| Manila massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part ofWorld War II | |
 Photo of a Filipino woman and child killed by Japanese forces in Manila | |
| Location | Manila,Philippines |
| Date | 3 February – 3 March 1945 (EDT) |
| Target | Filipinos |
Attack type | Mass murder,massacre,wartime rape,terrorism |
| Deaths | 100,000–500,000[1][2] |
| Perpetrators | Sanji Iwabuchi,Tomoyuki Yamashita,Akira Mutō, Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Motive | Japanese nationalism,Anti-Filipino sentiment |
TheManila massacre (Filipino:Pagpatay sa Maynila;Japanese:マニラ大虐殺,romanized: Manira dai Gyakusatsu orMasaker sa Maynila), also called theRape of Manila (Filipino:Paggahasa ng Maynila;Japanese:マニラの強姦,romanized: Manira no Gōkan), involved atrocities committed againstFilipinocivilians in theCity of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, byJapanese troops during theBattle of Manila (3 February 1945 – 3 March 1945) which occurred duringWorld War II. At least 100,000 civilians were killed in total during the battle from all causes, including the massacre by Japanese troops.
The Manilamassacre was one of several majorwar crimes committed by theImperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese commanding admiral,Sanji Iwabuchi, who stood behind the massacre committed suicide during the battle. The Japanese commanding general,Tomoyuki Yamashita, and his chief of staffAkira Mutō, were held responsible for the massacre and other war crimes in atrial which started in October 1945. Yamashita was executed on 23 February 1946 and Mutō on 23 December 1948.[3]
The Americans who have penetrated into Manila have about 1000 troops, and there are several thousand Filipino soldiers under the Commonwealth Army and the organized guerrillas. Even women and children have become guerrillas. All people on the battlefield with the exception of Japanese military personnel, Japanese civilians, and special construction units will be put to death.
— Japanese order justifying the Manila massacre[4]
Before the battle, deciding that he would be unable to defend Manila with the forces available to him, and to preserve as large a force as possible in the rural, more defensibleSierra Madre mountain region of northernLuzon, General Tomoyuki Yamashita had insisted on a complete withdrawal of Japanese troops from Manila in January 1945. However, Yamashita's order was ignored by about 10,000Japanese marines under Rear AdmiralSanji Iwabuchi who chose to remain in Manila.
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In the Battle of Manila from February to March 1945, theUnited States Army advanced into the city of Manila in order to drive the Japanese out. During lulls in the battle for control of the city, Japanese troops took their anger and frustration out on the civilians in the city. Violent mutilations, rapes, and massacres occurred in schools, hospitals and convents, including San Juan de Dios Hospital, Santa Rosa College,Santo Domingo Church,Manila Cathedral,Paco Church, St. Paul's Convent, andSt. Vincent de Paul Church.[1]: 113
Dr. Antonio Gisbert told of the murder of his father and brother at thePalacio del Gobernador, saying, "I am one of those few survivors, not more than 50 in all out of more than 3000 men herded intoFort Santiago and, two days later, massacred.[1]: 110
The Japanese forced Filipino women and children into the front lines ashuman shields to protect Japanese positions. Those who survived were then murdered by the Japanese.[4]
The Japanese conducted mop-up operations to clear north Manila of guerrillas, executing more than 54,000 Filipinos, including children, as they passed through towns.[5]: 92
Pregnant Filipino women were killed by having their bellies ripped open while Filipino civilians trying to flee were executed.[5]: 93
The Bayview Hotel was used as a designated "rape center".[6] According to testimony at the Yamashita war crimes trial, 400 women and girls were rounded up from Manila's wealthyErmita district, and submitted to a selection board that picked out the 25 women who were considered most beautiful. These women and girls, many of them 12 to 14 years old, were then taken to the hotel, where Japanese enlisted men and officers took turns raping them.[7]
Despite many allied Germans holding refuge in a German club, Japanese soldiers entered in and bayoneted infants and children of mothers pleading for mercy and raped women seeking refuge. At least 20 Japanese soldiers raped a young girl before slicing her breasts off after which a Japanese soldier placed her mutilated breasts on his chest to mimic a woman while the other Japanese soldiers laughed. The Japanese then doused the young girl and two other women who were raped to death in gasoline and set them all on fire.[8]
