everybody in the room knew what was going to happen to us. When Priscilla came back, she said: 'Esther, they did something to me. I want to die. I want to die!'” A j.a.panese soldier had cut open her v.a.g.i.n.a with a knife.

At night, Americans on the line were bemused to hear sounds of chanting and singing, shouts and laughter, as j.a.panese conducted final carouses. These were sometimes succeeded by grenade explosions, as soldiers killed either themselves or hapless Filipinos. Some of the worst j.a.panese atrocities took place, ironically enough, at the city's German Club, where five hundred people died, five of them Germans. Twelve members of one family, the Rocha Beeches, were bayoneted and then burned alive, along with their nursemaid. A fifteen-year-old was raped in the street amid gunfire and screaming people. The j.a.panese responsible then rose and used his bayonet to open her body from groin to chest. Twelve German Christian Brothers were killed in the chapel of La Salle College. Doctors, nurses and patients at the Red Cross centre were all ma.s.sacred on 9 February. The Irish fathers at the Malate Church who had been tortured earlier in the month were now rearrested, and never seen again.

A pregnant woman, Carmen Guerrero, walked into the American lines, clutching a child in her arms. She had seen her husband tortured before her eyes, then removed to be shot. She had neither eaten nor slept for a week. She wrote later: ”I had seen the head of an aunt457 who had taught me to read and write roll under the kitchen stove, the face of a friend who had been crawling next to me on the pavement as we tried to reach shelter under the Ermita Church obliterated by a bullet, a legless cousin dragging himself out of a shallow trench in the churchyard and a young mother carrying a baby plucking at my father's sleeve-'Doctor, can you help me? I think I'm wounded'-and the shreds of her ribs and her lungs could be seen as she turned around.” who had taught me to read and write roll under the kitchen stove, the face of a friend who had been crawling next to me on the pavement as we tried to reach shelter under the Ermita Church obliterated by a bullet, a legless cousin dragging himself out of a shallow trench in the churchyard and a young mother carrying a baby plucking at my father's sleeve-'Doctor, can you help me? I think I'm wounded'-and the shreds of her ribs and her lungs could be seen as she turned around.”

The big villa of Dr. Rafael Moreta on Isaac Pearl Street had become a sanctuary housing sixty people. At midday on 7 February, twenty j.a.panese sailors burst in with fixed bayonets, led by a short, stocky officer with a heavy moustache. Men and women were separated, searched for arms and stripped of their valuables. The men were then forced into a bathroom, and grenades tossed in with them. Those who remained alive heard the screams of women, the sobbing of children. When silence descended and the j.a.panese had gone, the surviving men stumbled out to find thirty women, all of whom had been raped, dead or dying, along with their children in like condition.

It quickly became plain that murders on such a scale represented not spontaneous acts by individual j.a.panese, but the policy of local commanders. If their own men were to perish, the victors were to be denied any cause for rejoicing. A captured j.a.panese battalion order stated: ”When Filipinos are to be killed458 they must be gathered into one place and disposed of in a manner that does not demand excessive use of ammunition or manpower. Given the difficulties of disposing of bodies, they should be collected in houses scheduled for burning, demolished, or thrown into the river.” Oscar Griswold of XIV Corps they must be gathered into one place and disposed of in a manner that does not demand excessive use of ammunition or manpower. Given the difficulties of disposing of bodies, they should be collected in houses scheduled for burning, demolished, or thrown into the river.” Oscar Griswold of XIV Corps459 was bewildered to read a translation of a diary found on a dead j.a.panese, in which the soldier wrote of his love for his family, eulogised the beauty of a sunset-then described how he partic.i.p.ated in a ma.s.sacre of Filipinos during which he clubbed a baby against a tree. was bewildered to read a translation of a diary found on a dead j.a.panese, in which the soldier wrote of his love for his family, eulogised the beauty of a sunset-then described how he partic.i.p.ated in a ma.s.sacre of Filipinos during which he clubbed a baby against a tree.

