Reporters:

Jhona Jhoyce Baron

Arjay Canlas
Jerry Paul Labatos
Richard Yamomo
Ma. Roelba Tolentino
Jayson Cardona

JAPANESE OCCUPATION
PERIOD
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines (Filipino: Pananakop ng mga
Hapones sa Pilipinas; Japanese:  日本のフィリピン占領 , romanized: Nihon
no Firipin Senryō) occurred between 1942 and 1945, when Imperial Japan
 occupied the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.
The invasion of the Philippines started on 8 December 1941, ten hours after
the attack on Pearl Harbor. As at Pearl Harbor, American aircraft were severely
damaged in the initial Japanese attack. Lacking air cover, the American 
Asiatic Fleet in the Philippines withdrew to Java on 12 December 1941.
General Douglas MacArthur was ordered out, leaving his men at Corregidor on
the night of 11 March 1942 for Australia, 4,000 km away. The 76,000 starving
and sick American and Filipino defenders in Bataan surrendered on 9 April
1942, and were forced to endure the infamous Bataan Death March on which
7,000–10,000 died or were murdered. The 13,000 survivors on Corregidor
surrendered on 6 May.
Japan occupied the Philippines for over three years, until the surrender of Japan.
A highly effective guerilla campaign by Philippine resistance forces controlled
sixty percent of the islands, mostly jungle and mountain areas. MacArthur
supplied them by submarine, and sent reinforcements and officers. Filipinos
remained loyal to the United States, partly because of the American guarantee of
independence, and also because the Japanese had pressed large numbers of
Filipinos into work details and even put young Filipino women into brothels.

