VENCEREMOS! “Rizalenyos organized a resistance movement, including the Hunters ROTC and Filipino-American troops…Local Filipino soldiers of the pre-war 42nd Infantry division of the Philippine Commonwealth Army and the 4th Infantry Regiment of the Philippines Constabulary entered Taytay to help the guerrilla fighter units in defeating the Japanese Imperial forces.” [Taytay Public Information Office, February 21, 2024] Congratulations, Mayor Allan Martine S. De Leon, MPA for leading the anniversary!
Venceremos! “Occupying Taytay against negligible resistance, the 7th Cavalry began probing into the Sierra Madre foothills on 22 February.” [20 Feb-4 Mar 45; 8th Cav Rpt Luzon, Taytay-Antipolo Phase, pp. 1-7] [Chapter XXI: The Reduction of the Shimbu Group. Phase I: Turning the Shimbu Left. United States Army in World War II. The War in the Pacific. Triumph in the Philippines by Robert Ross Smith] Yes, let us all celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Taytay from the fascist Japanese Occupation.
Rìběn guizi 日本鬼子: Onoda (unrepentant fascist) + Suzuki (cannibal) + Makino (blood-thirsty surgeon). These are the very Nipponese who committed war crimes in the name of their Emperor Hirohito: Bataan Death March, Rape of Mapanique, Lipa Massacre, Rape of Manila.
Remember Erlinda! In the light of real history and given that critical and liberating dialogue must be carried on at all stages of the Filipino struggle for liberation, we are obliged to rebuke those Mephistophelian Daughters of the Golden Calf bent on financing the immiserization of the minds and the impoverization of the souls of the descendants of Lapulapu, Bonifacio, Malvar and Kangleon by spreading vile collaborationist propaganda and the Axis narrative of dominion.
Behold a Pale Horse! As we castigate these treasonous collaborators, we hereby stand with the descendants of the Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, Baum Group (Berlin), Soviet Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigades, Churchill-klubben, Merrill’s Marauders, Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa Gryf Pomorski, Basque Maki, the 11th Airborne Division commanded by Major General Joseph M. Swing, the Bündische Jugend (aka the Leipzig Meuten), Tito’s Brigades, Lëtzeburger Ro’de Lé’w, the Edelweiss Pirates (especially the Navajo group of Cologne), Gideon Force, Comitato Toscano di Liberazione Nazionale, Bielski brothers, Samsing-gruppen, Robert Havemann and the Neu Beginnen/Europäische Union, New Jersey Minutemen, Réseau Comète, Jesselton revolt, Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization, Chindits, Kinabalu Guerrilla Defence Force, and Weiße Rose (White Rose Resistance).
партизанский парад! Yes, let us all celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Los Banos POW Camp. “The 45th Regiment was headed by Hunter Lt. Col. Naning K. Guerrero for the longest time, all the way to its successful Raid at UP Los Banos which resulted in the Rescue of over 2,000 civilian foreign internees of the Japanese.” [Jerry Adevoso]
Desperta Ferro! This was the beginning of the Allied Raid of the Japanese Concentration Camp in Los Banos: “A staccato of rifle fires prematurely burst in the direction of Capt. Tan’s sector…even when the sound of planes could still be faintly heard…The Japs were still unbelievably caught unaware. The distance between the opposing forces was so near that the raid was swiftly carried at point-blank, clashing head-on to a hand-to-hand fight which developed to be more of a free-for-all melee…As the other Japs scampered to reach their arms, the group led by Lt. Velasquez and Pedro Cagayat mowed them with deafening rapid fire.” [Honorio K. Guerrero (Lt. Col. Inf., Commanding Officer, 45th Regiment, Hunters-ROTC Guerrillas) and Gustavo C. Ingles (Lt. Col. Inf., Inspector-General, Hunters-ROTC Guerrillas). “The Story Of The Liberation Of The Allied Internees at the Los Banos Internment Camp on 23 February 1945”]
Uurah! “The ground forces burst into the camp. They’d been ordered not to take prisoners. The American soldiers took quick aim at the guard tower while the guerrillas charged with machetes at the near-naked sentries. Several guards ran toward the storage unit where their rifles were secured, fumbled with the lock, and were hacked to death trying to access their weapons.”
“It was finally happening—just not how and when the inmates had expected. Like the rescue at Cabanatuan, the Los Baños inmates were still in enemy territory. The US Army intended to bring prisoners to a staging area two miles away at Laguna de Bay. From there, an amtrac would take them a short distance across the water. At the second staging area, inmates would be transferred into ambulances or trucks and driven to Bilibid Prison, which was now in Allied control.” [Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi. This is really war: the incredible true story of a Navy nurse POW in the occupied Philippines. Chicago: Chicago Review Press Incorporated, 2019]
Luna de lobos! Kudos to Dr. Marilyn Y. Esguerra (Trustee, Board of Trustees of the Veterans of World War II) and Dave Ingles of the Descendants of the Hunters-ROTC Guerrillas for helping organize the celebrations of the 80th anniversaries of the Liberation of Taytay and the Los Banos Raid, respectively.
And we must acknowledge the invitation of the Ambassador of the United States of America MaryKay L. Carlson for us to attend the ceremony to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Manila.
The struggle to eradicate Hitlerism continues.