It seems purposeless further to detail the slaughter, which continued until early March. The incidents described above are representative of the fates of tens of thousands of helpless people. A child emerging from a hospital saw a j.a.panese corpse and spat on it. His father said gently: ”Don't do that460. He was a human being.” By now, however, few Manileros were susceptible to such sentiments. In considering the later U.S. firebombing of j.a.pan and decision to bomb Hiros.h.i.+ma, it is useful to recall that by the spring of 1945 the American nation knew what the j.a.panese had done in Manila. The killing of innocents clearly represented not the chance of war, nor unauthorised actions by wanton enemy soldiers, but an ethic of ma.s.sacre at one with events in Nanjing in 1937, and with similar deeds across Asia. In the face of evidence from so many different times, places, units and circ.u.mstances, it became impossible for j.a.pan's leaders credibly to deny systematic inhumanity as gross as that of the n.a.z.is.

Yet the U.S. Army took little pride in its own role. To overcome the j.a.panese defences, it proved necessary to bombard large areas of the city into rubble. Before the Philippines landings, MacArthur dispatched a message to all American forces, emphasising the importance of restraint in the use of firepower. Filipinos, he wrote, ”will not be able to understand461 liberation if it is accompanied by indiscriminate destruction of their homes, their possessions, their civilization, and their lives...this policy is dictated by humanity and our moral standing throughout the Far East.” In consequence, and much to the dismay of his subordinates, MacArthur refused to allow air power to be deployed over Manila. Only after the 37th Division suffered 235 casualties in one day on 9 February did the theatre commander reluctantly lift restrictions on the use of artillery. ”From then on, to put it crudely liberation if it is accompanied by indiscriminate destruction of their homes, their possessions, their civilization, and their lives...this policy is dictated by humanity and our moral standing throughout the Far East.” In consequence, and much to the dismay of his subordinates, MacArthur refused to allow air power to be deployed over Manila. Only after the 37th Division suffered 235 casualties in one day on 9 February did the theatre commander reluctantly lift restrictions on the use of artillery. ”From then on, to put it crudely462, we really went to town,” said the 37th's commander. A hundred American guns and forty-eight heavy mortars delivered 42,153 sh.e.l.ls and bombs. The U.S. official historian shrugged: ”American lives were undoubtedly far more valuable463 than historic landmarks.” than historic landmarks.”

One post-war estimate suggests that for every six Manileros murdered by the j.a.panese defenders, another four died beneath the gunfire of their American liberators. Some historians would even reverse that ratio. ”Those who had survived j.a.panese hate464 did not survive American love,” wrote Carmen Guerrero. ”Both were equally deadly, the latter more so because sought and longed for.” Artillery killed four hundred civilians around the Remedios Hospital. A local man, Antonio Rocha, approached a U.S. mortar line and told its officer that his bombs were falling on civilians, not j.a.panese. The American impatiently gestured him away. The columns of the neocla.s.sical Legislature Building collapsed into heaps of rubble. On 14 February, MacArthur's headquarters announced: ”The end of the enemy's trapped garrison is in sight.” Yet death and destruction continued unabated as Krueger's men approached the last j.a.panese stronghold, the old Spanish city. did not survive American love,” wrote Carmen Guerrero. ”Both were equally deadly, the latter more so because sought and longed for.” Artillery killed four hundred civilians around the Remedios Hospital. A local man, Antonio Rocha, approached a U.S. mortar line and told its officer that his bombs were falling on civilians, not j.a.panese. The American impatiently gestured him away. The columns of the neocla.s.sical Legislature Building collapsed into heaps of rubble. On 14 February, MacArthur's headquarters announced: ”The end of the enemy's trapped garrison is in sight.” Yet death and destruction continued unabated as Krueger's men approached the last j.a.panese stronghold, the old Spanish city.

