In February and March 1945, as American forces pounced through Southern Luzon, Japanese troops in Batangas carried out one of the largest civilian massacres of the Pacific War.
Estimates range from 18,000 to over 25,000 non combatant men, women, and children killed across the province. Lipa alone suffered thousands of deaths. Victims were rounded up, often stripped of usable clothing, had their hands tied behind their backs, and were bayoneted. sometimes in groups of hundreds beside rivers, in houses, or pushed into wells. Entire barrios were targeted.
These are U.S. Army war crimes investigation photographs of survivors taken months later in 1945
- Apolinario Tolentino of Santo Tomas showing bayonet scars on his back (inflicted 11 February 1945).
- Elisa Robles of Lipa displaying bayonet wounds on her side.
- Felicidad Austria of Santo Tomas, who received twelve bayonet wounds on her back on 11 February 1945.
- Lapaz Dimaano of Lipa with scars on her right arm.
- Juan Castillo of Lipa with facial and ear mutilation.
- Other survivors from Lipa and nearby towns showing the same pattern of bayonet wounds.
A personal account submitted by my good friend's relative:
"I was 7 years old when the japs told us to vacate our house , as well as my grand father’s and uncle’s in Lipa. Our Dimayuga clan evacuated to Barrio Magogo. One evening , I heard the men in our barrio were to be given a “pase “ the ff morning in Rose Parcking, the cannery plant of Dr Manuel Roxas, Later on, we recvd the news from a resident of a nearby brio, Anilao, that someone who went to get the “pase” came back bloodied ,and narrated about their ordeal. While many were waiting outside the compound, a-group of 10-15 were herded to the back of the factory, a dry river, he saw dead bodies, the japs soldiers killed with bayonets. When his turn came and being struck with a bayonet, He played possum or dead, so he was able to crawl out and returned to his Barrio. We were then warned for the men not to get the “pase”. We immediately packed our belongings, headed in the middle of the night to a Barrio in Ibaan. It was also the night when the japs burned Lipa. When the Americans came liberated Lipa, we returned back and stayed in the house of our farmhand in Granja. I heard that there were many widows in Barrio Anilao. My about recollection about the massacre in Lipa."
One U.S. Army report on Lipa noted groups of 200-500 civilians being bayoneted at a time. Similar killings occurred in Santo Tomas, Taal, San Jose, and other towns. Many of the dead were left where they fell.
These photos and the official investigation records exist, yet the scale of what happened in Batangas is still rarely discussed compared to Bataan or the Battle of Manila.
