Gyokusai (Honorable Defeat) or Gyakusatsu (Massacre): Japanese accounts of the Battle of Manila

by
Ricardo Trota Jose*
Department of History
University of the Philippines

Few Japanese are aware of the horrors of that occurred during the 1945 Battle of Manila. This is partly because little has been written about it in the mainstream Japanese media, and that which has been written is circumspect,  evades the severity of the experience,  or buries it in an antiseptic, detached military point of view without confronting the issues of the civilian deaths, either as the result of a deliberate massacre or as the victims of the crossfire.

  The document is presented here in four parts.

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I

INTRODUCTION

 

Gyokusai (Honorable Defeat)

 

 

Gyakusatsu (Massacre)

 

 

Postwar Statements and Reports

 

 

Documents Taken on the Field of Battle

 
     

II

Excerpts from documents cited above

 

Excerpts from Japanese Monograph 114 - Philippine Area Naval Operations Part IV January-August 1945  

 

First Phase of the Battle of Manila – to 10 February

 

 

Battle of Manila, Second Phase (After 11 February)

 
     

III

Excerpts from the Statement of Lt. Commander Koichi Kayashima (operations staff officer, Manila Naval Defense Force), 10 December 1949  
     

IV

 DOCUMENTS AND ORDERS CAPTURED IN THE FIELD

 
     

 

ORDERS

 
  Directions concerning Combat by Shimbu Group in Manila and vicinity  
 

Noguchi Force Combat Regulations 23 January 1945.

 
  Manila Naval Defense Force Operations Order No. 43, 3 February 1945  
 

Manila Naval Defense Force Operations Order No. 44, 3 February 1945

 
  Manila Naval Defense Force Operations Order No 46, 4 February 1945  
  Kobayashi Group Order, 13 February 1945  
  149th Airfield Battalion Operation Order Concerning the Attack in the Marikina Area  
  Manila Naval Defense Force Central Force Operations Order No. 4, 15 February 1945  
  Manila Naval Defense Force, Battalion Order 1200, [undated, but after February 15]  
   
  DIARIES  
  Diary – Unidintified Japanese Naval Person, Manila  
  Diary by Probationary Officer Baba  
  Diary of member 9th Shipping Engineer Regiment, Japanese Army [Intramuros]
  From the Diary of Lt Hoichiro Miyazawa, Japanese Navy  
     

 

* This article is copyright the author, and is used by the Corregidor Historic Society by permission.

 

 

 

 

 

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