The re-conquest of the Philippines commenced on September 18, 1944, when the 6th Ranger Battalion secured three small islands in the entrance to Leyte Gulf – the first mission for the untried unit. A vicious 3½-month battle for Leyte ensued. The next conquest was Mindoro, south of Luzon, on December 15. It was secured before the end of the month, allowing airfields to be built to support the assault on the main objective, Luzon.
The Luzon landing was conducted on January 9, 1945 – S-Day – in Lingayen Gulf on the west-central coast not far from where the Japanese had landed three years earlier. The 6th Ranger Battalion followed the main landing a day later. It was assigned only to secure Sixth Army HQ and to conduct patrols, and was held in reserve to employ on rapidly emerging special missions.
Two US corps had come ashore to drive southwest through the broad Agno/Pampanga River Valley to Manila 120 miles distant. I Corps, with the 43rd, 25th, and 6th Infantry Divisions, was on the east flank and heavily engaged with the Shobu Group in the foothills along the valley’s north and northeast side. On the west flank, XIV Corps, with the 37th and 40th Infantry Divisions, was making good progress south toward the former Army Air Corps’ base at Clark Field. About 12 miles north of the airbase was Camp O’Donnell. It would be liberated on January 30.5 Gen Douglas MacArthur was placing much pressure on XIV Corps to take Clark Field as a base for fighter bombers, and then push on to Manila. In I Corps’ sector the Japanese were funneling in more units, including elements of the 105th Division and 2nd Tank Division. Five battalions of the 105th Division were prepared to serve as a rearguard to cover the withdrawal of the Shobu Group northward.
The Japanese 14th Area Army had organized its forces into three groups. The largest was the Shobu Group, with 152,000 troops in four infantry divisions, a tank division, and an independent mixed brigade. It was responsible for the defense of northern Luzon and within the bounds of its southernmost area was Cabanatuan Camp. The 30,000-man Kembu Group was responsible for west-central Luzon and consisted of the 1st Raiding Group (a small airborne division) and regiments detached from Shobu Group divisions. Manila and all of southern Luzon was the responsibility of the Shimbu Group and its 80,000 men in two divisions. Gen Yamashita Tomoynuki, commanding the 14th Area Army, felt Luzon could not be held with the forces available. Even with the 2nd Tank Division he lacked the mobile forces to effectively defend such a large island – 40,800 square miles, about the area of the state of Virginia. He had lost two divisions and other units sent to defend Leyte. Little effort was made to defend the Agno/Pampanga River Valley as the Americans advanced toward Clark Field and Manila. American air attacks, coupled with increasingly bold guerrilla activity, forced Yamashita to move most units into the mountains to the north. Cabanatuan Prison Camp was located right in the middle of this battlefield.
Two days before the Luzon landing, on January 7, 1945, a US Army intelligence officer interviewed a former POW. Pfc Eugene Neilson had surrendered on Corregidor and eventually found himself in the Puerto Princesa POW Camp on Palawan, an island between Mindoro and Borneo. His story stunned the G2 (intelligence) officer. He had been among 150 prisoners constructing an airstrip under brutal conditions. On December 14, 1944 they were ordered into air-raid shelters – long narrow trenches covered with logs and earth – drenched in gasoline, and set aflame. The guards shot down the smoldering men rushing from the tunnels and hunted down escapees, shooting, bayoneting, and even dousing them with gasoline and igniting them on the spot. Eleven prisoners, including Nielson, escaped to be found by guerrillas. Some of these men were evacuated by flying boat to Morotai Island in the Netherlands East Indies. Pfc Neilson’s shocking report was forwarded to Sixth Army HQ on Luzon.
Sixth Army was already aware of the locations of POW and civilian internment camps on Luzon through guerrilla reports. LtGen Walter Krueger and his staff were familiar with the conditions in the camps, poor rations, inadequate medical care, beatings, and wrenched living conditions. It had been reported that the POWs were living on rice (often boiled down to a soupy starch called lugao), powdered fish, carabao6 heads and intestines for soup, trapped rats and lizards, and the rare vegetables they could steal or barter.
Krueger’s staff were also conscious of the complete disregard of the Geneva Convention by the Japanese, their willingness to sacrifice their own lives to destroy the enemy or prevent their own capture,7 and the atrocities inflicted on prisoners elsewhere. Reports were coming in of the savage brutality meted out to Filipinos, while the recent report of the Palawan massacre only reinforced fears that the Japanese might murder prisoners about to be liberated. Palawan, while enduring an occasional air raid, had not even been invaded. Even the best-case scenario would spell doom for emaciated prisoners, namely that the Japanese would force-march them away from advancing US forces. There was little doubt that many would not survive the physical hardships of another death march. Even then there was a high probability of their eventual execution by their guards or a massacre by retreating Japanese troops. There was little hope of the Japanese guards simply abandoning them unharmed as Americans approached the camp. The figures were not known at the time, but only 4 percent of Allied prisoners of the Germans and Italians died in captivity, in contrast to 27 percent of those held by the Japanese.
The story of the Bataan Death March and other prisoner atrocities were also common knowledge in the rank and file. Escaped prisoners had linked up with guerrillas over the years. Some joined up and others were evacuated by submarine or flying boat to Australia. It was not long before articles were appearing in magazines and newspapers. Their story was well known and, to the soldiers liberating the Philippines, they were heroes.
5 Only a few US medical staff remained at O’Donnell, and it was being used as a Filipino labor camp.
6 Domesticated water buffaloes used as pack animals and for food.
7 Suicidal banzai charges and individual suicides to avoid capture had been an established fact since Guadalcanal. The first kamikaze (Divine Wind) attacks against ships commenced on October 25, 1944, during the battle of Leyte Gulf.