WORLD HISTORY AND FACTS

The Massacre of Manila was what the media back then coined what had happened to 100,000 Filipino civilians trapped in Manila in 1945. Ignoring orders from Gen. Yamashita to evacuate the city, Rear Admiral Iwabuchi of the Japanese Navy decided to make an unnecessary last stand in Manila against the incoming American forces under Gen. MacArthur. The Japanese who were around 17,000 strong were surrounded from the north and south, and barricaded themselves in the many American colonial buildings, Spanish Churches, and within the fortress walls of Manila itself. The Japanese executed civilians at random out of frustration - accusing men, women, and children of being partisans and spies - and lining them up, tying them with telephone wires before bayonetting, beheading, or shooting them. Some were even lined up on the walls of the fort to serve as human shields against incoming American fire. The Americans, on the other hand, chose to shell the city in attempt to flush out the Japan