The house where the Philippines' forgotten 'comfort women' were held
Click here for the full story
Women In World War 2: 8 Ladies Who Changed The Game
Click here for the full story
SURVIVING THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH
A Diplomatic Security employee recounts his story
By Suzanne S.K. Whang, editor, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Public Affairs
Mr. Baltazar applied for discharge from the Filipino military in 1945, and was accepted at the California Technical University to study aeronautical engineering. But, once on campus, he saw a sign that said, “Uncle Sam Needs You,” so he enlisted. Three years later, Mr. Baltazar became the first native-born Filipino to receive a commission in the United States Air Force. As a second lieutenant, he received intensive Russian language training, and was assigned to Korea in 1950 as a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to conduct background interrogations of Korean and Chines defectors and refugees. One person he questioned had seen General William Dean, who had been presumed dead, in a chow line in North Korea. Based on this information, General Dean was subsequently deemed a POW, and later returned by UN forces after the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953. Mr. Baltazar also served as a Russian language interrogator at the Marienfelde Refugee Center in Berlin, Germany, in [when?], interrogating refugees and emigrants from the Soviet Bloc.
Back in the United States, Mr. Baltazar met and married his Swiss wife in 1955 when they were both working in Washington, D.C. He received the Bronze Star in [when?] and the Purple Heart in [when?], and was then discharged from the Air Force after serving for 20 years. But when the Viet Nam conflict erupted, he signed up for duty again, this time with USAID as the deputy provincial advisor in Viet Nam from 1966 to 1970.
After 20 years with the State Department, Mr. Baltazar retired in 1988 and came back as a contract employee. While in Kazakhstan in 1994, he and his wife met a Russian woman on the bus en route from the airport to U.S. Embassy Almaty. She was eager to sell a precious metal she had in her possession, so Mr. Baltazar arranged for her to meet with the regional security officer (RSO) at the embassy. About a month later, the RSO informed Mr. Baltazar that the material she was carrying turned out to be uranium.
Mr. Baltazar is currently employed by Diplomatic Security as a construction security surveillance technician on the renovation project of the D Street lobby at HST. “I work because I enjoy the company of diverse people at State, and for the satisfaction of knowing I am serving my country,” he says. Mr. Baltazar and his wife of 58 years share five children and [how many?] grandchildren. His illustrious life story is part of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project.
DRAFTED: S.K. Whang November 2013
CLEARED: Contributor J. Baltazar
DS/PA G. Moe
PSP/C S. Morris
DSS/DS D. Gonnerville
Retired U.S. Air Force Major Jesse Baltazar made a speech at the State Department’s annual Veterans Day Roll Call event on November 1, 2013, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry looks on. [Photo by Diplomatic Security Special Agent Drew Jacob] |
Who, what, where, when was this, and who took this photo, if known? |
Who, what, where, when was this, and who took this photo, if known?
|
Who, what, where, when was this, and who took this photo, if known? |
MIA OF WWII
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A private Japanese organization that has found the remains of World War II soldiers on Saipan is planning another excavation on the Pacific island in the hopes of finding more unmarked graves, including those of American servicemen still listed as missing in action for more than 70 years... Click here for the full story.
Film by POW's daughter explores reconciliation with Japanese
As a child, film maker Jan Thompson wondered why her father would not talk about his experiences as a World War II veteran. She was angry when she finally learned about his suffering as a prisoner of war of Japan, and then started to speak up for him and his comrades... Click here for the full story.
From Katoks Tayag's "Recollections & Digressions (Revised Edition)" to be launched at Holy Angel University on Oct. 9 on the occasion of Katoks Tayag's 100th birth anniversary...
Katoks Tayag made me cry with his personal account of the Bataan Death March:
"In San Fernando we were packed into the freight cars. As we passed through Angeles, I saw my town mates lining the railroad tracks from the Sto. Entierro Crossing to the railroad station. They were all bearing food. I saw my aunt Miss Antonia Tayag and my brother Luis. They saw me too and a cry rose from their lips, telling all the others. Luis ran after the train but in vain.
"The train stopped in Dau. There I saw my uncle Judge Isidro Tayag on the platform waiting for another train. "Tatang Sidro!" I shouted.
"When we arrived at the Capas train station, we were marched again through the barrios to Camp O'Donnell.
"In O'Donnell, I inquired about my brothers town mates and friends. I learned that in San Fernando, prisoners with well-known names were made to sweep the town's streets: Tony Aquino, Gatas Santos, Ernie Escaler, Manny de Leon, Ramon Pamintuan, Benjamin Roa...
"Artemio Arceo died in action with an anti-tank battalion. Antonio Dizon, my teacher in the Angeles Elementary School, was an officer of the 41sr Division under Gen. Vicente Lim. He died in the march. John Setzer was killed by a sniper's bullet in Bataan. His father, an American old-timer residing in Angeles, was on one of the freight cars that stopped momentarily in Angeles. Another boy on the train, Ricardo V. Roque, saw his uncle Mr. Felix Villanueva, the Angeles train station master. Mr. Villanueva told him to to get off the train but he shook his head. He was destined to die in O'Donnell."
..posted by Raymond Canilao on Facebook (status of Robby Tantingco last October 1, 2015..)
"In San Fernando we were packed into the freight cars. As we passed through Angeles, I saw my town mates lining the railroad tracks from the Sto. Entierro Crossing to the railroad station. They were all bearing food. I saw my aunt Miss Antonia Tayag and my brother Luis. They saw me too and a cry rose from their lips, telling all the others. Luis ran after the train but in vain.
"The train stopped in Dau. There I saw my uncle Judge Isidro Tayag on the platform waiting for another train. "Tatang Sidro!" I shouted.
"When we arrived at the Capas train station, we were marched again through the barrios to Camp O'Donnell.
"In O'Donnell, I inquired about my brothers town mates and friends. I learned that in San Fernando, prisoners with well-known names were made to sweep the town's streets: Tony Aquino, Gatas Santos, Ernie Escaler, Manny de Leon, Ramon Pamintuan, Benjamin Roa...
"Artemio Arceo died in action with an anti-tank battalion. Antonio Dizon, my teacher in the Angeles Elementary School, was an officer of the 41sr Division under Gen. Vicente Lim. He died in the march. John Setzer was killed by a sniper's bullet in Bataan. His father, an American old-timer residing in Angeles, was on one of the freight cars that stopped momentarily in Angeles. Another boy on the train, Ricardo V. Roque, saw his uncle Mr. Felix Villanueva, the Angeles train station master. Mr. Villanueva told him to to get off the train but he shook his head. He was destined to die in O'Donnell."
..posted by Raymond Canilao on Facebook (status of Robby Tantingco last October 1, 2015..)
My Violin Saved My Life...
A Violin-Playing Guerilla
Aerial view of the terrain of the Balete Pass. (MacArthur Memorial)My elder brother, Arturo, then a spunky 5-year old tot, with older sister, Ofelia in pigtails beside him, caught a glimpse of an officer standing in an armored car. He immediately recognized the officer’s face. He was a colonel in the Japanese Imperial Army and the last to command the crucial military post at Bayombong, which sat astride Balete Pass and the rest of Cagayan Valley. Young Arturo suddenly felt a sense of sadness mixed with a tinge of anxiety at the sight of the fleeing officer. He could recall that, in a strange twist of fate, father’s violin-playing and the colonel’s love of music combined to save dad from certain execution. He would recall the days when the colonel would carry him in his arms like a doting uncle.
Victorio's graduation picture, University of the Philippines. (Family Collection)Shortly before the war, my father, Victorio P. Ludan, graduated with a degree in education from the University of the Philippines. His first job was as a schoolteacher in his hometown of Bayombong. In one of the town’s formal dance fiestas, the orchestra leader invited the young Victorio to play his violin. That evening, Victorio was introduced by his sister, Trifena, to her high school classmate, Damieta (“Daming”) Beltran Carbonell. Victorio and Daming got married thereafter and started to raise a family. In December, 1941, war broke out, engulfing the U.S, possession of the Philippines.
Col. Russell Vockmann (right) with Filipino guerilla officer, Basilio Valdes, Cagayan Valley, July 1945. (U.S. ArmyWith amazing speed following their December 22, 1941 main landing at Lingayen Gulf, the victorious Japanese Imperial Army dashed toward Manila, capturing the capital city on January 2, 1942. The Japanese juggernaut smashed northward to capture Luzon’s major towns along the Cagayan Valley to the east, the heavily populated Ilocos region to the west, and the scenic, pine-clad Mountain Province to the center, where lay the 5,000-foot high resort city of Baguio. Seventy-percent of Cagayan Valley’s outlying area remained, however, under the effective control of the Philippine 11th and 14th Infantry Regiments belonging to Colonel Volckmann’s Northern Luzon guerilla force.