Oscar Griswold of XIV Corps wrote on 28 February: ”C-in-C refused my request465 to use air on Intramuros. I hated to ask for it since I knew it would cause death of civilians held captive by j.a.ps. We know, too, that the j.a.ps are burning large numbers to death, shooting and bayoneting them. Horrid as it seems, probably death from bombing would be more merciful...I fear that the C in C's refusal to let me have bombing will result in more casualties to my men...I understand how he feels about bombing people-but it is being done all over the world-Poland, China, England, Germany, Italy-then why not here! War is never pretty. I am frank to say I would sacrifice Philipino [ to use air on Intramuros. I hated to ask for it since I knew it would cause death of civilians held captive by j.a.ps. We know, too, that the j.a.ps are burning large numbers to death, shooting and bayoneting them. Horrid as it seems, probably death from bombing would be more merciful...I fear that the C in C's refusal to let me have bombing will result in more casualties to my men...I understand how he feels about bombing people-but it is being done all over the world-Poland, China, England, Germany, Italy-then why not here! War is never pretty. I am frank to say I would sacrifice Philipino [sic] lives under such circ.u.mstances to save the lives of my men. I feel quite bitter about this tonight.”

In the last days of February, the Americans began the final and most brutal phase of the struggle to overcome the defenders of the old city. Griswold wrote: ”The a.s.sault upon Intramuros was unique466 in modern warfare in that the entire area was mediaeval in structure, and its defense combined the fortress of the Middle Ages with the firepower of modern weapons.” Granite walls twenty feet thick were breached with heavy artillery. The 145th Infantry then attacked, supported by a company of medium tanks, a company of tank destroyers, an a.s.sault-gun platoon, two flamethrower tanks and self-propelled artillery. Once inside Fort Santiago, American demolition teams sealed deep recesses, dungeons and tunnels, after throwing in white phosphorus grenades or pumping down gasoline and igniting it. To its end, the battle remained fragmented, confused, pitiless. in modern warfare in that the entire area was mediaeval in structure, and its defense combined the fortress of the Middle Ages with the firepower of modern weapons.” Granite walls twenty feet thick were breached with heavy artillery. The 145th Infantry then attacked, supported by a company of medium tanks, a company of tank destroyers, an a.s.sault-gun platoon, two flamethrower tanks and self-propelled artillery. Once inside Fort Santiago, American demolition teams sealed deep recesses, dungeons and tunnels, after throwing in white phosphorus grenades or pumping down gasoline and igniting it. To its end, the battle remained fragmented, confused, pitiless.

Only on 3 March could Manila be deemed secure. Some 3,500 j.a.panese escaped across the Marikina river. Weary and exasperated, Oscar Griswold wrote: ”General MacArthur had announced [Manila's] capture several days ahead of the actual event. The man is publicity crazy publicity crazy. When soldiers are dying and being wounded, it doesn't make for their morale to know that the thing they are doing has been officially announced as finished days ago.” MacArthur picked a path through the debris of his old quarters in the penthouse of the Manila Hotel, where he found his library destroyed, a dead j.a.panese colonel on the carpet: ”It was not a pleasant moment467...I was tasting to the acid dregs the bitterness of a devastated and beloved home,” he wrote later. It seems bizarre that he paraded his own loss of mere possessions in the midst of a devastating human catastrophe. He wrote to his wife, Jean, reporting the good news that he had recovered all the family silver. He took over a mansion, Casa Blanca in the smart Santa Mesa district, established residence, and defied widespread criticism by summoning Jean to join him there.

American soldiers were not merely exhausted, but also deeply depressed by all that they had seen, done and suffered in Manila. The 3/148th Infantry, for instance, had lost 58 percent of its strength. Many of the casualties were veterans of the Solomons campaigns. Among new replacements there was an outbreak of self-inflicted wounds, which caused the perpetrators to be court-martialled. To relieve his men's gloom, the battalion's colonel ordered an ”organised drunk468.” Two truckloads of Suntory whiskey were procured, and issued at a rate of three bottles per man. One day was devoted to drinking, a second to ”healing.” This may not have been a good answer to the battalion's morale problem, but its officers were unable to think of better ones.

