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| El Nido to Puerto Princessa (230 km) 5 1/2 hours |
I then conveyed this abridged story:
On 14 December, 1944, as American troops under General Douglas MacArthur slowly advanced toward the island of Luzon, Japanese guards at the Puerto Princesa Prison Camp on Palawan Island (South West of main Philippine Islands) committed a horrendous act by herding their approximate 150 Allied war prisoners into trenches, soaked the men with fuel and burned them alive.
The Japanese unit in charge of the prisoners at Palawan was the 131st Airfield Battalion, under the command of Captain Nagayoshi Kojima (nicknamed the Weasel by the Americans). Lieutenant Sho Yoshiwara commanded the garrison company and Lieutenant Ryoji Ozawa was in charge of supply. Master Sergeant Taichi Deguchi was acting commander of the kempeitai at Palawan. This was the Japanese army's much feared military police and intelligence unit (similar to the Gestapo in Germany). It is known, based on intercepted Japanese cables (telegrams) orders had been given to kill all surviving POWs before American troops advanced.
The orders stated:
- Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups or however it is done, with mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, decapitation, or what, dispose of them as the situation dictates.
- In any case it is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.
At Palawan, the commanding officers did exactly what they were ordered, and more:
The attack by a single American B-24 Liberator bomber on 19 October, 1944, sank two enemy ships and damaged several planes at Palawan; and again with more Liberators on 28 October that destroyed 60 enemy aircraft on the ground. This constant presence of Allied aircraft caused the prisoners —for their own protection during the raids— to construct three shelters, each approximately 46 metres long and only 1.5 metres high. The Japanese had ordered these dimensions as well as the two entrances at each end could only be large enough to admit or exit, one man at a time.
On 14 December, Japanese aircraft reported the presence of an American convoy, which was actually headed for Mindoro, but which the Japanese thought was headed for Palawan. All prisoner work details were recalled to the camp at noon. Two American P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft were sighted, and the POWs were ordered into the air raid shelters. After a short time the prisoners re-emerged from their shelters, but Japanese 1st Lt. Yoshikazu Sato, who the prisoners called the Buzzard, ordered them to stay in the area. A second alarm at 2 p.m. sent the prisoners back into the shelters, where they remained, closely guarded. It's at this point in an orchestrated and obviously planned move, 50 to 60 Japanese soldiers under the Buzzard's directives doused the wooden shelters with buckets of gasoline and set them afire, followed by hand grenades. The screams of the trapped and doomed prisoners mingled with the cheers of the Japanese soldiers and the laughter of their officer — Sato. As men engulfed in flames broke out of their fiery death traps, the Japanese guards— machine gunned, bayoneted and clubbed them to death. Most of the Americans never made it out of the trenches or the compound before they were barbarously murdered, although several (not to go out with a whimper) managed to engage with their tormentors in hand-to-hand combat and succeeded in killing at least a few of the Japanese attackers before they succumbed.
About 30 to 40 Americans actually escaped from the massacre area, either through the double-woven, 6-foot-high barbed-wire fence or under it. They fell and/or jumped down the cliff above the beach area, seeking hiding places amongst the rocks and foliage. Of these, several attempted to immediately swim across Puerto Princesa's bay, but were shot in the water. They also started to using dynamite in forcing some of the men from their hideaways. Shortly after this the Japanese moved in groups throughout the rocks dragging the Americans out and butchering them as they found them (But not before more agonising torments).
The slaughter continued until dark. Some of the wounded Americans were buried alive by the Japanese. Men who attempted to swim across the bay to safety were shot by soldiers on the shore or on a Japanese landing barge commanded by Master Sgt. Toru Ogawa. When the Japanese ended their search for the surviving prisoners, there were still a few undiscovered Americans alive. Several prisoners hid in a sewer outlet; when the Japanese shone lights into the pipe, the POWs ducked under the sewage and avoided discovery. After nightfall, they attempted to swim the bay, which was 8 km. across at that point. Some were successful, including one who was badly bitten on his left arm and shoulder by a shark but managed to reach the opposite shore. Of the 146 enlisted men and four officers held in the Palawan prison camp, only 11 men survived the massacre on 14 December, 1944.
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| Rock shore to swim, plaque, statue, Tunnel entrance, Garden |
The tragic and agonising death of these 150 Americans, actually spurred the saving of more than double their own at Cabanatuan. News of the massacre reached the U.S. Army and prompted them to embark on one of the war's most dramatic missions — the Bataan rescue, that which lead to the liberation of both military and civilian prisoners held by the Japanese in Central Luzon. The Great Raid of Cabanatuan POW camp was one of them. An elite squad of American Rangers and Filipino guerillas cooperated with local Filipinos to liberate 489 POWs and 33 civilians (492 Americans, 23 British, 3 Dutch, 2 Norwegians, 1 Canadian, 1 Filipino).The rescue allowed the prisoners to tell of the death march and prison camp atrocities. This new voice issued in new recognition for why the war against Japan.
This even today is considered one of America’s best escapes in history.
Palawan was eventually liberated by U.S. forces in March 1945, where the Americans found evidence of the massacre, including the burned dugouts, charred remains, and mangled skeletons. In 1952, the remains of 123 of the victims were moved to a mass grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis, Missouri.
In 2009, a monument to the victims and survivors of the massacre was erected in Palawan, listing the names of the U.S. POWs and recounting their tragic story. The top of the monument is a sculpture of an emaciated American man in chains rising from a fire, symbolizing the oppression of the POWs and the miraculous escape of the 11 survivors.