My father continued his teaching job while operating as intelligence gatherer for the guerillas. At the outbreak of the war, he was assigned as sergeant to the Luzon Intelligence Detachment (L.I.D.), 6th Military District (guerilla) based on Panay Island under the command of Major Macario Peralta, Jr. Since his unit was 400 miles away south of Bayombong, he operated with the Nueva Vizcaya-based 14th Infantry Regiment under Major Guillermo Nakar of the famed Philippine Scouts.
Victorio plays his violin in a family gathering (Family Collection)In September 1942, Major Nakar was captured by the Japanese. Major Romulo Manriquez promptly succeeded him. Both Nakar and Manriquez operated clandestine radios in the hills northwest of the Bayombong-Palanan line, sending vital information to Allied forces about Japanese shipping and troop movements, and weather. Considered one of the most dangerous jobs during the Japanese occupation, operating radios eventually grew to a network of 169 transmitters. By January 1945, when the U.S. return to the Philippines was in full swing, they were sending MacArthur’s HQ 3,700 reports a month.
Next to teaching which ran deep in the family (his father was one), Victorio’s other passion was playing the violin. He did this mainly for private relaxation and for entertainment at the family’s Sunday gatherings. His cousins, aunts and uncles, who included the old families of Danguilan, Bunanig, Maddela and Panganiban, to name a few, would join in the singing while others played the upright piano, the frame harp and the ubiquitous Philippine guitar. Little did he know that the violin would one day have a profound impact on his life.
Dr. Arturo C. Ludan Recalls
My brother Arturo, today nearing retirement as a pediatrician, remembers almost 66 years to the day: “My father, Victorio, affectionately called ‘Toyung,’ secretly worked with the intelligence unit of Major Nakar’s guerilla outfit. Nobody in town knew about his role. Hence, he was allowed to move around freely while using his teaching job as cover.
Bayombong's St. Dominic Cathedral built in the 1700's. (Joel Nunez) The Japanese headquarters was just around the block from our house. The 2-story ancestral home stood directly across the street facing the lateral section of centuries-old St. Dominic Cathedral. The iconic church was built in the 1700′s under the direction of Spanish Franciscan friars. To this day St. Dominic has been able to retain its distinctly Spanish colonial architecture.
Site of Victorio's old family home and corner lot (gated), which stands directly across the belfry side of St. Dominic Cathedral (previous photo). (Joel Nunez)In time Victorio’s reputation as a popular violin player reached the ears of the local Japanese hierarchy. Thus, on Sundays, as many as five Japanese officers led by their commander and smartly dressed in military uniforms, would visit our house. To the delight of the Japanese officers, Victorio obligingly played his favorite violin encore pieces, which included Jules Massenet’s Meditation de Thais, Vittorio Monti’s Czardas, Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, Georges Bizet’s Habanera, and a sprinkling of contemporary music. This became a regular weekend rendezvous. In the process, Victorio cleverly picked up bits and pieces of information which he secretly passed on to his guerilla unit handlers.
“This went on for some time until one evening, a group of Japanese soldiers, brandishing guns and rifles and led by an officer, suddenly appeared at the doorstep of our house. They brusquely demanded to see Victorio. Without any explanation and much to our horror, they forcibly took him away and led him down to an undisclosed location. We learned later that he was taken as a prisoner of war. A Filipino collaborator squealed to the Japanese authorities on Victorio’s covert intelligence-gathering role. I remember following my dad and his escort that night until they entered a schoolhouse, past St. Dominic, that served as an army stockade.
“In the ensuing months, we gathered horror stories of how the Japanese would torture their prisoners, Victorio included. The most horrible was the ‘water torture treatment,’ where they would force the prisoners to gulp down large amounts of water. Afterwards, while the prisoners were on a supine position, a soldier would jump on their bellies and water would gush out from their nose, mouth, etc. The imprisoned guerillas would try to sleep standing up against the wall, sometimes on top of each other’s shoulders, for several seemingly endless hours.
“Under unbearable torture, Victorio confessed to being a guerilla intelligence operative and was promptly sentenced to death. Japanese authorities however had not been able to pinpoint his official unit which was in faraway Panay. Throughout the Japanese occupation, Major Peralta, Jr. controlled most of the 4,440 sq. mile island with the exception of the large port city of Iloilo. As the Japanese prepared Victorio for execution, the arrival of a Japanese commander, who, as it turned out, loved listening to classical violin music, changed things around.” Arturo continues:
Victorio is featured in a Tagalog language newspaper's "Sino Sila" ("Who's Who") about how his violin saved his life. (Family Collection)“After the war, Victorio wrote his war story entitled My Violin Saved My Life, published in The Philippine Free Press, a popular English language monthly magazine patterned after The Reader’s Digest. The article won a ‘First Person Story’ monthly award. In fact, his life story appeared in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Later publications, including some popular Tagalog language newspapers, would, from time to time, feature Victorio’s story in their Sino Sila (Who’s Who) section. It was too bad that the family had neglected to keep a copy of this historical episode of his life. Yet Victorio was a hero in the true sense. He, with the loving support of mother, risked his life to defend the country as best he could. He did it in his own quiet and stoic way. Until the day he died in 1978, he would rarely talk about the torture and deprivations he suffered during those dark days. I remember while growing up that, whenever my younger brother and I would get queasy and complain about pain, Victorio would look at us and, in a reassuring voice, try to calm us by simply saying, ‘Sons, you don’t know what pain really is like. C’mon, you’re big, brave men now. You can handle whatever pain comes to you like I did when I was a young man.’”
“The Hour of Your Redemption is Here!”
On October 20, 1944, speaking from the invasion beach at Leyte Gulf where his forces had just landed, returning him to the Philippines as he had promised, an emotional General Douglas MacArthur began to deliver his long-awaited address: “People of the Philippines. I have returned. By the grace of almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil… the hour of your redemption is here!”
Later, under the watchful eyes of Japanese occupation officials, Yale-educated and the only Filipino recipient of a doctorate from the University of Tokyo, President Jose P. Laurel of the Japanese-sponsored Philippine Republic, gave an equally stirring speech to the grieving nation. He ended it with a deftly placed hint of good things to come echoing MacArthur’s phrase that he slipped past Japanese censors: “Have courage, my dear countrymen, your unhappiness will soon be over. Surely, the day of redemption is dawning.” (Dr. Laurel’s eldest son, Jose, Jr. was Victorio’s classmate and seat mate at the University of the Philippines – students were seated alphabetically according to surnames. After the war, the elder Laurel was granted clemency and Jose, Jr. went on to become a distinguished Speaker of the House.)
The reassuring news had not yet reached most Filipinos. But one of the guerilla runners with the 14th Infantry Regiment made it to Bayombong, carrying the important message. He wanted to relay the news to Victorio that General MacArthur and President Sergio Osmena had returned and that the invasion to liberate the Philippines was in full swing. Happily, Victorio would play, as usual, both Japanese and American melodies during the Sunday soirees. But that late Sunday afternoon, he tweaked his repertoire to include a medley of three new pieces (American, Filipino, and Japanese) for the concluding two minutes of his performance. The first two were Stars and Stripes and Mabuhay (Filipino for “Long Live”) followed by the third, Sayonara (Japanese for “Goodbye’). The first two were intended to announce to his neighbors that General MacArthur, accompanied by Philippine Commonwealth President Osmena, was coming. The third would let them know that the Japanese occupation forces were being pushed back by MacArthur’s forces.
For the next couple of months, Victorio would play his popular repertoire and concluded each performance with the rousing 3-piece medley. On December 20, 1944, the dreaded Kempeitei (Japanese counterpart of the Nazi’s thuggish Gestapo) arrested Victorio and took him and his violin away. After being interrogated and tortured for several weeks, Victorio confessed to being a guerilla intelligence operative. He was convicted and sentenced to the gallows. On New Year’s Eve, the new commander learned of Victorio’s violin-playing and arranged for him to play several Japanese tunes. Victorio played the violin like he never played it before, with consummate passion. He concluded his performance with an emotional rendition of Sayonara, painfully aware that the clock was fast ticking and that soon he would say his last “Goodbye” to his wife and young children.
Bataan Death March Survivor Pedro "Pete" Carbonell (Family Collection)The western-educated Japanese colonel was apparently taken by Victorio’s violin-playing. The Japanese songs Victorio played were dear to his heart. They evoked fond memories of the colonel’s wife and family back home in Japan. After Victorio’s masterful performance, the colonel slowly rose to his feet. He reached for Victorio’s hand to thank him. With that, he gently picked up the violin and carefully handed it back to him. The colonel turned to his aide and told him to rescind the order for execution. He then declared to a stunned Victorio “You are free to go and you are a friend.” In the midst of an ugly war, a new friendship between a violin-playing, condemned guerilla and a stern Japanese military adversary with an ear for Western classical music had curiously emerged. Victorio, trying to grasp the sudden turn of events, could only mutter, “Thank you, Sir” The colonel’s aide led Victorio to the door. Clasping his beloved violin close to his heart, he looked up the starlit sky and thanked God. He quietly walked past the creaky old iron gate. “Daming” and a few family members were on hand to greet Victorio and bring him home a free man.
