Draft:Battle of Naga

Battle of Naga
Part of the 1944–1945 Philippine Campaign and the Pacific Theater of World War II
An aerial view of pre-war Naga taken in April 7, 1935.
Date 9 — 12 April 1945 Location Naga, Philippines 13°37′N 123°11′E Result Allied victory Naga liberated
Belligerents
Commonwealth of the Philippines United States	Japan Republic of the Philippines (Second Republic)
Commanders and leaders
Elias Angeles Juan Q. Miranda Leon Aureus Ennis Whitehead	Shizuo Yokoyama Kenishi Sumi
Units involved
Ground forces Tangcong Vaca Guerilla Unit Camp Isarog Guerilla Unit Aerial forces 5th Air Force	41st Army Shimbu Detachment

The Battle of Naga (Filipino: Labanan ng Naga; Japanese: 名が の 戦い, romanized: Naga no Tatakai; Central Bikol: Laban kan Naga; 9 April—12 April 1945) was a major battle of the Philippine campaign of 1944–45 in Southern Luzon within Central Bicol, during the Second World War. It was mostly fought by guerilla forces of the Philippines against Japanese troops stationed in Naga, the capital city of Camarines Sur in 1945.

The three-day liberation was a collective effort of the chiefly Bicolano guerilla forces, such as the Tangcong Vaca Guerilla Unit formed by Elias Madrid and led by Major Juan Q. Miranda and Leon Aureus, and the Camp Isarog Guerilla Unit, the local Philippine Constabulary, and strategic bombing from the 5th Air Force to clean the 41st Army (Shimbu Detachment) out of the Isarog district and eventually out of the Bicol Peninsula in Southern Luzon. It also recuperated the spearhead of the 5th Cavalry Regiment with the 158th Regimental Combat Team from Albay, where first contact was met in the nearby town of Pili on March 1945.

On May 1, 1945, once the 5th Cavalry from Manila had entered Naga, the Tangcong Vaca Guerilla Unit had already swept urban Naga clear of Japanese resistance a month prior.

Background

Japanese pre-war presence

In 1936, Camarines Sur had reportedly registered a substantial number of Japanese residents, particularly shopkeepers in Naga. Among the prominent Japanese establishments present in Naga before 1941 were the Filipino Bazaar and the K Mori refreshment parlor, formerly renowed for their monggo con hielo.

Initial reaction to imminent invasion

On December 7, 1941, the intriguing news of Pearl Harbour and the retaliatory declaration of war generated civil unrest, inciting protracted widespread panic buying among Naga's residents, lasting as far as the initial Japanese occupation of Naga.

Naguenos firmly believed that a Japanese invasion would be decisively repelled through the joint forces of the Philippine Army, Philippine Constabulary and the United States Army Forces in the Far East within the span of two months. This collective anticipation was attested by the anecdotal panic daily buying of short-term stocking of household provisions among Naga's residents. Accounts reported further escalations leading to violent plundering, particularly perpetrated against the prosecuted Japanese, and even Chinese, owned businesses on the platform of sheer retribution. Fomented fears of a permanent Japanese occupation exacerbated the daily looting, frequenting plunders of hardware material, namely crude oil, petroleum, and gasoline.

On December 12, the aforementioned Japanese nationals who owned establishments were promptly detained in Naga's Provincial Jail (now the Cathedral Yard) on the account of espionage as they all had unanimously donned high ranking Imperial Japanese Army officer uniforms in light of the IJN's 16th Division 'Kimura Detachment's landing in Legazpi. Among the detainees was Kubota, a palay agent of the Greek businessman named Ciriaco Chunaco; Suga, the owner of the Naga Bazaar; others simply remembered as Kitahara; Berto Nishiyama; among others. Their primal military objective was to conduct key ground intelligence for the present Japanese advance of the Kimura Detachment that had just landed in Legazpi, set forth for Camarines Sur, notably in the city of Naga.

As news became increasingly bleaker, parents wired their children studying in Manila to pack for home and to join them in the organized evacuation into the nearby municipalities of Canaman, Magarao, Calabanga and Milaor lest the Kempetai restrict inter-regional emigration. The provincial and local officials of Camarines Sur also had an overtly anti-Japanese stance and, seething the prospect of governing under the Japanese, sought refuge elsewhere to eventually instate a provisional governance. Gov. Ramon Imperial famously went into hiding, refusing to welcome the Japanese advance into Camarines Sur and the capital of Naga.

The small constabulary detachment in Naga under a major was in a state of confusion as he had not received clear instructions except a brief coded telegram saying:

"Do not send any more messages in plain language. Send everything in code."

In spite of the Japanese advance into Quezon, 250 volunteering Bicolano trainees and reservists were mobilized in nearby Pili to join the contingent bound in the defense of Lucena. Students of various schools in Camarines Sur, such as Pili Agricultural School, Ateneo de Naga and Colegio de Sta. Isabel, were alerted of the imminent Japanese occupation, and school administrators nervously assembled all records for safekeeping and padlocked the rooms of the school for an indefinite vacation.