The victors counted 1,000 American dead, together with 16,665 j.a.panese-and 100,000 Manileros. In those days, other Luzon cities also suffered ma.s.sacres by the occupiers: 984 civilians were killed in Cuenca on 19 February; 500 in Buang and Batangas on 28 February; 7,000 civilians were killed in Calamba, Laguna. In all, a million Filipinos are estimated to have died by violence in the Second World War, most of them in its last months. There was intense debate about whether MacArthur should have bypa.s.sed Manila, rather than storm it. What is certain is that he was mistaken in his belief that he could serve the best interests of the Philippine people by committing an army to liberate them. Whatever Filipinos might have suffered at the hands of the j.a.panese if the Americans had contented themselves with seizing air bases for their advance on Tokyo, and held back from reoccupying the entire Philippines archipelago, would have been less grievous than the catastrophe they suffered when MacArthur made their country a battlefield. And in March 1945, the struggle for the islands was far from ended.

2. Yamas.h.i.+ta's Defiance

EVEN AS the battle for Manila was being fought, senior U.S. officers speculated about the looming end of the war in Europe, and its implications for the defeat of j.a.pan. Lt.-Gen. Robert Eichelberger of Eighth Army wrote on 16 February: ”I believe the BC [Big Chief] would fight against the battle for Manila was being fought, senior U.S. officers speculated about the looming end of the war in Europe, and its implications for the defeat of j.a.pan. Lt.-Gen. Robert Eichelberger of Eighth Army wrote on 16 February: ”I believe the BC [Big Chief] would fight against469 any attempt to bring the European crowd over here, even if they should desire to do so. I personally hope that the j.a.panese will quit if and when Stalin begins to push down along the Manchuria railway. They will realize they cannot hope to stand against that pressure...If we ever get Russia on our side out here the j.a.panese will be in a horrific position and therefore I think they will quit before having their towns bombed out.” Eichelberger added on 5 March: ”I never expect the BC to change. He will never want anybody on the stage but himself.” any attempt to bring the European crowd over here, even if they should desire to do so. I personally hope that the j.a.panese will quit if and when Stalin begins to push down along the Manchuria railway. They will realize they cannot hope to stand against that pressure...If we ever get Russia on our side out here the j.a.panese will be in a horrific position and therefore I think they will quit before having their towns bombed out.” Eichelberger added on 5 March: ”I never expect the BC to change. He will never want anybody on the stage but himself.”

While three American divisions were fighting for Manila through February, others recaptured the great symbolic place-names of Bataan and Corregidor. Zig-Zag Pa.s.s, on the approaches to the Bataan Peninsula, became the scene of some of the most painful fighting of the campaign. Before the area was secured several senior officers, including a divisional commander, were sacked for alleged inadequacy. An American parachute a.s.sault on the fortress island of Corregidor surprised the j.a.panese defenders in advance of an amphibious landing, but cost heavy jump casualties, and days of b.l.o.o.d.y mopping-up. A tank fired into the Malinta Tunnel, hitting munitions which exploded, blasting the vehicle bodily fifty yards backwards and overturning it. On the islands of Corregidor and nearby Caballo, the Americans disposed of the most stubborn underground defenders by pumping oil into their bunkers, then setting this ablaze. ”Results,” said the divisional report, ”were most gratifying.” Some j.a.panese chose to end their ordeal by detonating underground ammunition stores, killing Americans unlucky enough to be standing above. It was a messy, horrible business. Even MacArthur felt unable to display much triumphalism about the recapture of these famous symbols, though he led a flotilla of PT-boats to a ceremony on Corregidor.