With Daming was her brother, Bataan Death March Survivor Pedro (“Pete”) B. Carbonell, later Captain (ret.), U. S. Army. After the war, Pete taught chemistry at Iloilo City’s San Agustin University until his retirement. With Pete at the Bataan Death March was Victorio’s younger brother, Pacifico, who succumbed to dysentery during the brutal march. Both were classmates at the University of the Philippines when the war broke out. Pete passed away last year. A cousin, Torcuato “Cato” Ludan of the crack Philippine Scouts, was also a Bataan Death March Survivor. He escaped by furtively sliding down a deep ditch and pretended to be dead. Cato spent the rest of the war as a guerilla operating in Cagayan Valley.
On June 7, 1945, Bayombong fell to elements of the U.S. 37th Division and Filipino guerillas of the 14th Regiment. One of the first casualties of the town’s liberation was our house, which was converted into a vital Japanese communications center before the end of 1944. P-38 fighter planes from General George Kenney’s 5th U.S. Army Air Force streaked out of the blue sky and demolished the house and other enemy installations. Advancing U.S. ground troops and guerilla units in Northern Luzon also received close air support from the Marine Corps Aviation. For the period March 5 to 31 for example, 186 separate missions were conducted by the Marine Corps.
Preparing to lead his troops out of Bayombong, the Japanese colonel was offered protection by Victorio from guerilla reprisal by suggesting the colonel surrender directly to him (Victorio earlier had met with his guerilla leaders about this). But the colonel graciously turned down the offer, saying: “I can’t do that, Victorio. You know that. I have a moral duty to stay with my troops to the bitter end.” He thanked Victorio and grabbed his hand as the two new friends, fighting back tears, said their goodbye for the last time. The colonel was never heard of again.
Epilogue
Author Bernard Norling says it best when he describes in his book The Intrepid Guerillas of North Luzon the immense, unsung contribution of Filipino guerillas, ranging from the major figures of the movement to ordinary citizens. All were united in the struggle to bring freedom back to their homeland: “Much has been written by or about most of the Filipino and American leaders of guerilla resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, from 1942 to 1945: (former presidents) Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand Marcos, and Manuel Roxas; Terry Adevoso, Wendell Fertig, Russell Volckmann, Donald Blackburn, Robert Lapham, Ray Hunt, Edwin Ramsay, and others who have written their memoirs or been the subjects of biographies. All these men succeeded in living through the war (no mean feat in itself). All contributed variously to Allied victory.
note: lifted from the article http://www.armchairgeneral.com/a-filipino-guerillas-story.htm
Aerial view of the terrain of the Balete Pass. (MacArthur Memorial)My elder brother, Arturo, then a spunky 5-year old tot, with older sister, Ofelia in pigtails beside him, caught a glimpse of an officer standing in an armored car. He immediately recognized the officer’s face. He was a colonel in the Japanese Imperial Army and the last to command the crucial military post at Bayombong, which sat astride Balete Pass and the rest of Cagayan Valley. Young Arturo suddenly felt a sense of sadness mixed with a tinge of anxiety at the sight of the fleeing officer. He could recall that, in a strange twist of fate, father’s violin-playing and the colonel’s love of music combined to save dad from certain execution. He would recall the days when the colonel would carry him in his arms like a doting uncle.
Victorio's graduation picture, University of the Philippines. (Family Collection)Shortly before the war, my father, Victorio P. Ludan, graduated with a degree in education from the University of the Philippines. His first job was as a schoolteacher in his hometown of Bayombong. In one of the town’s formal dance fiestas, the orchestra leader invited the young Victorio to play his violin. That evening, Victorio was introduced by his sister, Trifena, to her high school classmate, Damieta (“Daming”) Beltran Carbonell. Victorio and Daming got married thereafter and started to raise a family. In December, 1941, war broke out, engulfing the U.S, possession of the Philippines.
Col. Russell Vockmann (right) with Filipino guerilla officer, Basilio Valdes, Cagayan Valley, July 1945. (U.S. ArmyWith amazing speed following their December 22, 1941 main landing at Lingayen Gulf, the victorious Japanese Imperial Army dashed toward Manila, capturing the capital city on January 2, 1942. The Japanese juggernaut smashed northward to capture Luzon’s major towns along the Cagayan Valley to the east, the heavily populated Ilocos region to the west, and the scenic, pine-clad Mountain Province to the center, where lay the 5,000-foot high resort city of Baguio. Seventy-percent of Cagayan Valley’s outlying area remained, however, under the effective control of the Philippine 11th and 14th Infantry Regiments belonging to Colonel Volckmann’s Northern Luzon guerilla force.
My father continued his teaching job while operating as intelligence gatherer for the guerillas. At the outbreak of the war, he was assigned as sergeant to the Luzon Intelligence Detachment (L.I.D.), 6th Military District (guerilla) based on Panay Island under the command of Major Macario Peralta, Jr. Since his unit was 400 miles away south of Bayombong, he operated with the Nueva Vizcaya-based 14th Infantry Regiment under Major Guillermo Nakar of the famed Philippine Scouts.
Victorio plays his violin in a family gathering (Family Collection)In September 1942, Major Nakar was captured by the Japanese. Major Romulo Manriquez promptly succeeded him. Both Nakar and Manriquez operated clandestine radios in the hills northwest of the Bayombong-Palanan line, sending vital information to Allied forces about Japanese shipping and troop movements, and weather. Considered one of the most dangerous jobs during the Japanese occupation, operating radios eventually grew to a network of 169 transmitters. By January 1945, when the U.S. return to the Philippines was in full swing, they were sending MacArthur’s HQ 3,700 reports a month.
Next to teaching which ran deep in the family (his father was one), Victorio’s other passion was playing the violin. He did this mainly for private relaxation and for entertainment at the family’s Sunday gatherings. His cousins, aunts and uncles, who included the old families of Danguilan, Bunanig, Maddela and Panganiban, to name a few, would join in the singing while others played the upright piano, the frame harp and the ubiquitous Philippine guitar. Little did he know that the violin would one day have a profound impact on his life.
Dr. Arturo C. Ludan Recalls
My brother Arturo, today nearing retirement as a pediatrician, remembers almost 66 years to the day: “My father, Victorio, affectionately called ‘Toyung,’ secretly worked with the intelligence unit of Major Nakar’s guerilla outfit. Nobody in town knew about his role. Hence, he was allowed to move around freely while using his teaching job as cover.
Bayombong's St. Dominic Cathedral built in the 1700's. (Joel Nunez) The Japanese headquarters was just around the block from our house. The 2-story ancestral home stood directly across the street facing the lateral section of centuries-old St. Dominic Cathedral. The iconic church was built in the 1700′s under the direction of Spanish Franciscan friars. To this day St. Dominic has been able to retain its distinctly Spanish colonial architecture.
Site of Victorio's old family home and corner lot (gated), which stands directly across the belfry side of St. Dominic Cathedral (previous photo). (Joel Nunez)In time Victorio’s reputation as a popular violin player reached the ears of the local Japanese hierarchy. Thus, on Sundays, as many as five Japanese officers led by their commander and smartly dressed in military uniforms, would visit our house. To the delight of the Japanese officers, Victorio obligingly played his favorite violin encore pieces, which included Jules Massenet’s Meditation de Thais, Vittorio Monti’s Czardas, Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, Georges Bizet’s Habanera, and a sprinkling of contemporary music. This became a regular weekend rendezvous. In the process, Victorio cleverly picked up bits and pieces of information which he secretly passed on to his guerilla unit handlers.
“This went on for some time until one evening, a group of Japanese soldiers, brandishing guns and rifles and led by an officer, suddenly appeared at the doorstep of our house. They brusquely demanded to see Victorio. Without any explanation and much to our horror, they forcibly took him away and led him down to an undisclosed location. We learned later that he was taken as a prisoner of war. A Filipino collaborator squealed to the Japanese authorities on Victorio’s covert intelligence-gathering role. I remember following my dad and his escort that night until they entered a schoolhouse, past St. Dominic, that served as an army stockade.
“In the ensuing months, we gathered horror stories of how the Japanese would torture their prisoners, Victorio included. The most horrible was the ‘water torture treatment,’ where they would force the prisoners to gulp down large amounts of water. Afterwards, while the prisoners were on a supine position, a soldier would jump on their bellies and water would gush out from their nose, mouth, etc. The imprisoned guerillas would try to sleep standing up against the wall, sometimes on top of each other’s shoulders, for several seemingly endless hours.
