Savage Mass Slaughter of Filipinos by Japs

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 58, 9 March 1945, Page 5

Savage Mass Slaughter of Filipinos by Japs

Received Thursday, 8.60 p.m. NEW YOEK, March 8. Documentary evidence discloses that 2500 civilians were bayoneted or burned alive in Intramuros (Manila) between February 7 and IS in the worst wholesale massacre of the Pacific war, says the HeraldTribune’s Manila correspondent. Most of the butchery occurred in the dank dungeons of Port Santiago where all the males were arbitrarily classed as guerrillas and executed. When American troops opened the almost inaccessible dungeon they found 300 corpses packed tighter than sardines. They had starved to death. The bodios bore no marks of violence and many had fallen in attitudes of supplication as if clutching the hare stone for a morsel of food or a cup of water. More than 3000 of Intramuros’s population of 7000 civilians were rescued and 1000 are missing, probably blown to pieces. The remainder were slaughtered. Masß slaughter was also carried out in parts of the Batangas Province.