HERE at the Pagbukwat Han Aton Mga Kaagi International Conference on the 80th Anniversary of the Leyte Operations, your columnist (Corporate Secretary, Hunters-ROTC Historical Society) was privileged to present the “Overview — World War II: United Nations Victory Against Fascism and Leyte Landing,” to wit:
1. In the Mediterranean, the city/commune of Domodossola joined an uprising against the Germans when the valley of Ossola declared itself a free partisan republic in September 1944, breaking away from Fascist Italy. But in the territory of Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno on the slopes of Monte Sole in the province of Bologna, the massacre of civilians (including 316 women, 216 children, 142 men and women over the age of 60) by Nazi-Fascist troops (Sturmbahnführer Walter Reder’s 16th Waffen-SS Reconnaissance Battalion) culminated on 05 October 1944. [https://www.italymagazine.com/dual-language/never-forget-marzabotto-massacre-world-war-ii; https://italyheritage.com/learn-italian/documentaries/marzabotto-monte-sole.htm]
2. In the Baltics, the Soviet Red Army entered Riga: “Troops of the 3rd Baltic Front with the direct support of the troops of the 2nd Baltic Front, developing their successful offensive, today, October 13, captured by storm the capital of Soviet Latvia…an important naval base and powerful German defense center in the Baltic.” [J. Stalin, Supreme Commander-in-Chief and Marshal of the Soviet Union, Order of the Day Addressed to Army-Generals Maslennikov and Yeremenko, Moscow, 13 October 1944] In the Balkans, Josip Broz Tito’s Yugoslav partisans and the Bulgarian People’s Army cleared the Nazis from Belgrad (20 October 1944). [https://www.rbth.com/history/330792-how-red-army-liberated-europe]
3. Two of the largest uprisings against Nazism occurred in Europe, both on the Eastern Front: the Slovak National Uprising (“one of the biggest anti-fascist armed resistance movements of its kind”) and the Warsaw Uprising. [https://www.mzv.sk/web/en/slovakia/history/remembering-the-foreigners-who-joined-the-slovak-national-uprising]
4. At the Fourth Moscow Conference, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin re-drew their respective spheres of influence with this formula: “Roumania: Russia 90%, The others 10%; Greece: Great Britain 90% (in accord with the USA), Russia 10%; Yugoslavia: 50–50%; Hungary: 50–50%; Bulgaria: Russia 75%, The others 25%.” [80th Anniversary of Churchill, Stalin, and the “Naughty Document”; https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/churchill-bulletin/bulletin-197-oct-2024/tolstoy/]
5. In Southeast Asia, the Tokkeitai conducted a mass murder of the intelligentsia and random civilians (Pontianak Massacres). [https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/archipelago-death-brutality-japanese-and-dutch-counterinsurgency-operations-indonesia]
6. In the C-B-I theater, Operation Ichigo was poised to capture Guilin (where many of U.S. Army General Claire Chennault’s air units were based), the battles of Imphal and Kohima had already blunted the Japanese counter-strike, but Mao Zedong kept up his quarrel with his erstwhile partner in the Second United Front: “he has in no way met the Chinese people’s eager desire to strengthen the anti-Japanese front.”
[https://time.com/archive/6865600/world-battlefronts-battle-of-asia-last-gap/]
[“On Chiang Kai-Shek’s Speech On The Double Tenth Festival,” 11 October 1944]
7. In Latin America, World War II triggered the Guatemalan Revolution when a coup launched by army officers Francisco Javier Arana and Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, supported by unionists and students, toppled Federico Ponce Vaides’ junta.
8. In the mainland of the United States, the Roosevelt administration was also preoccupied with wage issues, labor strikes, Wall Street maneuvers, the “Negro Struggle,” Community War Fund drives, and the presidential election campaign, among others. [The Militant, Vol.8, No. 43, 21 October 1944] These are not minor matters, as the First Lady explained: “The distance to and from the areas where we are now operating is so great that I think few people in this country realize what it means to supply our ships and armed forces. This question of geographical distance is one which more and more in the next few months we will have to study and understand, because the better we do in the Pacific the further away we get, and the greater is our supply task. This will mean that the demands made on people at home will be just as great, or greater, in the months to come, and unless they realize the distances they will wonder why this is the case.” [Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day, October 16, 1944,”https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1944&_f=md056925]
Given the Allied-Axis face-off all across the globe plus all the preoccupations of life in general, we are obliged to see how our local resistance movements were accounted for in the broader strategic and non-combat considerations of the United Nations. Thus, we are glad that the International Conference on the 80th Anniversary of the Leyte Operations was the venue for the author of the concept note Pagbukwat Han Aton Mga Kaagi to present the signal contribution of Ruperto Kangleon and the Leyte guerrillas: “They developed a method we like to call modern island and inter-island guerrilla warfare…Without them, There Would Be No Leyte Landing.” [Lakan Uhay Alegre (with Jobert Narte), Leyte-Samar Heritage Society, Inc. Member-Nominees]
Supportive of the campaign to unearth the Untold Stories of World War II Leyte were Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, Leyte Provincial Tourism Lead Consultant Frances Ann B. Petilla, Mayor of Enchanting Palo Remedios “Matin” L. Petilla, Dr. Ma. Mimietta S. Bagulaya, Lilibelle Fernandez Arong, and Engr. Karol Abello, among others. Essential to the Conference were Walter R. Borneman (“The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King”) and Mina Watanabe (Women’s Active Museum, Tokyo). Most crucial was the organizing genius of Leyte-Samar Heritage Society, Inc. President Joycie Y. Dorado-Alegre. Like Kangleon, they did this for the love of country.