Sixth Army's drive north and eastwards meanwhile continued, in the face of dogged resistance. Through the months that followed, Yamas.h.i.+ta conducted a highly effective defence of the mountain areas in which he had fortified himself. j.a.panese units fought; inflicted American casualties; caused days of delay, fear and pain; then withdrew to their next line. Krueger's engineers toiled under fire to improve steep tracks sufficiently to carry tanks and vehicles. Disease took its toll of attackers and defenders alike. j.a.panese soldiers endured hunger always, starvation latterly. ”Of the forty-nine men who are left470, only seventeen are fit for duty,” wrote Lt. Inoue Suteo of the j.a.panese 77th Infantry on 19 March. ”The other two-thirds are sick. Out of fourteen men of the grenade discharger section, only three are fit...43rd Force [to which his unit belonged] is called 'the malaria unit'...The quality of j.a.panese soldiers has fallen dramatically. I doubt if they could carry on the fight. Few units in the j.a.panese army are as lacking in military discipline as this one.”

Private s.h.i.+geki Hara of the 19th Special Machine-Gun Unit described the misery of retreating in a column of sick men. They abandoned all personal possessions, though Hara sought to sustain the custom of taking home to j.a.pan some portion of every dead fellow soldier: ”After daybreak, removed arm471 from the dead body of a comrade and followed the main body...was attacked by a company of guerrillas and suffered one casualty. Killed one enemy with the sword.” In addition to the usual tropical afflictions, men discovered that scrub typhus was carried by a small local red mite. Its symptom was a high fever, which inflicted heart damage from which some victims never recovered. ”Practically every day from the dead body of a comrade and followed the main body...was attacked by a company of guerrillas and suffered one casualty. Killed one enemy with the sword.” In addition to the usual tropical afflictions, men discovered that scrub typhus was carried by a small local red mite. Its symptom was a high fever, which inflicted heart damage from which some victims never recovered. ”Practically every day472 two or three men fall out and [are] instantly shot by the officers,” said Private First Cla.s.s Bunsan Okamoto, a twenty-four-year-old apprentice salesman serving with the 30th Recce Regiment. He was fortunate enough to be captured by the Americans and kept alive for intelligence purposes. A U.S. officer met an attractive young Filipino woman who said she had been in flight for weeks with three j.a.panese soldiers. ”The last few days,” she reported, ”they were in tears most of the time.” Americans found a pencilled note among supplies abandoned by the enemy, signed by a despairing j.a.panese: ”To the brave American soldier who finds this-tell my family I died bravely.” two or three men fall out and [are] instantly shot by the officers,” said Private First Cla.s.s Bunsan Okamoto, a twenty-four-year-old apprentice salesman serving with the 30th Recce Regiment. He was fortunate enough to be captured by the Americans and kept alive for intelligence purposes. A U.S. officer met an attractive young Filipino woman who said she had been in flight for weeks with three j.a.panese soldiers. ”The last few days,” she reported, ”they were in tears most of the time.” Americans found a pencilled note among supplies abandoned by the enemy, signed by a despairing j.a.panese: ”To the brave American soldier who finds this-tell my family I died bravely.”

All over the Philippine archipelago in the early spring of 1945, j.a.panese garrisons waited with varying degrees of enthusiasm for Americans to come. On Lubang, for instance, an island some eighteen miles by six within sight of Luzon, 150 of Yamas.h.i.+ta's men s.h.i.+fted supplies into the hills, in readiness to maintain a guerrilla campaign. ”They all talked big473 about committing suicide and giving up their lives for the emperor,” said their commander, Lt. Hiroo Onoda. ”Deep down they were hoping and praying that Lubang would not be attacked.” A small American force landed on 28 February, inflicting a slight wound on Onoda's hand as he and his men retreated. Thereafter, hunger and sickness progressively worsened their circ.u.mstances. One day, high in the hills, a pale young soldier came to Onoda from the sick tent, asking for explosives. He said: ”We can't move. Please let us kill ourselves.” Onoda thought for a moment, then agreed: ”All right, I'll do it. I'll set a fuse to the charges.” He looked into twenty-two faces, ”all resigned to death about committing suicide and giving up their lives for the emperor,” said their commander, Lt. Hiroo Onoda. ”Deep down they were hoping and praying that Lubang would not be attacked.” A small American force landed on 28 February, inflicting a slight wound on Onoda's hand as he and his men retreated. Thereafter, hunger and sickness progressively worsened their circ.u.mstances. One day, high in the hills, a pale young soldier came to Onoda from the sick tent, asking for explosives. He said: ”We can't move. Please let us kill ourselves.” Onoda thought for a moment, then agreed: ”All right, I'll do it. I'll set a fuse to the charges.” He looked into twenty-two faces, ”all resigned to death474,” and did his business. When he returned after the explosion, there was only a gaping crater where the sick tent had been.

