COL. WARNER SURRENDERS THE 14th INFANTRY
(June 20, 1942)
Col. Warner officially surrendered the 14th Inf. to the Japanese on
June 20th. The following day our group walked down to the river and
obtained a guide and several bancas. We spent the day coasting down
the river to Ilagan. On the way down, I decided that no American would
be killed by my .45; I dropped it in the river.
In Ilagan, we hiked several blocks to a Japanese barracks, knocked on
the door and tried to explain to some ignorant soldiers that "we had
come to surrender!" We were about as welcome as a vacuum cleaner
salesman. With little planning we could have "wiped them out." We were
finally directed to an empty house across the street to spend the
night, sleeping on the floor.
The next day we hired a Filipino caratella (pony cart) and rode about
fifty miles to Echague where we repeated the surrender process at a
cavalry barracks. Six of us Americans soon found ourselves sleeping on
the concrete floor of the guard house of the old Constabulary
Barracks, west of Echague. Our hosts were a squadron of Japanese
cavalry-probably the same squadron we used to watch going up and down
the highway.
Echague was the town where Guillermo Nakar and I had frequent
conferences with the Governor and provincial officials. We were only
fifteen miles from the radio shack, where Nakar was persisting in his
efforts to contact Gen. MacArthur.
I didn't get to Palanan to meet General Aguinaldo! I have often
wondered how different my life might have been-sitting out the war
with Aguinaldo.
Guests of a Japanese Cavalry Squadron: For one month, we six Americans
were assigned to perform all of the unpleasant chores of the squadron,
pumping water by hand, preparing vegetables, burying garbage, etc. We
were pleased when we heard through the "bamboo telegraph" (rumors
whispered to us by the natives selling us bananas and coconut cookies)
that the government officials that we had appointed had been accepted
by the Japanese. We knew that they would maintain a certain loyalty to
the United States.
The Japs called us "captives," not P.O.W.s. Each morning and each
evening, we had to stand formation with the squadron
facing east repeating an allegiance to the Emperor (we substituted our
own words, which we deemed more appropriate).
Nakar Successful: About the 4th of July, Col. Nakar succeeded in
contacting Australia. I quote from Gen. MacArthur's book,
Reminiscences: "After the fall of Corregidor and the Southern Islands,
organized resistance to the Japanese in the Philippines had supposedly
come to an end. In reality, it never ended. Unfortunately for some
time, I could learn nothing of these activities. A deep pall of
silence settled over the whole archipelago.
"Two months after the fall of Manila Bay Defenses, a brief and
pathetic message from a weak sending station on Luzon was brought to
me. Short as it was, it lifted the curtain of silence and uncertainty,
and disclosed the start of a human drama with few parallels in
military history. The words of that message warmed my heart: 'YOUR
RETURN IS THE NIGHTLY SUBJECT OF PRAYER IN EVERY FILIPINO HOME! -
NAKAR.'
"I had acquired a force behind the Japanese lines that would
have far-reaching effect on the war in the days to come.
"Unhappily, the sender of that first message, Lt. Col. Guillermo
Nakar, a former battalion commander of the 14th Infantry of the
Philippine Forces, was caught by the Japanese, tortured and beheaded.
The word passed from island to island, and from barrio to barrio. From
Aparri in the north to Zamboango in the south the fire of resistance
to the invader spread. Whole divisions of Japanese troops that the
Emperor badly needed elsewhere, deployed against phantom units."
Before Nakar's untimely capture, he had received the following
message: "THE COURAGEOUS AND SPLENDID RESISTANCE MAINTAINED BY YOU AND
YOUR COMMAND FILLS ME WITH PRIDE AND SATISFACTION - Stop. IT WILL BE
MY PRIVILEGE TO SEE THAT YOU AND YOUR OFFICERS AND MEN ARE PROPERLY
REWARDED AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME - Stop. MY AFFECTIONS AND BEST
WISHES. MACARTHUR."
Within a few weeks we learned that an unfaithful Filipino had betrayed
Col. Nakar. The Nipponese had captured him and the regimental radio in
a mountain cave near Jones, and had taken him to the old Spanish Fort
Santiago in Manila where they threw him in a dungeon to face
starvation, thirst, water rats, the ingenious system of Japanese
questioning and torture by the Kempie Tai Qapanese Secret Police), and
finally beheading.
