Japanese occupation, Bataan and the destruction of Manila
Japan invades hours after Pearl Harbor; Filipino and American troops surrender at Bataan, guerrillas resist a brutal occupation, and Manila is destroyed in 1945 with some 100,000 civilians killed.
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press (1999)
- Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila — James M. Scott, W. W. Norton (2018)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
- The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines — Benedict J. Kerkvliet, University of California Press (1977)
- A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present — Andrew Gordon, Oxford University Press (2003)
On 8 December 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft destroyed most of the American air force at Clark Field, and Japanese troops landed on Luzon. General Douglas MacArthur’s Filipino and American forces withdrew to the Bataan peninsula and the island fortress of Corregidor. Bataan surrendered on 9 April 1942. Its roughly 70,000 or more prisoners, most of them Filipinos, were forced to march some 100 kilometres in tropical heat with little food or water; estimates of Filipino deaths during the march range from about 5,000 to 18,000, and thousands more died in the camp at Capas afterwards.
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press (1999)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
Under occupation, resistance was widespread: guerrilla units, many led by Filipino officers, operated across the islands, and in central Luzon the peasant-based Hukbalahap fought both the Japanese and landlords.
- The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines — Benedict J. Kerkvliet, University of California Press (1977)
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press (1999)
MacArthur landed on Leyte in October 1944 with the words “I have returned”. In February 1945, as US forces fought to retake Manila, Japanese marines and soldiers massacred civilians across the city, and American artillery levelled much of what remained. About 100,000 civilians died in a month.
- Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila — James M. Scott, W. W. Norton (2018)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
- History of the Filipino People — Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Garotech (1990)
The war is remembered as a time of suffering and heroism: the Death March, the guerrillas, and massacres in Manila. Filipinos fought loyally alongside the Americans, and veterans long fought for the US benefits they had been promised.
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press (1999)
- Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila — James M. Scott, W. W. Norton (2018)
Many of the elite served in the Japanese-sponsored government, which declared a nominally independent republic in 1943 under José P. Laurel. After the war most were amnestied and returned to power, while the peasant Huk guerrillas who had fought the Japanese were hunted as communists.
- The Philippines under Japan: Occupation Policy and Reaction — Ikehata Setsuho and Ricardo Trota Jose (eds.), Ateneo de Manila University Press (1999)
- The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines — Benedict J. Kerkvliet, University of California Press (1977)
- State and Society in the Philippines — Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso, Rowman & Littlefield (2017)
Why it matters today
9 April, the fall of Bataan, is the Day of Valor (Araw ng Kagitingan), a national holiday. The war left Manila one of the most devastated cities of the Second World War and a lasting memory of atrocities, including the women forced into sexual slavery, the "comfort women" or lolas, who are still campaigning for an apology.