On this day seventy years ago began one of the most gruesomeand tragic battles that befell the Philippines. It was not because the battle was not won. It was. But it was won at a great price.
A mere two generations ago, one would hear from the elderly a Manila that was shining free city of the Orient. Many people have called it by various names. Manila the Pearl of the Orient—reminiscent of that line that Rizal wrote on his Mi Ultimo Adios. Manila, the Queen of the Pacific, as was so named by an early American documentary on the City of Manila.
A photo of the pre-war Manila
The city was probably one of the best cities in Asia at the time. When the Imperial Japanese forces conquered the city on January 2, 1942, they exclaimed that it was indeed more advanced than any city they had in their homeland. No one could attest that Manila, situated perfectly on one of the best harbors in the world, with one of the best entrepots on that side of the Pacific, was a true cosmopolitan city, and the unchallenged capital of the country.
It had been three years since Japan had occupied the country. The city in its paled glory had been languishing in food supplies, as the price of rice and other commodities skyrocketed to new heights due to extreme inflation.
The struggling Japanese Empire, still resolute in holding onto its illusion of a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere despite the fact that the Allied forces have made a foothold in Leyte since October 1944, was prepared to sacrifice its soldiers die—lest the Americans make Manila a base of operations to launch an invasion of the Japanese homeland.
At around this time, civilians all over the city wonder at the curious structures that the Japanese have set up on all the street corners and intersections of Manila. Unknown to the civilians, these structures, pillboxes and minefields, are hidden alcoves were Imperial Japanese soldiers would shoot from a slit opening of these boxes to kill anything on sight.
At daybreak, smoke rose up from the burning warehouses at the Manila North Harbor, torched by the Japanese, as the Allied forces, both coming from the north (from Lingayen) and the south (from Nasugbu, Batangas) encountered fierce Japanese resistance in Novaliches and Cavite respectively.
As the city impatiently awaited the coming of the liberation forces, it was the Filipino guerilla Manuel Colayco who led the Allied northern forces to the University of Santo Tomas. The oldest Western-style university in Asia have been used by the Japanese as an American internment camp where 1,500 malnourished American prisoners-of-war are encamped. Since the electricity had been turned off by the Japanese due to American air raids, the campus was in pitch black darkness.
At around 7:30 to 8:00 pm shots were fired near the gates of UST. Grenades were thrown. The Allied troops finally reached UST at around that time (AVH Hartendorp say it was at 8:40 pm).
The hero, Manuel Colayco, however didn’t make it. A Japanese sniper shot him to his death, but he died a hero. The fighting stretched all the way to Far Eastern University, a stonesthrow away from Bilibid Prison, another POW camp. FEU was heavily fortified by the Imperial Japanese forces, but it could not be helped.
The liberation forces finally arrive in the city and no one, not even the despotic Imperial Japanese soldiers could stop it.
It seemed that the city would be freed in a couple of days. But the
worst is yet to come.
Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Manila 1945, the gruelling battle for the liberation of the city that lasted from February 3 to March 3, 1945.
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