“Under unbearable torture, Victorio confessed to being a guerilla intelligence operative and was promptly sentenced to death. Japanese authorities however had not been able to pinpoint his official unit which was in faraway Panay. Throughout the Japanese occupation, Major Peralta, Jr. controlled most of the 4,440 sq. mile island with the exception of the large port city of Iloilo. As the Japanese prepared Victorio for execution, the arrival of a Japanese commander, who, as it turned out, loved listening to classical violin music, changed things around.” Arturo continues:
Victorio is featured in a Tagalog language newspaper's "Sino Sila" ("Who's Who") about how his violin saved his life. (Family Collection)“After the war, Victorio wrote his war story entitled My Violin Saved My Life, published in The Philippine Free Press, a popular English language monthly magazine patterned after The Reader’s Digest. The article won a ‘First Person Story’ monthly award. In fact, his life story appeared in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Later publications, including some popular Tagalog language newspapers, would, from time to time, feature Victorio’s story in their Sino Sila (Who’s Who) section. It was too bad that the family had neglected to keep a copy of this historical episode of his life. Yet Victorio was a hero in the true sense. He, with the loving support of mother, risked his life to defend the country as best he could. He did it in his own quiet and stoic way. Until the day he died in 1978, he would rarely talk about the torture and deprivations he suffered during those dark days. I remember while growing up that, whenever my younger brother and I would get queasy and complain about pain, Victorio would look at us and, in a reassuring voice, try to calm us by simply saying, ‘Sons, you don’t know what pain really is like. C’mon, you’re big, brave men now. You can handle whatever pain comes to you like I did when I was a young man.’”
“The Hour of Your Redemption is Here!”
On October 20, 1944, speaking from the invasion beach at Leyte Gulf where his forces had just landed, returning him to the Philippines as he had promised, an emotional General Douglas MacArthur began to deliver his long-awaited address: “People of the Philippines. I have returned. By the grace of almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil… the hour of your redemption is here!”
Later, under the watchful eyes of Japanese occupation officials, Yale-educated and the only Filipino recipient of a doctorate from the University of Tokyo, President Jose P. Laurel of the Japanese-sponsored Philippine Republic, gave an equally stirring speech to the grieving nation. He ended it with a deftly placed hint of good things to come echoing MacArthur’s phrase that he slipped past Japanese censors: “Have courage, my dear countrymen, your unhappiness will soon be over. Surely, the day of redemption is dawning.” (Dr. Laurel’s eldest son, Jose, Jr. was Victorio’s classmate and seat mate at the University of the Philippines – students were seated alphabetically according to surnames. After the war, the elder Laurel was granted clemency and Jose, Jr. went on to become a distinguished Speaker of the House.)
The reassuring news had not yet reached most Filipinos. But one of the guerilla runners with the 14th Infantry Regiment made it to Bayombong, carrying the important message. He wanted to relay the news to Victorio that General MacArthur and President Sergio Osmena had returned and that the invasion to liberate the Philippines was in full swing. Happily, Victorio would play, as usual, both Japanese and American melodies during the Sunday soirees. But that late Sunday afternoon, he tweaked his repertoire to include a medley of three new pieces (American, Filipino, and Japanese) for the concluding two minutes of his performance. The first two were Stars and Stripes and Mabuhay (Filipino for “Long Live”) followed by the third, Sayonara (Japanese for “Goodbye’). The first two were intended to announce to his neighbors that General MacArthur, accompanied by Philippine Commonwealth President Osmena, was coming. The third would let them know that the Japanese occupation forces were being pushed back by MacArthur’s forces.
For the next couple of months, Victorio would play his popular repertoire and concluded each performance with the rousing 3-piece medley. On December 20, 1944, the dreaded Kempeitei (Japanese counterpart of the Nazi’s thuggish Gestapo) arrested Victorio and took him and his violin away. After being interrogated and tortured for several weeks, Victorio confessed to being a guerilla intelligence operative. He was convicted and sentenced to the gallows. On New Year’s Eve, the new commander learned of Victorio’s violin-playing and arranged for him to play several Japanese tunes. Victorio played the violin like he never played it before, with consummate passion. He concluded his performance with an emotional rendition of Sayonara, painfully aware that the clock was fast ticking and that soon he would say his last “Goodbye” to his wife and young children.
Bataan Death March Survivor Pedro "Pete" Carbonell (Family Collection)The western-educated Japanese colonel was apparently taken by Victorio’s violin-playing. The Japanese songs Victorio played were dear to his heart. They evoked fond memories of the colonel’s wife and family back home in Japan. After Victorio’s masterful performance, the colonel slowly rose to his feet. He reached for Victorio’s hand to thank him. With that, he gently picked up the violin and carefully handed it back to him. The colonel turned to his aide and told him to rescind the order for execution. He then declared to a stunned Victorio “You are free to go and you are a friend.” In the midst of an ugly war, a new friendship between a violin-playing, condemned guerilla and a stern Japanese military adversary with an ear for Western classical music had curiously emerged. Victorio, trying to grasp the sudden turn of events, could only mutter, “Thank you, Sir” The colonel’s aide led Victorio to the door. Clasping his beloved violin close to his heart, he looked up the starlit sky and thanked God. He quietly walked past the creaky old iron gate. “Daming” and a few family members were on hand to greet Victorio and bring him home a free man.
With Daming was her brother, Bataan Death March Survivor Pedro (“Pete”) B. Carbonell, later Captain (ret.), U. S. Army. After the war, Pete taught chemistry at Iloilo City’s San Agustin University until his retirement. With Pete at the Bataan Death March was Victorio’s younger brother, Pacifico, who succumbed to dysentery during the brutal march. Both were classmates at the University of the Philippines when the war broke out. Pete passed away last year. A cousin, Torcuato “Cato” Ludan of the crack Philippine Scouts, was also a Bataan Death March Survivor. He escaped by furtively sliding down a deep ditch and pretended to be dead. Cato spent the rest of the war as a guerilla operating in Cagayan Valley.
On June 7, 1945, Bayombong fell to elements of the U.S. 37th Division and Filipino guerillas of the 14th Regiment. One of the first casualties of the town’s liberation was our house, which was converted into a vital Japanese communications center before the end of 1944. P-38 fighter planes from General George Kenney’s 5th U.S. Army Air Force streaked out of the blue sky and demolished the house and other enemy installations. Advancing U.S. ground troops and guerilla units in Northern Luzon also received close air support from the Marine Corps Aviation. For the period March 5 to 31 for example, 186 separate missions were conducted by the Marine Corps.
Preparing to lead his troops out of Bayombong, the Japanese colonel was offered protection by Victorio from guerilla reprisal by suggesting the colonel surrender directly to him (Victorio earlier had met with his guerilla leaders about this). But the colonel graciously turned down the offer, saying: “I can’t do that, Victorio. You know that. I have a moral duty to stay with my troops to the bitter end.” He thanked Victorio and grabbed his hand as the two new friends, fighting back tears, said their goodbye for the last time. The colonel was never heard of again.
Epilogue
Author Bernard Norling says it best when he describes in his book The Intrepid Guerillas of North Luzon the immense, unsung contribution of Filipino guerillas, ranging from the major figures of the movement to ordinary citizens. All were united in the struggle to bring freedom back to their homeland: “Much has been written by or about most of the Filipino and American leaders of guerilla resistance to the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, from 1942 to 1945: (former presidents) Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand Marcos, and Manuel Roxas; Terry Adevoso, Wendell Fertig, Russell Volckmann, Donald Blackburn, Robert Lapham, Ray Hunt, Edwin Ramsay, and others who have written their memoirs or been the subjects of biographies. All these men succeeded in living through the war (no mean feat in itself). All contributed variously to Allied victory.
note: lifted from the article http://www.armchairgeneral.com/a-filipino-guerillas-story.htm
Baguio–where WWII began and ended
World War II began and ended in Baguio City, Philippines. Click here for the full story.
WWII Japanese Invasion Plans - Declassified
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2015 11:01:11 +0800
This is a long read, but fascinating history.
Here is some interesting history of why the "A" Bombs were dropped on Japan. Although the author speaks in the first person at the end, his identity is provided.
Declassified plans for WW II invasion of Japan Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington , D.C. , hidden for nearly four decades lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped "Top Secret". These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan during World War II.
Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese home islands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched. Operation Downfall was finalized during the spring and summer of 1945. It called for two massive military undertakings to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire.
In the first invasion - code named "Operation Olympic"- American combat troops would land on Japan by amphibious assault during the early morning hours of November 1, 1945 – over 69 years ago. Fourteen combat divisions of soldiers and Marines would land on heavily fortified and defended Kyushu , the southernmost of the Japanese home islands, after an unprecedented naval and aerial bombardment.
The second invasion on March 1, 1946 - code named "Operation Coronet"- would send at least 22 divisions against 1 million Japanese defenders on the main island of Honshu and the Tokyo Plain. Its goal: the unconditional surrender of Japan .
With the exception of a part of the British Pacific Fleet, Operation Downfall was to be a strictly American operation. It called for using the entire Marine Corps, the entire Pacific Navy, elements of the 7th Army Air Force, the 8 Air Force (recently redeployed from Europe ), 10th Air Force and the American Far Eastern Air Force. More than 1.5 million combat soldiers, with 3 million more in support or more than 40% of all servicemen still in uniform in 1945 - would be directly involved in the two amphibious assaults. Casualties were expected to be extremely heavy.