In those months, more j.a.panese in the Philippines died from hunger and disease than the U.S. Army killed. In some degree, this must be attributed to a psychological collapse, overlaid upon physical weakness. Onoda, whose life on Lubang became that of a hunted wild animal, prowled the mountains struggling for survival, rather than making much attempt to injure the enemy. One day he glimpsed American gum wrappers beside a road, and found a wad stuck to a weed. He felt a surge of bitterness and frustration: ”Here we were, holding on for dear life, and these characters were chewing gum while they fought! I felt more sad than angry. The chewing gum tinfoil told me just how miserably we had been beaten.”

A military surgeon in the Philippines, Tadas.h.i.+ Moriya, ate bats:

We tore off the wings475, roasted them until they were done brown, flayed and munched their heads holding them by their legs. The brain was delicious. The tiny eyes cracked lightly in the mouth. The teeth were small but sharp, so we crunched and swallowed them down. We ate everything, bones and intestines, except the legs. The abdomen felt rough to the tongue, as they seemed to eat small insects like mosquitoes...Hunger is indeed the best sauce, for I ate fifteen bats a day.An officer reported that he saw a group of soldiers cooking meat. When he approached, they tried to conceal the contents of the mess tins, but he had a peep at them. A good deal of fat swam on the surface of the stew they were cooking, and he saw at once that it couldn't be karabaw karabaw [animal] meat. Then I had the news that an officer of another unit was eaten by his orderly as soon as he breathed his last. I believe the officer was so devoted to his orderly that he bequeathed him his body. This loyal servant fulfilled his lord and master's final wishes by burying him in his belly instead of the earth. [animal] meat. Then I had the news that an officer of another unit was eaten by his orderly as soon as he breathed his last. I believe the officer was so devoted to his orderly that he bequeathed him his body. This loyal servant fulfilled his lord and master's final wishes by burying him in his belly instead of the earth.

Col. Russell Volckmann, an American officer who had been leading guerrillas against the j.a.panese on Luzon since 1942, provided a report to Sixth Army a.s.sessing the enemy's tactical strengths and weaknesses. He admired j.a.panese powers of endurance, skill in moving men and equipment over harsh terrain. He thought well of their junior officers and NCOs. More senior commanders, however, impressed him little with their ”absurd orders476, a.s.signment of impossible missions in relation to a unit's strength, utter disregard for the lives of subordinates, refusal to admit defeat or even face the fact that events are going against him [sic] and inability to adjust to a changing situation, p.r.o.neness to exaggerate success and minimize failure causes higher echelons to get a false picture. j.a.p small unit tactics are tops but there is seldom any coordination between units. To sum it up-the j.a.p officer generally has no idea of modern methods of fighting in large ma.s.s.” This seems fair. The j.a.panese showed themselves superb soldiers in defence, yet often failed in attack because they relied upon human spirit to compensate for lack of numbers, firepower, mobility and imagination. When the j.a.panese counterattacked, they were almost always repulsed with heavy loss. But when they merely held ground, as did Yamas.h.i.+ta's men for most of the Luzon campaign, they performed superbly.