It was exactly this month last year when I decided to work on a project apropos of the Japanese wartime atrocities in Negros Oriental. This was going to be a stepping stone to a bigger project on wartime atrocities through Negros Island, and later in the Visayas.
Looking at the literature of wartime atrocities during the Second World War, there are quite a lot of memoirs and recent books on the subject.
My goal soon enough is to collate and synthesize all these wartime atrocities in the Visayas. [Hopefully, this will come to fruition once I have mustered enough mental courage to write about these atrocities.]
In hindsight, historians have surmised that the atrocities done by the Japanese occupying forces in the Philippines undoubtedly heightened in the last two years of the war.
This was mostly because the Japanese soldiers had no other recourse but to tighten their grip on the people, especially with the sporadic guerrilla attacks and resistance against the occupying forces and their collaborators.
The Japanese forces in the Philippines by mid-1944 may have realized that they were fighting a losing battle.
They knew that true to his word, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s return to the Philippines was drawing near.
Tension filled the air among Filipinos at that time. They knew that General MacArthur was going to return, but the question was when exactly? And will his return lead to an escalation of war or unrest which would directly, or indirectly, affect them?
The Filipinos were also anxious of their situation – whether they would randomly become victims of Japanese abuses or attacks.
Their fear became reality, especially in the case of Dumaguete, as more atrocities were committed between mid-1944 to July 1945, compared to the previous years.
The cases of Japanese violence towards local civilians in Dumaguete increased considerably after 20 October 1944 – the date of MacArthur’s arrival in Leyte.
According to Dumaguete Mayor Mariano Perdices: “During this period the Japanese were very active, making many patrols in the barrios around Poblacion, Dumaguete. The majority of these people were killed by the troops of Col. Oie as they retreated in small units from Dumaguete into the mountains to the west.”
This somehow corroborates the statement of historian Kelly Maddox who said: “The landing of US troops on 20 October 1944 was accompanied by killings of civilians carried out as Japanese soldiers evacuated the region.”
From May 1944 to July 1945, based on the estimates of the records from RG 331: Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers – and this is only apropos of recorded deaths and disappearances – more than 200 civilians were killed, or disappeared, within the area of Dumaguete alone.
Enumerating all these opprobrious cases that were recorded need not detain us here; but a few cases show the desperation of the Japanese forces, especially in maintaining a semblance of security within Dumaguete.
On 20 November 1944, Antonio Alcancia and Mariano Infante from barrio Camanjac were looking for their carabao that was purportedly stolen by some guerrilla members. They met two Japanese soldiers passing by, and out of fear, they ran away. The Japanese soldiers caught up with them, and tied their hands behind their backs. Believing that they were members of the guerrilla movement, one of the Japanese soldiers “…took a sharp pointed piece of bamboo, and drove it into the eye of Antonio. Antonio screamed with pain, but the Japanese kept on hitting the other end of this piece of bamboo and drove it through Antonio’s head, pinning to the mango tree.”
His companion Infante was made to lay down on the ground on his stomach. The other Japanese soldier bayonetted him straight on his back, and proceeded to hack his neck.
Both locals were killed because they had run away from the Japanese soldiers.
An incident of rape and murder was also recorded on 6 March 1945, when a Japanese patrol encountered some civilians from barrio Camanjac who were planning to bathe at the nearby Okoy River. Four civilians were walking towards Okoy when two of them – Policarpo Aragaones (53 years old), and his niece, Margarita Bonilla (27 years old) – were apprehended by Japanese soldiers. Aragaones was carrying a huge bundle of food and clothes – for fear that if he left them at home, they could be looted by either the Japanese or guerrilla forces.
Believing that the bundle was for the guerrillas in the mountains, the Japanese soldiers, led by Sgt. Majo. Shoji Sato, took Aragaones (whose hands were tied behind his back) to the bamboo groves, and bayonetted him to death.
After killing him, the Japanese then set their eyes on Margarita Bonilla.
As one witness testified, Bonilla was molested by the group of soldiers; the only words that could be heard from her was: “Please do not kill me, mister!” The Japanese soldiers, however, did not understand her, and kept on. Later on, they did the unthinkable by plucking out her eyes, and cutting off her breasts with a bayonet. They lingered in the area, then went on their way.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg of the many atrocities that transpired in Dumaguete in the last years of the war. Without a doubt, nobody wins in wars, and those who almost invariably suffer are the civilians. The real names listed here are only a few of the thousands who died here in Negros Oriental during the Japanese Occupation.
These stories of violence have mostly been left untold perhaps because the people of Dumaguete have forgotten – or have chosen to forget – this dark period in their history.
Nevertheless, these atrocities are stark reminders of the brutal nature of war. Lessons can be learned from this period in history, and perhaps one of the best lessons we can learn is that no one wins in a war.
In spite of General MacArthur’s return and liberation of the Philippines, many (mostly civilians) continued to suffer the consequences of his grand return.
Many civilians became victims of more atrocities committed by the Japanese, which escalated more quickly after MacArthur’s famed landing in Leyte.
It is only hoped that these stories will serve as a cautionary tale on the ruthless nature of war, on what humans can actually do to fellow humans in times of war, and how we should try as much as possible to avoid another war from happening.
Violence was indeed born out of resistance. Sadly in the end, this, too, was lost in translation.
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