Admiral William Leahy estimated that there would be more than 250,000 Americans killed or wounded on Kyushu alone. General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific, estimated American casualties would be one million men by the fall of 1946. Willoughby 's own intelligence staff considered this to be a conservative estimate.
During the summer of 1945, America had little time to prepare for such an endeavor, but top military leaders were in almost unanimous agreement that an invasion was necessary.
While naval blockade and strategic bombing of Japan was considered to be useful, General MacArthur, for instance, did not believe a blockade would bring about an unconditional surrender. The advocates for invasion agreed that while a naval blockade chokes, it does not kill; and though strategic bombing might destroy cities, it leaves whole armies intact.
So on May 25, 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after extensive deliberation, issued to General MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Army Air Force General Henry Arnold, the top secret directive to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu . The target date was after the typhoon season.
President Truman approved the plans for the invasions July 24. Two days later, the United Nations issued the Potsdam Proclamation, which called upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face total destruction. Three days later, the Japanese governmental news agency broadcast to the world that Japan would ignore the proclamation and would refuse to surrender. During this same period it was learned -- via monitoring Japanese radio broadcasts -- that Japan had closed all schools and mobilized its school children, was arming its civilian population and was fortifying caves and building underground defenses.
Operation Olympic called for a four pronged assault on Kyushu . Its purpose was to seize and control the southern one-third of that island and establish naval and air bases, to tighten the naval blockade of the home islands, to destroy units of the main Japanese army and to support the later invasion of the Tokyo Plain.
The preliminary invasion would begin October 27 when the 40th Infantry Division would land on a series of small islands west and southwest of Kyushu. At the same time, the 158th Regimental Combat Team would invade and occupy a small island 28 miles south of Kyushu . On these islands, seaplane bases would be established and radar would be set up to provide advance air warning for the invasion fleet, to serve as fighter direction centers for the carrier-based aircraft and to provide an emergency anchorage for the invasion fleet, should things not go well on the day of the invasion.
As the invasion grew imminent, the massive firepower of the Navy - the Third and Fifth Fleets -- would approach Japan . The Third Fleet, under Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, with its big guns and naval aircraft, would provide strategic support for the operation against Honshu and Hokkaido. Halsey's fleet would be composed of battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers, dozens of support ships and three fast carrier task groups. From these carriers, hundreds of Navy fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes would hit targets all over the island of Honshu The 3,000 ship Fifth Fleet, under Admiral Raymond Spruance, would carry the invasion troops.
Several days before the invasion, the battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers would pour thousands of tons of high explosives into the target areas. They would not cease the bombardment until after the land forces had been launched. During the early morning hours of November 1, the invasion would begin. Thousands of soldiers and Marines would pour ashore on beaches all along the eastern, southeastern, southern and western coasts of Kyushu. Waves of Helldivers, Dauntless dive bombers, Avengers, Corsairs, and Hellcats from 66 aircraft carriers would bomb, rocket and strafe enemy defenses, gun emplacements and troop concentrations along the beaches.
The Eastern Assault Force consisting of the 25th, 33rd, and 41st Infantry Divisions, would land near Miyaski, at beaches called Austin, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Ford, and move inland to attempt to capture the city and its nearby airfield. The Southern Assault Force, consisting of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 43rd Division and Americal Division would land inside Ariake Bay at beaches labeled DeSoto, Dusenberg, Essex, Ford, and Franklin and attempt to capture Shibushi and the city of Kanoya and its airfield.
On the western shore of Kyushu, at beaches Pontiac, Reo, Rolls Royce, Saxon, Star, Studebaker, Stutz, Winston and Zephyr, the V Amphibious Corps would land the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Marine Divisions, sending half of its force inland to Sendai and the other half to the port city of Kagoshima.
On November 4, the Reserve Force, consisting of the 81st and 98th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division, after feigning an attack on the island of Shikoku, would be landed -- if not needed elsewhere - near Kaimondake, near the southernmost tip of Kagoshima Bay, at the beaches designated Locomobile, Lincoln, LaSalle, Hupmobile, Moon, Mercedes, Maxwell, Overland, Oldsmobile, Packard, and Plymouth.
Olympic was not just a plan for invasion, but for conquest and occupation as well. It was expected to take four months to achieve its objective, with the three fresh American divisions per month to be landed in support of that operation if needed. If all went well with Olympic, Coronet would be launched March 1, 1946. Coronet would be twice the size of Olympic, with as many as 28 divisions landing on Honshu .
All along the coast east of Tokyo , the American 1st Army would land the 5th, 7th 6th Marine Divisions. At Sagami Bay , just south of Tokyo , the entire 8th and 10th Armies would strike north and east to clear the long western shore of Tokyo Bay and attempt to go as far as Yokohama . The assault troops landing south of Tokyo would be the 4th, 6th, 8th, 24th, 31st, 37th, 38th, and 8th Infantry Divisions, along with the 13th and 20th Armored Divisions.
Following the initial assault, eight more divisions - the 2nd, 28th, 35th, 91st, 95th, 97th, and 104th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division -- would be landed. If additional troops were needed, as expected, other divisions redeployed from Europe and undergoing training in the United States would be shipped to Japan in what was hoped to be the final push.
Captured Japanese documents and post war interrogations of Japanese military leaders disclose that information concerning the number of Japanese planes available for the defense of the home islands was dangerously in error.
During the sea battle at Okinawa alone, Japanese Kamikaze aircraft sank 32 Allied ships and damaged more than 400 others. But during the summer of 1945 American top brass concluded that the Japanese had spent their air force since American bombers and fighters daily flew unmolested over Japan.
What the military leaders did not know was that by the end of July the Japanese had been saving all aircraft, fuel, and pilots in reserve, and had been feverishly building new planes for the decisive battle for their homeland.
As part of Ketsu-Go, the name for the plan to defend Japan -- the Japanese were building 20 suicide takeoff strips in southern Kyushu with underground hangars. They also had 35 camouflaged airfields and nine seaplane bases.
On the night before the expected invasion, 50 Japanese seaplane bombers, 100 former carrier aircraft and 50 land based army planes were to be launched in a suicide attack on the fleet.
The Japanese had 58 more airfields in Korea , western Honshu and Shikoku , which also were to be used for massive suicide attacks.
Allied intelligence had established that the Japanese had no more than 2,500 aircraft of which they guessed 300 would be deployed in suicide attacks. In August 1945, however, unknown to Allied intelligence, the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types. Every village had some type of aircraft manufacturing activity hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and in basements of department stores, work was being done to construct new planes.
Additionally, the Japanese were building newer and more effective models of the Okka, a rocket-propelled bomb much like the German V-1, but flown by a suicide pilot. When the invasion became imminent, Ketsu-Go called for a fourfold aerial plan of attack to destroy up to 800 Allied ships.
While Allied ships were approaching Japan , but still in the open seas, an initial force of 2,000 army and navy fighters were to fight to the death to control the skies over Kyushu . A second force of 330 navy combat pilots was to attack the main body of the task force to keep it from using its fire support and air cover to protect the troop carrying transports. While these two forces were engaged, a third force of 825 suicide planes was to hit the American transports. As the invasion convoys approached their anchorages, another 2,000 suicide planes were to be launched in waves of 200 to 300, to be used in hour by hour attacks.
By mid-morning of the first day of the invasion, most of the American land-based aircraft would be forced to return to their bases, leaving the defense against the suicide planes to the carrier pilots and the shipboard gunners. Carrier pilots crippled by fatigue would have to land time and time again to re-arm and refuel. Guns would malfunction from the heat of continuous firing and ammunition would become scarce. Gun crews would be exhausted by nightfall, but still the waves of kamikaze would continue. With the fleet hovering off the beaches, all remaining Japanese aircraft would be committed to nonstop suicide attacks, which the Japanese hoped could be sustained for 10 days. The Japanese planned to coordinate their air strikes with attacks from the 40 remaining submarines from the Imperial Navy - some armed with Long Lance torpedoes with a range of 20 miles -- when the invasion fleet was 180 miles off Kyushu .
The Imperial Navy had 23 destroyers and two cruisers which were operational. These ships were to be used to counterattack the American invasion. A number of the destroyers were to be beached at the last minute to be used as anti-invasion gun platforms. Once offshore, the invasion fleet would be forced to defend not only against the attacks from the air, but would also be confronted with suicide attacks from sea. Japan had established a suicide naval attack unit of midget submarines, human torpedoes and exploding motorboats. The goal of the Japanese was to shatter the invasion before the landing. The Japanese were convinced the Americans would back off or become so demoralized that they would then accept a less-than-unconditional surrender and a more honorable and face-saving end for the Japanese. But as horrible as the battle of Japan would be off the beaches, it would be on Japanese soil that the American forces would face the most rugged and fanatical defense encountered during the war.
Throughout the island-hopping Pacific campaign, Allied troops had always outnumbered the Japanese by 2 to 1 and sometimes 3 to 1. In Japan it would be different. By virtue of a combination of cunning, guesswork, and brilliant military reasoning, a number of Japan 's top military leaders were able to deduce, not only when, but where, the United States would land its first invasion forces.