The Japanese went on setting the entire club on fire killing many of its inhabitants. Women who were escaping out the building from the fire were caught and raped by the Japanese. 28-year-old Julia Lopez had her breasts sliced off, was raped by Japanese soldiers and had her hair set on fire. Another woman was partially decapitated after attempting to defend herself and raped by a Japanese soldier.[9]
The combined death toll of civilians for the Battle of Manila was about 100,000, most of which was attributed to massacres by Japanese forces.[10][11][2] Some historians, citing a higher civilian casualty rate for the entire battle, suggest that 100,000 to 500,000 died as a result of the Manila massacre on its own, exclusive of other causes.[1][12][13][14][15][excessive citations]
Extensive as were the Japanese atrocities during the battle, American artillery and firepower were most responsible for the destruction of Manila's architectural and cultural heritage,[16] and, according to a Japanese estimate, caused 40 percent of the total Filipino deaths during the battle.[17]
GeneralTomoyuki Yamashita was convicted as a war criminal for the Manila massacre, although Admiral Iwabuchi's marines had committed the atrocities and Yamashita had earlier ordered him to evacuate Manila. Iwabuchi himself committed suicide in the face of imminent defeat near the end of theBattle of Manila. Former war-crimes prosecutor and authorAllan Ryan argues that there was no evidence that Yamashita committed crimes there, ordered others to do so, was in a position to prevent them, or even suspected they were about to happen.[citation needed]
However, the problem with this argument was that Yamashita's lawyers resorted to using a chain of command technicality defense related to how the Japanese Navy were solely responsible for the massacre in Manila as a way to excuse Yamashita of committing all war crimes in the Philippines, of which there were many outside of Manila, according to the Chief of the Government Section for theSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers and Chief of Civil Affairs Section, U.S. Army Forces, Pacific Ocean Area, Brigadier GeneralCourtney Whitney. Yamashita was actually held responsible for many other war crimes that the prosecution claimed was a systematic campaign to torture and kill Filipino civilians and Allied POWs as shown in thePalawan massacre of 139 U.S. POWs, wanton executions of guerrillas, soldiers, and civilians without due process like the execution of Philippine Army generalVicente Lim in December 1944, and the massacre of 25,000 civilians inBatangas Province. These crimes that were committed outside of the Manila massacre were done by the Japanese Army, not the Navy. It was argued that Yamashita was in full command of the Japanese Army's secret military police, theKempeitai, which committed numerous war crimes onPOWs and civilian internees and he simply nodded his head without protest when asked by his Kempeitai subordinates to execute people without due process or trials because there were too many prisoners to do proper trials. Philippine Army generals Lim, Simeon de Jesus, andFidel Segundo were beheaded alongside hundreds of other people in mass graves by Army soldiers in Manila without a trial or due process on Yamashita's orders, long before Yamashita left Manila. The Japanese Navy and Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi had nothing to do with the massacres done by Yamashita's Kempeitai and regular Army soldiers that were under his chain of command. Yamashita's lawyers tried to claim, to no avail, that for all of these Army massacres that Yamashita had no responsibility whatsoever and didn't know anything.[23]
General MacArthur, five other generals, and the Supreme Court of the United States ultimately held Yamashita responsible for war crimes since he was in command of all Japanese troops in the Philippines at the time. PresidentHarry S. Truman also agreed with the verdict and chose not to pardon Yamashita or commute his sentence.[24] Yamashita was convicted on the grounds that he made no attempt to discover or stop atrocities from being committed. This would become known as theYamashita standard. A group of American military lawyers attempted to defend General Yamashita by appealing to theU.S. Supreme Court, but the appeal failed, 5 votes to 2. As a result, Yamashita was sentenced to death by hanging. He was hanged on 23 February 1946 in a camp south of Manila.[25] The two dissenting Supreme Court Justices called the entire trial a miscarriage of justice, an exercise in vengeance, and a denial of human rights.[24]
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