Col. Nakar's short war was far from fruitless. His tender years did
not prevent him from becoming a "champion of liberty!" His message to
MacArthur actually signaled the end of Allied defeats and withdrawals,
and the beginning of an unbroken series of crushing defeats for the
Japanese Empire. It kept "Freedom's Flame" burning brightly throughout
the Philippines and gave the Filipinos the necessary strength and
courage to resist-and finally to defeat the invaders. Col. Nakar's
"Brief and pathetic message from the Cagayan Valley" gave MacArthur
the reassurance he needed:
To plan his aggressive warfare;
To fulfill his pledge to the Filipino people: "I shall return!"
and
To know he had a friendly base from which to attack Japan.
MacArthur's First Guerrilla Regiment (later the 14th Inf.) had
produced a much needed diversion for the hard-pressed forces on Bataan
and Corregidor. Thirty months later, these same guerrillas of the 14th
Inf. played an important part under the brilliant leadership of Col.
Russell Volckmann in assisting MacArthur's invasion of Luzon at
Lingayen Gulf on January 9th, 1945.
MacArthur stated, "The guerrillas had been busy ever since receiving
my orders 'to open up!' They cut telephone wires and otherwise
disrupted Japanese communications. They blew up bridges and mined
roads; they blocked supplies to the front lines; they smashed patrols
and burned ammunition dumps. Their shining bolos began to turn red. I
estimated that Col. Volckmann's northern Luzon guerrillas accomplished
the purposes of practically a front line division."
(Still nine months later, these same guerrillas helped Col. Volckmann
at Kiangan-both defeat and capture Japan's distinguished General
Tomoyuki Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya." The Tiger was quite amazed
and chagrined to find his veteran troops both surrounded and beaten by
guerrillas in the northern Mountain Province.
On September 2, 1945, General Yamashita surrendered to Col. Volckmann
at Kianhgan. The following day, Sept. 3rd, he surrendered to General
Wainwright at the High Commissioner's mansion at Camp John Hay, ending
World War II in the Philippine Islands. Yamashita was then taken to
Bilibid Prison
in Manila to await war crime trials.
In December, 1941, some of the newly recruited Filipino soldiers
'"broke and ran" for the mountains when the big guns were fired from
the cruisers and destroyers in Lingayen Bay, but in 1945, these same
Filipinos were ideally suited for guerrilla warfare; they thoroughly
enjoyed twisting the "Tail of the Tiger." "This was their kind of
war!" Actually Japan never conquered the Philippine Islands, nor did
they ever gain the friendship of the Filipinos.
The Nipponese merely occupied some of the larger cities and controlled
the main roads for three years, during which time they established
much ill-will of the Filipinos, only serving to strengthen the
resistance movements. Who could have ever dreamed that World War II in
the Philippines would both begin and end at Camp John Hay, a Rest and
Recreation Center?
Captives on the Move - July 20, 1942: Six of us the American captives,
guests of the Japanese cavalry squadron stationed in Echague
Constabulary Barracks in Isabella were placed aboard a charcoal
burning truck, with a half dozen Jap guards, bound for an internment
camp.
When we reached Bambang, our truck stopped to pick up a junior
Japanese officer, who was being transferred to another area. The Nips
wanted to give him a big send-off; they had gathered and instructed a
group of Filipino children to express their great fondness for the
officer by waving Japanese flags, by shouting: "Banzai, Banzai,
Banzai!" and by presenting the officer with a small bouquet.
The performance was quite dull, until one of the children discovered
the Americans in the back of the truck. The little faces brightened
and broke into smiles; "V" signs began to appear, followed by a chorus
of "Hello, Joe! Hello, Joe! Hello, Joe; Mabuhay, Joe!" The Japs were
plenty irked and hurried the truck down the highway.
In the early afternoon we passed through the barrio where we had
encountered the Japanese Chevy and tanks seven months before. Shortly
we passed through San Jose and on to the central plains.
About one mile before reaching the internment camp at Cabanatuan, we
suddenly became aware of a horrible, acrid stench, the smell of
disease, dysentery and death.