Facing the 14 American divisions landing at Kyushu would be 14 Japanese divisions, 7 independent mixed brigades, 3 tank brigades and thousands of naval troops. On Kyushu the odds would be 3 to 2 in favor of the Japanese, with 790,000 enemy defenders against 550,000 Americans. This time the bulk of the Japanese defenders would not be the poorly trained and ill-equipped labor battalions that the Americans had faced in the earlier campaigns.
The Japanese defenders would be the hard core of the home army. These troops were well-fed and well equipped. They were familiar with the terrain,had stockpiles of arms and ammunition, and had developed an effective system of transportation and supply almost invisible from the air. Many of these Japanese troops were the elite of the army, and they were swollen with a fanatical fighting spirit.
Japan's network of beach defenses consisted of offshore mines, thousands of suicide scuba divers attacking landing craft, and mines planted on the beaches. Coming ashore, the American Eastern amphibious assault forces at Miyazaki would face three Japanese divisions, and two others poised for counterattack. Awaiting the Southeastern attack force at Ariake Bay was an entire division and at least one mixed infantry brigade.
On the western shores of Kyushu, the Marines would face the most brutal opposition. Along the invasion beaches would be the three Japanese divisions, a tank brigade, a mixed infantry brigade and an artillery command Components of two divisions would also be poised to launch counterattacks. If not needed to reinforce the primary landing beaches, the American Reserve Force would be landed at the base of Kagoshima Bay November 4, where they would be confronted by two mixed infantry brigades, parts of two infantry divisions and thousands of naval troops.
All along the invasion beaches, American troops would face coastal batteries, anti-landing obstacles and a network of heavily fortified pillboxes, bunkers, and underground fortresses. As Americans waded ashore, they would face intense artillery and mortar fire as they worked their way through concrete rubble and barbed-wire entanglements arranged to funnel them into the muzzles of these Japanese guns. On the beaches and beyond would be hundreds of Japanese machine gun positions, beach mines, booby traps, trip-wire mines and sniper units. Suicide units concealed in "spider holes" would engage the troops as they passed nearby. In the heat of battle, Japanese infiltration units would be sent to reap havoc in the American lines by cutting phone and communication lines. Some of the Japanese troops would be in American uniform; English-speaking Japanese officers were assigned to break in on American radio traffic to call off artillery fire, to order retreats and to further confuse troops. Other infiltration with demolition charges strapped on their chests or backs would attempt to blow up American tanks, artillery pieces and ammunition stores as they were unloaded ashore.
Beyond the beaches were large artillery pieces situated to bring down a curtain of fire on the beach. Some of these large guns were mounted on railroad tracks running in and out of caves protected by concrete and steel. The battle for Japan would be won by what Simon Bolivar Buckner, a lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the Civil War, had called Prairie Dog Warfare." This type of fighting was almost unknown to the ground troops in Europe and the Mediterranean . It was peculiar only to the soldiers and Marines who fought the Japanese on islands all over the Pacific -- at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa . Prairie Dog Warfare was a battle for yards, feet and sometimes inches. It was brutal, deadly and dangerous form of combat aimed at an underground, heavily fortified, non-retreating enemy. In the mountains behind the Japanese beaches were underground networks of caves, bunkers, command posts and hospitals connected by miles of tunnels with dozens of entrances and exits. Some of these complexes could hold up to 1,000 troops.
In addition to the use of poison gas and bacteriological warfare (which the Japanese had experimented with), Japan mobilized its citizenry. Had Olympic come about, the Japanese civilian population, inflamed by a national slogan - "One Hundred Million Will Die for the Emperor and Nation" - were prepared to fight to the death Twenty Eight Million Japanese had become a part of the National Volunteer Combat Force. They were armed with ancient rifles, lunge mines, satchel charges, Molotov cocktails and one-shot black powder mortars. Others were armed with swords, long bows, axes and bamboo spears. The civilian units were to be used in nighttime attacks, hit and run maneuvers, delaying actions and massive suicide charges at the weaker American positions.
At the early stage of the invasion, 1,000 Japanese and American soldiers would be dying every hour.
The invasion of Japan never became a reality because on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima . Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Within days the war with Japan was at a close.
Had these bombs not been dropped and had the invasion been launched as scheduled, combat casualties in Japan would have been at a minimum of the tens of thousands. Every foot of Japanese soil would have been paid for by Japanese and American lives. One can only guess at how many civilians would have committed suicide in their homes or in futile mass military attacks. In retrospect, the 1 million American men who were to be the casualties of the invasion were instead lucky enough to survive the war.
Intelligence studies and military estimates made 50 years ago, and not latter-day speculation, clearly indicate that the battle for Japan might well have resulted in the biggest blood-bath in the history of modern warfare. Far worse would be what might have happened to Japan as a nation and as a culture. When the invasion came, it would have come after several months of fire-bombing all of the remaining Japanese cities. The cost in human life that resulted from the two atomic blasts would be small in comparison to the total number of Japanese lives that would have been lost by this aerial devastation.
With American forces locked in combat in the south of Japan, little could have prevented the Soviet Union from marching into the northern half of the Japanese home islands. Japan today could be divided much like Korea and Germany . The world was spared the cost of Operation Downfall, however, because Japan formally surrendered to the United Nations September 2, 1945, and World War II was over. The aircraft carriers, cruisers and transport ships scheduled to carry the invasion troops to Japan , ferried home American troops in a gigantic operation called Magic Carpet. In the fall of 1945, in the aftermath of the war, few people concerned themselves with the invasion plans. Following the surrender, the classified documents, maps, diagrams and appendices for Operation Downfall were packed away in boxes and eventually stored at the National Archives. These plans that called for the invasion of Japan paint a vivid description of what might have been one of the most horrible campaigns in the history of man. The fact that the story of the invasion of Japan is locked up in the National Archives and is not told in our history books is something for which all Americans can be thankful.
I had the distinct privilege of being assigned as later commander of the 8090th PACUSA detach, 20th AAF, and one of the personal pilots of then Brig General Fred Irving USMA 17 when he was commanding general of Western Pacific Base Command. We had a brand new C-46F tail number 8546. It was different from the rest of the C-46 line in that it was equipped with Hamilton Hydromatic props whereas the others had Curtis electrics. On one of the many flights we had 14 Generals and Admirals aboard on an inspection trip to Saipan and Tinian. Notable aboard was General Thomas C. Handy, who had signed the operational order to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. President Truman's orders were verbal. He never signed an order to drop the bombs.
On this particular flight, about half way from Guam to Tinian, a full Colonel (General Handy's aide) came up forward and told me that General Handy would like to come up and look around. I told him, "Hell yes, he can fly the airplane if he wants to, sir". He came up and sat in the copilot's seat, put on the headset and we started chatting. I asked him if he ever regretted dropping the bombs. His answer was, "Certainly not. We saved a million lives on both sides by doing it.. It was the right thing to do".
I never forgot that trip and the honor of being able to talk to General Handy. I was a Lt at the time. A postscript about General Irving; he was one of the finest gentleman I ever met. He was the oldest living graduate of West Point when he passed on at 100+. He was one of three Generals who had the honor of being both the "Supe" and Com" of West Point . I think the other gentleman were BG Sladen, class of 1890 and BG Stewart, Class of 1896.
I am very happy the invasion never came off because if it had I don't think I would be writing this today. We were to provide air support for the boots on the ground guys. The small arms fire would have been devastating and lethal as hell to fly through... Just think what it would have been like on the ground .....
As I have mentioned to many, had Truman not dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, I would not be here. Any of you who had fathers serving in the military in 1945 probably wouldn’t be here either. For all of the historical "second guessers" who try to indict America & Truman as criminals for dropping the bombs, this proves their ignorance.
Joey L. French
Partner Emeritus Firm Ambassador
This is a long read, but fascinating history.
Here is some interesting history of why the "A" Bombs were dropped on Japan. Although the author speaks in the first person at the end, his identity is provided.
Declassified plans for WW II invasion of Japan Deep in the recesses of the National Archives in Washington , D.C. , hidden for nearly four decades lie thousands of pages of yellowing and dusty documents stamped "Top Secret". These documents, now declassified, are the plans for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan during World War II.
Only a few Americans in 1945 were aware of the elaborate plans that had been prepared for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese home islands. Even fewer today are aware of the defenses the Japanese had prepared to counter the invasion had it been launched. Operation Downfall was finalized during the spring and summer of 1945. It called for two massive military undertakings to be carried out in succession and aimed at the heart of the Japanese Empire.
In the first invasion - code named "Operation Olympic"- American combat troops would land on Japan by amphibious assault during the early morning hours of November 1, 1945 – over 69 years ago. Fourteen combat divisions of soldiers and Marines would land on heavily fortified and defended Kyushu , the southernmost of the Japanese home islands, after an unprecedented naval and aerial bombardment.
