The World War II in Zambales
The Japanese Invasion
The Guerrilla Warfare and MacArtur's
Account
The Birth
De Jesus Book
The Landing
Rebirth
Camp Raided
Escape to Pampanga
Leon Beck
Tortures
Japanese Spy
Hofoku Maru Bombed off La Paz
Merrill Gathers List
Leyte Landing
Oraku Maru sank in Olongapo
Mindoro Landing
MacArthur's Message
The American Landing
Maximo Ramos' Notes
Resistance
Americans in that war
Recognized Philippine Guerrillas by
Major Command
Master List of Names in Survival
Resistance
List of Yanks from Cabanatuan
Photographs--Before the war and after
About the Author
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The
Japanese Invasion
Ramon
de Jesus in his book about Zambales described the events leading to the
War: "On March 2, 1941, Claude A. Buss, Executive Assistant to the
United States High Commissioner in the Philippines warned of Japanese
invasion of the Philippines.
Gen.
Douglas McArthur was called back to active service by the U.S.
government as Commanding General of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far
East. He assigned the 31st Division of the 3rd Military District to San
Marcelino, Zambales and ordered that a U.S. fighter base be set up for
the U.S. 3rd Pursuit Squadron at Iba. Subic Bay and Manila Bay were both
defended by Coast Artillery Units. To prevent enemy landings and protect
airfields along the Zambales coast and Bataan, various USAFFE units were
moved to areas along the western and northern coast of Luzon.
President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Subic Bay a closed area and the U.S.
Navy gunboats maintained a 24-hour patrol of the islands near Subic Bay.
Mine fields were laid at the entrance of the bay. Japanese nationals who
have lived in Olongapo for a long time and had married Filipinos were
told to move out of Olongapo with their families.
In
command of the 31st Division at San Marcelino was Brig. Gen. Clifford
Blummel. At the outbreak of the Pacific War, Blummel commandeered all
buses in TRY Transportation Company whose manager in Zambales was Ramon
Magsaysay. When the TRY-TRAN buses were taken by the USAFFE, Magsaysay
volunteered his services as a mechanic in the U.S. Army.
A
few hours after the sneaky Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese air squadrons
swept Philippine skies spreading a horrible shadow of death. Davao City,
Baguio, Tarlac, Clark Field and Tuguegarao were bombed.
[top]
December
8, 1941 was the Feast of Immaculate Concepcion. At the unsuspecting
airstrip in Iba, the Capital of Zambales, a number of U.S. fighter
planes had just landed. While the pilots were eating, at the quit dawn
of around 6:30 a.m., they heard a sound akin to the drone of a thousand
bees in flight. Then the sound became roars of diving planes. Explosions
and burst of gunfire rocked Iba as fifty-four Japanese twin-motor
bombers escorted by fifty fighter planes destroyed the U.S. aircrafts at
the Iba airstrip. Barracks and warehouses of the U.S. 3rd Pursuit
Squadron went up in flames. All except two of the aircrafts at the
airstrip were destroyed. The camp personnel suffered heavy
casualties.
Zambaleños,
who for the first time in their lives witnessed the frightful spectacle
of a real war - the zooming of planes, the explosion of bombs and the
wanton destruction of human beings and property - were filled with fear
by such terrible experience.
Again
on December 12, a group of sixty-three Japanese bombers arrived between
10:30 A.M. and 12:00 noon and bombed the airbases at Iba and Clark. The
attack on the Iba airfield resulted in the destruction of 10 more U.S.
aircrafts. Simultaneously, Japanese zero fighter planes arrived over
Olongapo. A number of U.S. PBYs had gone on a mission looking for enemy
vessels. After a fruitless search, they were landing low on gas when the
Japanese fighter planes swooped down and destroyed them. The next day,
December 13, more Japanese aircrafts flew over Luzon. At Subic Bay, they
sighted some U.S. PBY and sank them.
During
the first three days of the war, the air raids conducted by the Japanese
bombers at Iba, Olongapo and Clark air passes virtually wiped out the
American air power in the Philippines, making the Japanese lord of the
skies over most of the Pacific.
The
successive air raids sent the people of Zambales scurrying to the
hinterlands where they stayed until frenzied searches by Japanese forces
of guerrillas compelled them to return to their homes. They found
schoolhouses and other public buildings already occupied by imperious
Japanese military personnel. Unfamiliar with Japanese ways and customs,
adults and children were slapped by the invaders and beaten for the
slightest omissions like failing to bow before Japanese sentries or
doing obeisance to the Japanese flag. The Japanese imposed severe
measures to sow terror in the hearts of the people and exact absolute
obedience from them.
The
Japanese military authorities soon realized that intimidation and
oppressive measures could not cow the spirit of the Zambaleños.
Afterwards, Japanese goodwill missions were sent to the province to
confer with provincial and municipal officials and teachers to offer
friendship and assistance. With the offer was the grim warning to
guerrillas to surrender on or before June 30, 1942 or suffer severe
punishment.
The
Philippines was expected to fall in days. But with the strong faith and
courage of the Filipinos and the remaining Americans who were hoping
that America would send support, the war extended to 6 months. It
disrupted the Japanese timetable and saved Australia and New Zealand
from invasion.
After
a long siege, Bataan fell on April 9, 1942. The surrender of Corregidor
followed on May 6. But the Zambaleños never really gave up the struggle.
Between 1942 and 1945, the guerrilla movement gathered strength and the
Zambaleños acted in the brave and wily way that their valiant forebears
resisted the Spaniards."
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