Philippine War Crimes Commission

The Philippine War Crimes Commission was a commission created in late 1945 by Gen. Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers to investigate the war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the invasion, occupation, and liberation of the Philippines. The investigation by the Commission of the Japanese war crimes has led to the dozen high-profile tribunals, culminating to the extradition, prosecution, and conviction of Class A, Class B, and Class C defendants in Manila, Tokyo, and other cities in East and Southeast Asia through the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.^[1][2]

Background[]

Japanese atrocities. Philippines, China, Burma, Japan - NARA - 292599

During the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941, the Japanese Japanese Fourteenth Area Army headed by MGen. Masaharu Homma, and the Imperial Japanese Navy's 3rd Fleet swept through Luzon and the United States Army Forces in the Far East headed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur was ordered to fall back to Bataan and Corregidor Island under the War Plan Orange - where Manila Bay will be denied for use by the Japanese Navy. The defenders put up a stubborn resistance against the invaders in what is known as the Battle of Bataan, and delayed the timetable of the Japanese expansion into Southeast Asia and Australia. However, after five months of fighting with limited supplies, food, and medicine, the forces in Bataan headed by MGen. Edward P. King surrendered on April 9, 1945 to Gen. Homma, making this the largest capitulation of the United States Army.^[3] King surrendered about 80,000 Americans and Filipinos, and the Japanese committed them to what is now known as the Bataan Death March, where an estimate of 15,000 died from heat, exhaustion, or summary execution.^[4] The following day, units of the Japanese Army committed the Pantingan River Massacre, where 600 officers of the Philippine Army's 91st Infantry Division were summarily executed with the use of swords. For those who reached Tarlac POW Concentration Camp at Camp O'Donnell, the suffering from malnutrition and disease took a toll of another 20,000 of the captive Prisoner of War.

The Filipino POWs were released August 1942, while the American POWs were distributed in other POW Camps around the country and were pressed to forced labor on building airfields, railroads, and other civil works. Some POWs were later transported on hell ships and brought to China, Taiwan, or the home islands of Japan, using them as human shields or for forced labor.

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, a number of atrocities were recorded against local government officials such as the execution of former Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos and the Mayor of Daet Wenceslao Vinzons.^[5] There were also a number of former military officers who were executed such as BGen. Vicente Lim, and the former Philippine Constabulary Intelligence Division Chief, Lt. Col. Alejo Valdes, brother of the Philippine Army's Chief-of-Staff MGen. Basilio Valdes. Diplomats such as the Chinese Embassy staff were all massacred in the Manila Chinese Cemetery. Civilians were also not spared as the Japanese military police also known as Kenpeitai, subjected them to torture or summary executions without the benefit of a trial by a mere suspect of being a supporter of anti-Japanese guerilla forces, or finding oneself at the end of an argument with a pro-Japanese Filipino organizations, such as the Makapili. There is also a lingering issue of comfort women where the Japanese military systematically forced young Filipino women into sexual slavery.

In 1944, during the Battle of Luzon the forces under MGen. Tomoyuki Yamashita have perpetrated attacks and massacres against civilian population.^[6]

Activities[]

The Commission was headed by former Justice and future Solicitor General Col. Manuel Lim, who also became one of the Assistant Prosecutor during the trials of Gen. Masaharu Homma and Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita.^[4] Col. Lim enlisted the help of SCAP War Crimes Investigation Section, and brought in more than 100 military and legal personnel in this effort, and investigating more than 300 individuals and 600 cases, interviewing thousands of witnesses.^[5] The Commission should not be confused with the Commonwealth of the Philippines' in Manila as well, established by President Sergio Osmena in 1945.

Legacy[]

Overall, the Commission handled the prosecution of more than 169 defendants, of whom 133 were found guilty. 25 were given the death sentence, and 16 received life imprisonment.

Aside from Homma and Yamashita, the Commission helped in the prosecution of the following:

• LGen. Shizuo Yokoyama, commanding general of the "Shimbo Group" of the Forty-First Army (Japan) and was responsible for the defense of Manila and Southern Luzon during the Battle of Luzon.^[1]
• LGen. Akira Muto, Chief-of-Staff of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita's Japanese Fourteenth Area Army. He was extradited to Tokyo to face the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and was charged for being responsible for the torture and execution of Filipino civilians and anti-Japanese guerillas.
• LGen. Hong Sa-Ik, assigned to the Philippines in 1944, and commanded the Prisoner-of-war camp across the country.
• LGen. Shigenori Kuroda, the Japanese Governor-General from May 28, 1943 to September 26, 1944, to whom more than 2,400 civilian deaths and executions were attributed to.^[1]

References[]