[Partner] The Aftermath of the Los Baños Rescue – the Massacre of Innocent Civilians

When the civilian Prisoner of War (POW) internment camp of Santo Tomas University in Manila was being liberated starting on February 3, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army started the total “subjugation” of guerrillas and civilians in the villages between Calamba in Laguna province and Santo Tomas in Batangas province, southwest of Manila. What lies in between these towns was another internment camp for American and Allied Civilian POWs located at the University of the Philippines College of Agriculture in the town of Los Baños, next to Calamba. These towns are adjacent to two lakes – Laguna De Bay and Taal Lake, the rendezvous points for downed American aviators. The guerrillas in these areas as well as the civilians provided protection, medical care and sustenance to these aviators and even to some of the civilian POWs who escaped the prison camp. Some of the civilians even smuggled in food for the civilian POWs of Los Baños. Harboring the enemy meant death not just for an individual but for his entire family and even for his entire village. Colonel Masatoshi Fujishige was the Commanding Officer of the Fuji Heidan Group which had jurisdiction over these areas. Orders for subjugation were given as early as November of 1944 by his Commanding Officer, LT General Yokoyama who reported to Genera Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commanding General of the Imperial Japanese Forces in the Philippines. Among the instructions to the unit commanders of the Fuji Heidan Group regarding subjugation of insurgents were as follows (translated by the Allied Translator and Interpreter Section or ATIS, comprised mainly of Japanese Americans during Fujishige’s trial):

1.  No man must die an honorable death until he has killed 100 enemy soldiers and destroyed 10 enemy tanks.

2.  Kill American troops cruelly.  Do not kill them with one stroke.  Shoot Guerrillas.  Kill all who oppose the emperor, even women and children.

During the early morning of February 12, 1945, the town of Calamba was subjugated by the forces of the Kudo Unit of the Fuji Heidan group under commander Captain Ginsaku Saito.  Civilians were rounded up in the town church and then loaded into trucks for execution.  Civilians were bayoneted and burned inside their houses.  It is estimated that over 2,000 civilians were killed.

Because of the Japanese subjugations happening in the surrounding towns, the rescue of the 2,147 civilian POWs of Los Baños became a top priority and on February 8, General Robert Eichelberger of the 8th Army  and Major Jay Vanderpool, who served as General MacArthur’s link to the Filipino American guerrilla groups in Southern Luzon, initiated the plans.  On February 12, General Eichelberger ordered Major General Joseph Swing of the 11th Airborne Division to coordinate with Vanderpool.    Hundreds of Filipino guerrillas from President Quezon’s Own Guerrillas (PQOG), the PQOG 25th Red Lions Unit, the Chinese 48th Squadron (Wha Chi), the Hukbalahaps and the Markings participated in the rescue led by Colonel Gustavo Ingles of the Hunters ROTC Guerrillas.  During the planning, the Filipino guerrillas had a huge argument regarding the safety of the Los Baños civilians at the home of Romeo Espino (aka COL Price) of the PQOG 25th Red Lions Unit but Ingles was able to pacify the guerrillas. 

During the evening of February 21, Lieutenant George Skau of the 11th Airborne’s Provisional Reconnaissance Platoon (also known as the Ghost Platoon) left the north shore with his 31 men.  The rescue took place before the designated hour of 7AM on February 23.  But this textbook rescue operation was not a perfect operation.  There were several casualties from Sergeant Terry Santos’ Reconnaissance platoon, two members of the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment were killed after they left the camp and a handful of guards from the Filipino Guerrilla Groups were killed. 

The worst was yet to come for the civilians of Los Baños who were left to fend for themselves with only a handful of guerrillas to protect them.  After the American troops left the town on February 23, Captain Saito and his troops descended upon the town.  The townspeople were warned by the guerrillas to escape to the mountains but not everyone was able to do so. The marauding troops were enabled by members of the Makapilis, Filipinos who collaborated with the Japanese, and ransacked the houses.   Men, women and children were bayoneted by Saito’s troops and burned down in their houses, in the churches and inside the College.  Many were beheaded at the coffee plantation inside the Agricultural College.   In the end, approximately 1,500 civilians of Los Baños were mercilessly killed.  Thousands more perished under similar methods in adjacent towns of Laguna and Batangas. 

After the war, Colonel Fujishige was subsequently convicted as a class A war criminal and hanged.  But for the innocent civilians of Laguna and Batangas and many other provinces in the Philippines, they paid with their own lives so that others can be set free.  Such is the steep price of freedom.