This account of a young student in the Pili Agricultural School (now CBSUA) condensed the trepidated hesitancy of Camarines Sur in the imminence of invasion:

"I was still at the Camarines Sur Agricultural School, having my clearance. Students and faculty members of the said school were at a loss as to what was the best thing to do, what attitude to take and what way to turn to for help. The teachers ordered the students to go home to their respective place of residence. I abandoned my request for clearance and prepared to go home, passing over the rice field at the foot of mount Isarog to the barrio of Mabatobato, Pili, Camarines Sur, walking with a distance of almost 12 kilometers from the Agricultural School to the said barrio of Mabatobato. Reaching Mabatobato, now the Municipality of Ocampo, Camarines Sur, a PUJ vehicle driven by Augusto Moran of Goa, Camarines Sur, bound for Naga with several passengers, I signalled to stop and informed him not to proceed to Naga, because the Japanese Army were advancing to Camarines Sur, and the Philippine Army were utilizing all vehicles entering Naga bound for Camarines Norte where they prepared foxholes along the hilly road for their ambush of the advancing Japanese soldiers bound for Manila. Turning back the vehicle for Goa, Camarines Sur, I took advantage to get in the vehicle in order to reach Goa immediately. The three reconnaissance Japanese Air Force planes, flown high above the province of Camarines Sur from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m."

The account of a Spanish national's daughter, Maria Dolores Tapia del Rio, then an interna at Colegio de Sta. Isabel, recalled the college's rife of uneasiness:

"One could sense something strange in the air. The nuns, with both grave and serious face, were less strict and allowed more flexibility in the performance of our daily activities in school. There were more frequent visits to the chapel and mass was heard with more fervour. Something very serious was happening outside the walls of the school."

On December 13, Japanese troops arrived at Pili Proper without encountering any opposition, as all the previously eligible recruits became elements in the Quezon contingent bound.

Japanese invasion of Naga

On December 14, the 16th Division, 'Kimura Detachment,' entered the capital of Naga without any civil hostility. Monico Imperial, the de facto governor entrusted by his brother, Gov. Ramon Imperial, formally recognized and granted the 16th Division, at the Naga Provincial Capitol's Office of the Governor, full authorization of Camarines Sur.

At 7 AM on the 14th, an olive drab convoy, consisting of mechanized units mounted on Type 94 6-wheel trucks, Type 95 mini-trucks, Type 97 4-wheel trucks, Type 1 6-wheel trucks and Type 2 heavy trucks, horse-drawn artillery pieces and materiel, and foot soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army's 16th Division, marched towards Rizal Plaza along Panganiban Avenue from Pili via Highway 1 (Route 1). The Japanese convoy disembarked on the surrounding streets of Rizal Plaza with heavy congestion, squeezing some elements out to dismount on further sidestreets and impertinent principal avenues.

After the disorganization, an assembly area of Japanese ranks rallied at Rizal Plaza. The incessance of Japanese activity led to some of Naga's remaining yet hesitant residents to pile into Rizal Park. One of the bilingual Japanese officers on the base of the Rizal Monument addressed the cohort with reassurance and advisory, stating; "You should all return home and resume your normal lives. They (Japanese) had come to protect the people, and that the Americans had fled and would never return."

The Japanese officers, informed of their interned compatriots, proceeded to the Naga Provincial Jail and promptly released them. Among those previously held in custody were Kubota, Suga, Condo; the manager of Naga Bazaar, and Mori, the owner of the Mongo Ice Parlor of the city.

On December 15, after legislating total Japanese hegemony overnight, ratifying the local Kempetai constabulary, and satisfied with the civil submission, the Japanese occupied the newly opened private Jesuit school of Ateneo de Naga (now on Naga Parochial School), which originally planned to open their Jesuit faculty house and the Main Building (now on Ateneo De Naga University Main Campus) on that exact date. Except for Sergio Adriatico, the only Filipino among the Jesuit Brothers, the Japanese arrested the eight American Jesuits, composed of three priests and five young scholastics, namely: Fathers Francis Burns, Joe Bittner, Mat Reilly, and Scholastics Richard McSorley, Ed Sullivan, Albert Grau, John Nicholson, and Gregory Horgan.

An account from McSorley briefly recalled their arrest:

"We were taken in an ALATCO bus at gunpoint down to the city jail. As we passed by the houses, students from Ateneo looked out the windows and some waved to us. The Japanese soldiers in the back of the bus held guns ready to shoot us."

After securing control of major installations in Naga Proper through acquisition policy, and having set up their procedural garrisons on the roadsides of both Concepcion Grande and Milaor, the bulk of the 16th Division, 'Kimura Detachment,' continued its advance to the north to aid the Battle of Manila.

On December 19, the IJA's 16th Division had reached Sipocot with little to no resistance.

On December 21, as the Imperial Japanese Army was nearing Camarines Norte, a 16th Division regiment encountered stiff resistance from two Philippine Army companies led by an American officer, 1st Lt. Matt Dobrinic, north of Sipocot (now Bicol National Park).

Under abject rule