The second invasion on March 1, 1946 - code named "Operation Coronet"- would send at least 22 divisions against 1 million Japanese defenders on the main island of Honshu and the Tokyo Plain. Its goal: the unconditional surrender of Japan .
With the exception of a part of the British Pacific Fleet, Operation Downfall was to be a strictly American operation. It called for using the entire Marine Corps, the entire Pacific Navy, elements of the 7th Army Air Force, the 8 Air Force (recently redeployed from Europe ), 10th Air Force and the American Far Eastern Air Force. More than 1.5 million combat soldiers, with 3 million more in support or more than 40% of all servicemen still in uniform in 1945 - would be directly involved in the two amphibious assaults. Casualties were expected to be extremely heavy.
Admiral William Leahy estimated that there would be more than 250,000 Americans killed or wounded on Kyushu alone. General Charles Willoughby, chief of intelligence for General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific, estimated American casualties would be one million men by the fall of 1946. Willoughby 's own intelligence staff considered this to be a conservative estimate.
During the summer of 1945, America had little time to prepare for such an endeavor, but top military leaders were in almost unanimous agreement that an invasion was necessary.
While naval blockade and strategic bombing of Japan was considered to be useful, General MacArthur, for instance, did not believe a blockade would bring about an unconditional surrender. The advocates for invasion agreed that while a naval blockade chokes, it does not kill; and though strategic bombing might destroy cities, it leaves whole armies intact.
So on May 25, 1945, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after extensive deliberation, issued to General MacArthur, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Army Air Force General Henry Arnold, the top secret directive to proceed with the invasion of Kyushu . The target date was after the typhoon season.
President Truman approved the plans for the invasions July 24. Two days later, the United Nations issued the Potsdam Proclamation, which called upon Japan to surrender unconditionally or face total destruction. Three days later, the Japanese governmental news agency broadcast to the world that Japan would ignore the proclamation and would refuse to surrender. During this same period it was learned -- via monitoring Japanese radio broadcasts -- that Japan had closed all schools and mobilized its school children, was arming its civilian population and was fortifying caves and building underground defenses.
Operation Olympic called for a four pronged assault on Kyushu . Its purpose was to seize and control the southern one-third of that island and establish naval and air bases, to tighten the naval blockade of the home islands, to destroy units of the main Japanese army and to support the later invasion of the Tokyo Plain.
The preliminary invasion would begin October 27 when the 40th Infantry Division would land on a series of small islands west and southwest of Kyushu. At the same time, the 158th Regimental Combat Team would invade and occupy a small island 28 miles south of Kyushu . On these islands, seaplane bases would be established and radar would be set up to provide advance air warning for the invasion fleet, to serve as fighter direction centers for the carrier-based aircraft and to provide an emergency anchorage for the invasion fleet, should things not go well on the day of the invasion.
As the invasion grew imminent, the massive firepower of the Navy - the Third and Fifth Fleets -- would approach Japan . The Third Fleet, under Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, with its big guns and naval aircraft, would provide strategic support for the operation against Honshu and Hokkaido. Halsey's fleet would be composed of battleships, heavy cruisers, destroyers, dozens of support ships and three fast carrier task groups. From these carriers, hundreds of Navy fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes would hit targets all over the island of Honshu The 3,000 ship Fifth Fleet, under Admiral Raymond Spruance, would carry the invasion troops.
Several days before the invasion, the battleships, heavy cruisers and destroyers would pour thousands of tons of high explosives into the target areas. They would not cease the bombardment until after the land forces had been launched. During the early morning hours of November 1, the invasion would begin. Thousands of soldiers and Marines would pour ashore on beaches all along the eastern, southeastern, southern and western coasts of Kyushu. Waves of Helldivers, Dauntless dive bombers, Avengers, Corsairs, and Hellcats from 66 aircraft carriers would bomb, rocket and strafe enemy defenses, gun emplacements and troop concentrations along the beaches.
The Eastern Assault Force consisting of the 25th, 33rd, and 41st Infantry Divisions, would land near Miyaski, at beaches called Austin, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, and Ford, and move inland to attempt to capture the city and its nearby airfield. The Southern Assault Force, consisting of the 1st Cavalry Division, the 43rd Division and Americal Division would land inside Ariake Bay at beaches labeled DeSoto, Dusenberg, Essex, Ford, and Franklin and attempt to capture Shibushi and the city of Kanoya and its airfield.
On the western shore of Kyushu, at beaches Pontiac, Reo, Rolls Royce, Saxon, Star, Studebaker, Stutz, Winston and Zephyr, the V Amphibious Corps would land the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Marine Divisions, sending half of its force inland to Sendai and the other half to the port city of Kagoshima.
On November 4, the Reserve Force, consisting of the 81st and 98th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division, after feigning an attack on the island of Shikoku, would be landed -- if not needed elsewhere - near Kaimondake, near the southernmost tip of Kagoshima Bay, at the beaches designated Locomobile, Lincoln, LaSalle, Hupmobile, Moon, Mercedes, Maxwell, Overland, Oldsmobile, Packard, and Plymouth.
Olympic was not just a plan for invasion, but for conquest and occupation as well. It was expected to take four months to achieve its objective, with the three fresh American divisions per month to be landed in support of that operation if needed. If all went well with Olympic, Coronet would be launched March 1, 1946. Coronet would be twice the size of Olympic, with as many as 28 divisions landing on Honshu .
All along the coast east of Tokyo , the American 1st Army would land the 5th, 7th 6th Marine Divisions. At Sagami Bay , just south of Tokyo , the entire 8th and 10th Armies would strike north and east to clear the long western shore of Tokyo Bay and attempt to go as far as Yokohama . The assault troops landing south of Tokyo would be the 4th, 6th, 8th, 24th, 31st, 37th, 38th, and 8th Infantry Divisions, along with the 13th and 20th Armored Divisions.
Following the initial assault, eight more divisions - the 2nd, 28th, 35th, 91st, 95th, 97th, and 104th Infantry Divisions and the 11th Airborne Division -- would be landed. If additional troops were needed, as expected, other divisions redeployed from Europe and undergoing training in the United States would be shipped to Japan in what was hoped to be the final push.
Captured Japanese documents and post war interrogations of Japanese military leaders disclose that information concerning the number of Japanese planes available for the defense of the home islands was dangerously in error.
During the sea battle at Okinawa alone, Japanese Kamikaze aircraft sank 32 Allied ships and damaged more than 400 others. But during the summer of 1945 American top brass concluded that the Japanese had spent their air force since American bombers and fighters daily flew unmolested over Japan.
What the military leaders did not know was that by the end of July the Japanese had been saving all aircraft, fuel, and pilots in reserve, and had been feverishly building new planes for the decisive battle for their homeland.
As part of Ketsu-Go, the name for the plan to defend Japan -- the Japanese were building 20 suicide takeoff strips in southern Kyushu with underground hangars. They also had 35 camouflaged airfields and nine seaplane bases.
On the night before the expected invasion, 50 Japanese seaplane bombers, 100 former carrier aircraft and 50 land based army planes were to be launched in a suicide attack on the fleet.
The Japanese had 58 more airfields in Korea , western Honshu and Shikoku , which also were to be used for massive suicide attacks.
Allied intelligence had established that the Japanese had no more than 2,500 aircraft of which they guessed 300 would be deployed in suicide attacks. In August 1945, however, unknown to Allied intelligence, the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types. Every village had some type of aircraft manufacturing activity hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and in basements of department stores, work was being done to construct new planes.
Additionally, the Japanese were building newer and more effective models of the Okka, a rocket-propelled bomb much like the German V-1, but flown by a suicide pilot. When the invasion became imminent, Ketsu-Go called for a fourfold aerial plan of attack to destroy up to 800 Allied ships.
While Allied ships were approaching Japan , but still in the open seas, an initial force of 2,000 army and navy fighters were to fight to the death to control the skies over Kyushu . A second force of 330 navy combat pilots was to attack the main body of the task force to keep it from using its fire support and air cover to protect the troop carrying transports. While these two forces were engaged, a third force of 825 suicide planes was to hit the American transports. As the invasion convoys approached their anchorages, another 2,000 suicide planes were to be launched in waves of 200 to 300, to be used in hour by hour attacks.
By mid-morning of the first day of the invasion, most of the American land-based aircraft would be forced to return to their bases, leaving the defense against the suicide planes to the carrier pilots and the shipboard gunners. Carrier pilots crippled by fatigue would have to land time and time again to re-arm and refuel. Guns would malfunction from the heat of continuous firing and ammunition would become scarce. Gun crews would be exhausted by nightfall, but still the waves of kamikaze would continue. With the fleet hovering off the beaches, all remaining Japanese aircraft would be committed to nonstop suicide attacks, which the Japanese hoped could be sustained for 10 days. The Japanese planned to coordinate their air strikes with attacks from the 40 remaining submarines from the Imperial Navy - some armed with Long Lance torpedoes with a range of 20 miles -- when the invasion fleet was 180 miles off Kyushu .
