US Army Summary of Evidence of Japanese Atrocities in Taal, Batangas in 1945
February 1945 was a dark month for the province of Batangas. Probably because of the presence of the United States Army in Nasugbu, the increased activities of the local guerrillas and the liberation of prisoners-of-war, the closest of which was in Los Baños, personnel of the Japanese Imperial Army embarked on an orgy of savagery in Batangas that resulted in the estimated massacre of anything from 18,000 to 25,000 inhabitants.
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES, PACIFIC
OFFICE OF THE THEATER JUDGE ADVOCATE
WAR CRIMES BRANCH
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Notes and references:
1 “Killing of three hundred twenty Filipino civilians and the wounding of four more by members of the Imperial Japanese Army in the vicinity of Taal, Batangas Province, Luzon, P.I. during February 1945,” official documentation of war crimes trials by the US Army Judge Advocate’s Office, Western Pacific Theater, 1945.
Those responsible, at least at the command level, were later held accountable by a war crimes commission in trials held at different locations. Among the evidences accumulated by the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate’s Office (JAG) was the one provided below, which documented acts of atrocity committed in the municipality of Taal.
The text is provided verbatim from the original document. Pagination is as was originally provided for citation purposes.
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| Milagros Barrion, a survivor of Japanese atrocities in Taal, shows her scars for war crimes documentation. Image credit: United States National Archives. |
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DOCUMENT 2796
UNITED STATES ARMY FORCES, PACIFIC
OFFICE OF THE THEATER JUDGE ADVOCATE
WAR CRIMES BRANCH
APO 500.
2 November 1945
2 November 1945
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MEMORANDUM TO
THRU SUBJECT |
: Prosecution Section (Report #90)
: Executive Officer, War Crimes Branch : Killing of three hundred twenty Filipino civilians and the wounding of four more by members of the Imperial Japanese Army in the vicinity of Taal, Batangas Province, Luzon, P.I. during February 1945. |
II. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE:
Between 16 and 18 February 1945, members of the Japanese Imperial Army stationed at or near Taal, Batangas Province, P.I. pursued a definite plan of extermination of Filipino civilians in that vicinity. So broad in scope were the murderous activities of the Japanese that it was impossible to identify many of the victims. However, the murder of at least three hundred twenty identified Filipino civilians by the Japanese has been established either by the testimony of eye witnesses or by the discovery of the mutilated bodies of the victims.
About 0900 hours, 16 February 1945, the Japanese murdered the wife and two children of Desiderio BATHAN by bayoneting, at Dalig near the shore of Taal Lake.
At approximately 0830 hours, 16 February 1945, in the barrio of Cubamba, Japanese soldiers murdered more than one hundred Filipino civilians by shooting or bayoneting, and burned all their houses.
By 1000 hours, 16 February 1945, the Japanese had started to burn all the barrios in the vicinity of Taal. Approximately sixty Filipino civilian inhabitants of Taal hastened to take refuge from the Japanese in a ravine. At about 1400, six or seven Japanese threw hand grenades into the ravine. Ten or fifteen persons were killed by the hand grenades, and the survivors, thirty-five to forty persons, were machine-gunned by the Japanese and many others bayoneted. Their bodies were stacked in piles of ten or more. Milagros BARRION, a member of this group, received seventeen wounds in her body. Women and children were blown to pieces by grenades.
At about 0900 hours, 16 February 1945, approximately one hundred fifty Filipino men, women and children sought refuge from the Japanese in a ravine between Maabud and Mulawin. At about 1400 that afternoon, the Japanese began to fire into the ravine. They then proceeded to bayonet all the survivors whom they could find. of the group of twenty in the ravine, there were two survivors. Of another group of sixteen, twelve were killed.
At about 1100 hours, 16 February 1945, six Filipino civilians fled to a bamboo grove near a sugarcane field belonging to Miguel MAYUGA at Maabud. Two women in this group were bayoneted to death and two were wounded.
At about 0900 hours, 16 February 1945, sixteen Filipino civilians hid in a ravine approximately thirty meters east of Bagong Calle, Cubamba, Taal. At about 1100 hours, five Japanese shot and bayoneted the entire group.
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On 16 February 1945, at approximately 1530, the Japanese killed about forty men and one hundred and ten women and children who had hidden in a ravine between Luntal and Munlawin. The Japanese used machine guns, hand grenades and bayonets. The victims were all tied together with a long rope prior to their slaughter.
Approximately one hundred bodies of murdered Filipino civilians were discovered in the barrio of Luntal. More than one hundred bodies in a pile about five meters long, two meters wide and one meter high were discovered in a place between the barrios of Cultihan, Maabud and Luntal on 16 February 1945. These victims had been killed by machine guns, rifles, bayonets and hand grenades. Their hands were tied behind their backs.
At about 0800, 18 February 1945, approximately one hundred Filipino civilians took refuge in and around the hut of Severo MENDOZA, approximately ten paces away from the sugar mill of Mr. RADILLO in the barrio of Luntal. Approximately sixty Japanese opened fire on the hut with machine guns and rifles and then set it on fire. Only five people survived this massacre.
1 “Killing of three hundred twenty Filipino civilians and the wounding of four more by members of the Imperial Japanese Army in the vicinity of Taal, Batangas Province, Luzon, P.I. during February 1945,” official documentation of war crimes trials by the US Army Judge Advocate’s Office, Western Pacific Theater, 1945.