General MacArthur kept his promise to return to the Philippines on 20 October

1944. The landings on the island of Leyte were accompanied by a force of 700
vessels and 174,000 men. Through December 1944, the islands of Leyte and 
Mindoro were cleared of Japanese soldiers. During the campaign, the 
Imperial Japanese Army conducted a suicidal defense of the islands. Cities such
as Manila were reduced to rubble. Around 500,000 Filipinos died during the
Japanese Occupation Period.
 Background
Japan launched an attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just ten
hours after their attack on Pearl Harbor. Initial aerial bombardment was
followed by landings of ground troops both north and south of Manila. The
defending Philippine and United States troops were under the command of
General Douglas MacArthur, who had been recalled to active duty in the 
United States Army earlier in the year and was designated commander of the 
United States Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific region. The aircraft of his
command were destroyed; the naval forces were ordered to leave; and because
of the circumstances in the Pacific region, reinforcement and resupply of his
ground forces were impossible. Under the pressure of superior numbers, the
defending forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of 
Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay. Manila, declared an open city to
prevent its destruction, was occupied by the Japanese on 2 January 1942.
The Philippine defense continued until the final surrender of U.S.-
Philippine forces on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and on Corregidor
in May. Most of the 80,000 prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at
Bataan were forced to undertake the infamous "Bataan Death March" to a
prison camp 105 kilometers to the north. Thousands of men, weakened by
disease and malnutrition and treated harshly by their captors, died before
reaching their destination. Quezon and Osmeña had accompanied the
troops to Corregidor and later left for the United States, where they set up
a government-in-exile. MacArthur was ordered to Australia, where he
started to plan for a return to the Philippines.
 The occupation
The Japanese military authorities immediately began organizing a new government
structure in the Philippines. Although the Japanese had promised independence for the
islands after occupation, they initially organized a Council of State through which they
directed civil affairs until October 1943, when they declared the Philippines an
independent republic. Most of the Philippine elite, with a few notable exceptions, served
under the Japanese. The puppet republic was headed by President José P. Laurel
. Philippine collaboration in puppet government began under Jorge B. Vargas, who was
originally appointed by Quezon as the mayor of City of Greater Manila before Quezon
departed Manila. The only political party allowed during the occupation was the
Japanese-organized KALIBAPI. During the occupation, most Filipinos remained loyal
to the United States, and war crimes committed by forces of the Empire of Japan against
surrendered Allied forces and civilians were documented.
Throughout the Philippines more than a thousand Filipinos, composed of mothers, girls,
and gay men, some aged 10, were imprisoned, forcibly taken as "comfort women", and
kept in sexual slavery for Japanese military personnel during the occupation.Each of the
Japanese military installations in the Philippines during the occupation had a location
where the women were held, which they called a "comfort station".One such place
where these women were imprisoned was Bahay na Pula.
 Resistance
Japanese occupation of the Philippines was opposed by active and successful
underground and guerrilla activity that increased over the years and that
eventually covered a large portion of the country. Opposing these guerrillas
were a Japanese-formed Bureau of Constabulary (later taking the name of
the old Constabulary during the Second Republic), Kempeitai, and the 
Makapili. Postwar investigations showed that about 260,000 people were in
guerrilla organizations and that members of the anti-Japanese underground
were even more numerous. Such was their effectiveness that by the end of
the war, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces.
The Philippine guerrilla movement continued to grow, in spite of Japanese
campaigns against them. Throughout Luzon and the southern islands, Filipinos
joined various groups and vowed to fight the Japanese. The commanders of
these groups made contact with one another, argued about who was in charge
of what territory, and began to formulate plans to assist the return of American
forces to the islands. They gathered important intelligence information and
smuggled it out to the U.S. Army, a process that sometimes took months.
General MacArthur formed a clandestine operation to support the guerrillas.
He had Lieutenant Commander Charles "Chick" Parsons smuggle guns, radios
and supplies to them by submarine. The guerrilla forces, in turn, built up their
stashes of arms and explosives and made plans to assist MacArthur's invasion
by sabotaging Japanese communications lines and attacking Japanese forces
from the rear.
Various guerrilla forces formed throughout the archipelago, ranging from
groups of U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) forces who refused
to surrender to local militia initially organized to combat banditry brought
about by disorder caused by the invasion. Several islands in the Visayas
 region had guerrilla forces led by Filipino officers, such as Colonel 
Macario Peralta in Panay, Major Ismael Ingeniero in Bohol, and Captain 
Salvador Abcede in Negros.
The island of Mindanao, being farthest from the center of Japanese
occupation, had 38,000 guerrillas who were eventually consolidated under the
command of American civil engineer Colonel Wendell Fertig.[33] Fertig's
guerrillas included many American and Filipino troops who had been part of
the force on Mindanao under Major General William F. Sharp. When
Wainwright had ordered Sharp's forces to surrender, Sharp considered
compelled to obey this order. Many of the American and Filipino officers
refused to surrender, since they reasoned that Wainwright, now a prisoner who
could be considered under duress, had no authority to issue orders to Sharp.
For several reasons it was unknown how many did not surrender, although
probably around 100 to 200 Americans ended up with Fertig's guerrillas. The
names of new Filipino recruits were purposefully left off the lists of men to be
surrendered. In other cases, documents were fabricated to report fewer men
than were actually under Sharp. Other troops died for various reasons after
getting away and others left Mindanao entirely.
One resistance group in the Central Luzon area was known as the 
Hukbalahap (Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon), or the People's Anti-
Japanese Army, organized in early 1942 under the leadership of Luis Taruc, a
communist party member since 1939. The Huks armed some 30,000 people
and extended their control over portions of Luzon. However, guerrilla
activities on Luzon were hampered due to the heavy Japanese presence and
infighting between the various groups, including Hukbalahap troops attacking
American-led guerrilla units.

Lack of equipment, difficult terrain and undeveloped infrastructure made

coordination of these groups nearly impossible, and for several months in
1942, all contact was lost with Philippine resistance forces. Communications
were restored in November 1942 when the reformed Philippine 61st Division
 on Panay island, led by Colonel Macario Peralta, was able to establish radio
contact with the USAFFE command in Australia. This enabled the forwarding
of intelligence regarding Japanese forces in the Philippines to SWPA
 command, as well as consolidating the once sporadic guerrilla activities and
allowing the guerrillas to help in the war effort.
Increasing amounts of supplies and radios were delivered by submarine to aid the
guerrilla effort. By the time of the Leyte invasion, four submarines were dedicated
exclusively to the delivery of supplies.