The Imperial Navy had 23 destroyers and two cruisers which were operational. These ships were to be used to counterattack the American invasion. A number of the destroyers were to be beached at the last minute to be used as anti-invasion gun platforms. Once offshore, the invasion fleet would be forced to defend not only against the attacks from the air, but would also be confronted with suicide attacks from sea. Japan had established a suicide naval attack unit of midget submarines, human torpedoes and exploding motorboats. The goal of the Japanese was to shatter the invasion before the landing. The Japanese were convinced the Americans would back off or become so demoralized that they would then accept a less-than-unconditional surrender and a more honorable and face-saving end for the Japanese. But as horrible as the battle of Japan would be off the beaches, it would be on Japanese soil that the American forces would face the most rugged and fanatical defense encountered during the war.
Throughout the island-hopping Pacific campaign, Allied troops had always outnumbered the Japanese by 2 to 1 and sometimes 3 to 1. In Japan it would be different. By virtue of a combination of cunning, guesswork, and brilliant military reasoning, a number of Japan 's top military leaders were able to deduce, not only when, but where, the United States would land its first invasion forces.
Facing the 14 American divisions landing at Kyushu would be 14 Japanese divisions, 7 independent mixed brigades, 3 tank brigades and thousands of naval troops. On Kyushu the odds would be 3 to 2 in favor of the Japanese, with 790,000 enemy defenders against 550,000 Americans. This time the bulk of the Japanese defenders would not be the poorly trained and ill-equipped labor battalions that the Americans had faced in the earlier campaigns.
The Japanese defenders would be the hard core of the home army. These troops were well-fed and well equipped. They were familiar with the terrain,had stockpiles of arms and ammunition, and had developed an effective system of transportation and supply almost invisible from the air. Many of these Japanese troops were the elite of the army, and they were swollen with a fanatical fighting spirit.
Japan's network of beach defenses consisted of offshore mines, thousands of suicide scuba divers attacking landing craft, and mines planted on the beaches. Coming ashore, the American Eastern amphibious assault forces at Miyazaki would face three Japanese divisions, and two others poised for counterattack. Awaiting the Southeastern attack force at Ariake Bay was an entire division and at least one mixed infantry brigade.
On the western shores of Kyushu, the Marines would face the most brutal opposition. Along the invasion beaches would be the three Japanese divisions, a tank brigade, a mixed infantry brigade and an artillery command Components of two divisions would also be poised to launch counterattacks. If not needed to reinforce the primary landing beaches, the American Reserve Force would be landed at the base of Kagoshima Bay November 4, where they would be confronted by two mixed infantry brigades, parts of two infantry divisions and thousands of naval troops.
All along the invasion beaches, American troops would face coastal batteries, anti-landing obstacles and a network of heavily fortified pillboxes, bunkers, and underground fortresses. As Americans waded ashore, they would face intense artillery and mortar fire as they worked their way through concrete rubble and barbed-wire entanglements arranged to funnel them into the muzzles of these Japanese guns. On the beaches and beyond would be hundreds of Japanese machine gun positions, beach mines, booby traps, trip-wire mines and sniper units. Suicide units concealed in "spider holes" would engage the troops as they passed nearby. In the heat of battle, Japanese infiltration units would be sent to reap havoc in the American lines by cutting phone and communication lines. Some of the Japanese troops would be in American uniform; English-speaking Japanese officers were assigned to break in on American radio traffic to call off artillery fire, to order retreats and to further confuse troops. Other infiltration with demolition charges strapped on their chests or backs would attempt to blow up American tanks, artillery pieces and ammunition stores as they were unloaded ashore.
Beyond the beaches were large artillery pieces situated to bring down a curtain of fire on the beach. Some of these large guns were mounted on railroad tracks running in and out of caves protected by concrete and steel. The battle for Japan would be won by what Simon Bolivar Buckner, a lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the Civil War, had called Prairie Dog Warfare." This type of fighting was almost unknown to the ground troops in Europe and the Mediterranean . It was peculiar only to the soldiers and Marines who fought the Japanese on islands all over the Pacific -- at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa . Prairie Dog Warfare was a battle for yards, feet and sometimes inches. It was brutal, deadly and dangerous form of combat aimed at an underground, heavily fortified, non-retreating enemy. In the mountains behind the Japanese beaches were underground networks of caves, bunkers, command posts and hospitals connected by miles of tunnels with dozens of entrances and exits. Some of these complexes could hold up to 1,000 troops.
In addition to the use of poison gas and bacteriological warfare (which the Japanese had experimented with), Japan mobilized its citizenry. Had Olympic come about, the Japanese civilian population, inflamed by a national slogan - "One Hundred Million Will Die for the Emperor and Nation" - were prepared to fight to the death Twenty Eight Million Japanese had become a part of the National Volunteer Combat Force. They were armed with ancient rifles, lunge mines, satchel charges, Molotov cocktails and one-shot black powder mortars. Others were armed with swords, long bows, axes and bamboo spears. The civilian units were to be used in nighttime attacks, hit and run maneuvers, delaying actions and massive suicide charges at the weaker American positions.
At the early stage of the invasion, 1,000 Japanese and American soldiers would be dying every hour.
The invasion of Japan never became a reality because on August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima . Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Within days the war with Japan was at a close.
Had these bombs not been dropped and had the invasion been launched as scheduled, combat casualties in Japan would have been at a minimum of the tens of thousands. Every foot of Japanese soil would have been paid for by Japanese and American lives. One can only guess at how many civilians would have committed suicide in their homes or in futile mass military attacks. In retrospect, the 1 million American men who were to be the casualties of the invasion were instead lucky enough to survive the war.
Intelligence studies and military estimates made 50 years ago, and not latter-day speculation, clearly indicate that the battle for Japan might well have resulted in the biggest blood-bath in the history of modern warfare. Far worse would be what might have happened to Japan as a nation and as a culture. When the invasion came, it would have come after several months of fire-bombing all of the remaining Japanese cities. The cost in human life that resulted from the two atomic blasts would be small in comparison to the total number of Japanese lives that would have been lost by this aerial devastation.
With American forces locked in combat in the south of Japan, little could have prevented the Soviet Union from marching into the northern half of the Japanese home islands. Japan today could be divided much like Korea and Germany . The world was spared the cost of Operation Downfall, however, because Japan formally surrendered to the United Nations September 2, 1945, and World War II was over. The aircraft carriers, cruisers and transport ships scheduled to carry the invasion troops to Japan , ferried home American troops in a gigantic operation called Magic Carpet. In the fall of 1945, in the aftermath of the war, few people concerned themselves with the invasion plans. Following the surrender, the classified documents, maps, diagrams and appendices for Operation Downfall were packed away in boxes and eventually stored at the National Archives. These plans that called for the invasion of Japan paint a vivid description of what might have been one of the most horrible campaigns in the history of man. The fact that the story of the invasion of Japan is locked up in the National Archives and is not told in our history books is something for which all Americans can be thankful.
I had the distinct privilege of being assigned as later commander of the 8090th PACUSA detach, 20th AAF, and one of the personal pilots of then Brig General Fred Irving USMA 17 when he was commanding general of Western Pacific Base Command. We had a brand new C-46F tail number 8546. It was different from the rest of the C-46 line in that it was equipped with Hamilton Hydromatic props whereas the others had Curtis electrics. On one of the many flights we had 14 Generals and Admirals aboard on an inspection trip to Saipan and Tinian. Notable aboard was General Thomas C. Handy, who had signed the operational order to drop the atomic bombs on Japan. President Truman's orders were verbal. He never signed an order to drop the bombs.
On this particular flight, about half way from Guam to Tinian, a full Colonel (General Handy's aide) came up forward and told me that General Handy would like to come up and look around. I told him, "Hell yes, he can fly the airplane if he wants to, sir". He came up and sat in the copilot's seat, put on the headset and we started chatting. I asked him if he ever regretted dropping the bombs. His answer was, "Certainly not. We saved a million lives on both sides by doing it.. It was the right thing to do".
I never forgot that trip and the honor of being able to talk to General Handy. I was a Lt at the time. A postscript about General Irving; he was one of the finest gentleman I ever met. He was the oldest living graduate of West Point when he passed on at 100+. He was one of three Generals who had the honor of being both the "Supe" and Com" of West Point . I think the other gentleman were BG Sladen, class of 1890 and BG Stewart, Class of 1896.
I am very happy the invasion never came off because if it had I don't think I would be writing this today. We were to provide air support for the boots on the ground guys. The small arms fire would have been devastating and lethal as hell to fly through... Just think what it would have been like on the ground .....
As I have mentioned to many, had Truman not dropped the A-bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, I would not be here. Any of you who had fathers serving in the military in 1945 probably wouldn’t be here either. For all of the historical "second guessers" who try to indict America & Truman as criminals for dropping the bombs, this proves their ignorance.
Joey L. French
Partner Emeritus Firm Ambassador