Manila massacre

The Manila massacre is a massacre committed by Japanese troops against Filipino civilians in Manila in February 1945 .

During the reconquest of the Philippines, troops of the 6th US Army under Lieutenant General Walter Krueger as well as Filipino and Mexican units landed on January 9, 1945 in the Gulf of Lingayen on Luzon . After heavy fighting, including around the important airfield at Clark Field , the main part of the 14th Regional Army of the Imperial Japanese Army withdrew to the north. Contrary to the orders of General Yamashita Tomoyuki , Vice Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi stayed with 10,000 Marines and 4,000 other soldiers in Manila, where he was surrounded by American and Filipino forces and the city became a battlefield .

During the pauses in the fighting, Japanese soldiers took out anger and frustration on the civilians trapped in the city. Men, women, children, priests, prisoners of war , doctors, nurses and patients in hospitals were beheaded, stabbed or mutilated. Thousands of Filipino women and girls were raped and stabbed with bayonets. According to documents found by a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army , at least 1,000 residents of the city were burned alive. Parts of the city that had not been destroyed by fighting were burned by units organized. Residents were locked up, sometimes in large numbers, in prisons, churches or basements and killed there with explosives or fire. Numerous Western and Eastern sources agree that around 100,000 people were killed in the massacre. It is less common to speak of 111,000 while others put the number of victims below 100,000.

The Manila massacre played an important role in the post-war processes. General Yamashita was found responsible. Although his troops had acted contrary to his orders not to occupy the city, the court found him guilty because the troops under his command had carried out the massacre and the Sook Ching massacres and other war crimes in Malaysia were also carried out under his command, against which the court found he had not acted decisively enough. The decision to convict him is controversial.