Other guerrilla units were attached to the SWPA, and were active throughout the
archipelago. Some of these units were organized or directly connected to pre-
surrender units ordered to mount guerrilla actions. An example of this was
Troop C, 26th Cavalry.[42][43][44] Other guerrilla units were made up of former 
Philippine Army and Philippine Scouts soldiers who had been released from POW
camps by the Japanese.[45][46] Others were combined units of Americans, military
and civilian, who had never surrendered or had escaped after surrendering, and
Filipinos, Christians and Moros, who had initially formed their own small units.
Colonel Wendell Fertig organized such a group on Mindanao that not only
effectively resisted the Japanese, but formed a complete government that often
operated in the open throughout the island. Some guerrilla units would later be
assisted by American submarines which delivered supplies, evacuate refugees and
injured, as well as inserted individuals and whole units, such as the 
5217th Reconnaissance Battalion, and Alamo Scouts.
By the end of the war, some 277 separate guerrilla units, made up of some
260,715 individuals, fought in the resistance movement. Select units of the
resistance would go on to be reorganized and equipped as units of the Philippine
Army and Constabulary.
 End of the occupation
When General MacArthur returned to the Philippines with his army in late
1944, he was well-supplied with information; it is said that by the time
MacArthur returned, he knew what every Japanese lieutenant ate for
breakfast and where he had his haircut. But the return was not easy. The 
Japanese Imperial General Staff decided to make the Philippines their final
line of defense, and to stop the American advance towards Japan. They sent
every available soldier, airplane and naval vessel to the defense of the
Philippines. The kamikaze corps was created specifically to defend the
Japanese occupation of the Philippines. The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in
disaster for the Japanese and was the biggest naval battle of World War II.
The campaign to liberate the Philippines was the bloodiest campaign of the
Pacific War. Intelligence information gathered by the guerrillas averted a
disaster—they revealed the plans of Japanese General Yamashita to trap
MacArthur's army, and they led the liberating soldiers to the Japanese
fortifications.
MacArthur's Allied forces landed on the island of Leyte on 20 October 1944,
accompanied by Osmeña, who had succeeded to the commonwealth
presidency upon the death of Quezon on 1 August 1944. Landings then
followed on the island of Mindoro and around Lingayen Gulf on the west
side of Luzon, and the push toward Manila was initiated. The 
Commonwealth of the Philippines was restored. Fighting was fierce,
particularly in the mountains of northern Luzon, where Japanese troops had
retreated, and in Manila, where they put up a last-ditch resistance. The
Philippine Commonwealth troops and the recognized guerrilla fighter units
rose up everywhere for the final offensive. Filipino guerrillas also played a
large role during the liberation. One guerrilla unit came to substitute for a
regularly constituted American division, and other guerrilla forces of battalion
 and regimental size supplemented the efforts of the U.S. Army units.
Moreover, the cooperative Filipino population eased the problems of supply,
construction and civil administration and furthermore eased the task of Allied
forces in recapturing the country.
Fighting continued until Japan's formal surrender on 2 September 1945. The
Philippines had suffered great loss of life and tremendous physical
destruction by the time the war was over. An estimated 527,000 Filipinos,
both military and civilians, had been killed from all causes; of these between
131,000 and 164,000 were killed in seventy-two war crime events. According
to a United States analysis released years after the war, U.S. casualties were
10,380 dead and 36,550 wounded; Japanese dead were 255,795. Filipino
deaths during the occupations, on the other hand, are estimated to be more be
around 527,000 (27,000 military dead, 141,000 massacred, 22,500 forced
labor deaths and 336,500 deaths due war related famine). The Philippine
population decreased continuously for the next five years due to the spread of
diseases and the lack of basic needs, far from the Filipino lifestyle prior to the
war when the country had been the second richest in Asia after Japan.