Figure 1.--This is a still from a newsreel about the Los Baños raid. There is no caption, but it is very revealing. We see a young mother and her two children after release from the Los Baños internment camp. Notice how she has managed to keep them reasonably fed, but looks like she has not eaten well. All three, including mom, are munching away on bits of a Hershey bar. This may be a day or so after their liberation. She appears to be talking with an Army Chaplin. (The military chaplins would play a role in helping the internees establish contact with their loved ones back in the States.) We are guessing that the boy had nailed a Hershey bar or two before this photograph was taken. The Los Baños mothers had to watch boys like this very closely because every one wanted to treat the internees, especially the children, and unsupervised especially the boys could score quite a haul of candy and get sick. This boy was probably busy gobbling down everything he was allowed to get his hands on. Notice how the boy can not be bothered with boring adult conversation. While munching on the part of a Hershey bar his mother has allowed him, his attention has turned to the photographer. The quizical expression on his face is probably because he does not understand why anyone would bother to take a photograph of himself and his mother. Also notice how the baby has quickly learned about the delights of chocolate. Look at where his eyes are fixed and his chocolate-smeared chin.

Los Baños was another university converted into an internment camp. It was a camp for civilian internees located south of Manila. The University of the Philippines (UP) College of Agriculture and UP College of Forestry were converted into an internment camp. Barbed wire surround clusters of thatched huts. The internees were mostly American, but there were also Australians, British, Canadians, .Dutch, Norwegians, and Poles. There were eleven navy nurses and quite a few missionaries and nuns. There were only a few POWs. Most all of the internees were civilian businessmen, teachers, and bankers along with their families. Conditions were livable for the first 2 years of the War (1942-43), but as the war turned against the Japanese and mismanagement of Philippines economy created food shortages, food became a real problem. A sadistic new deputy camp commander, Lt. Sadaaki Konishi, a self described White hater, made the situation especially difficult. The Japanese guards became more brutal. Conditions were so bad that about two internees were dying daily because the Japanese cut the internees rations to starvation levels. This was a deliberate action. There was no lack of food in the area. Ominously, the Japanese were digging trenches outside the camp. Internees in three of the four Luzon camps had already been rescued, but Los Baños was still well behind Japanese lines. Los Baños is best known for the precision rescue mission undertaken by Filipino guerillas and the American 11th Airborne Division forces (February 23, 1945). It was an especially dangerous mission because the Japanese 8th Tiger Division with some 10,000 men were located close to the camp. The raid was conducted wile the Battle for Manila was raging. For days the internees could hear the guns and the fires at night from the fierce battle. The Los Baños rescue operation proved to be a perfectly executed three pronged attack. Total surprise was needed lest the 250 Japanese guards turn on the internees. Filipino guerrillas reinforced with a few 11th Division men attacked just as several hundred paratroopers made a low level jump. At the sane time other paratroopers landed on Amtracks just north of the camp. All 2,147 of the surviving internees were saved and only five Americans and Filipino guerillas were killed. The result was successful in part because the Americans learned of the camp routine. The ground, air, and amphibious raid was timed to strike when almost all of the guards were away from their guns and doing morning calisthenics. Konishi and a few officers not participating in the exercises managed to escape. The Camp was evacuated by Amtracks over the nearby lake. Konishi returned to the camp after the evacuation. Finding the internees gone, he led the massacre of some 1,500 Filipino civilians in the town and surrounding area. arrested after the War, tried, and found guilty of war crimes. He was returned to Japan and hanged.

Created: 9:38 AM 2/26/2024
Last updated: 9:38 AM 2/26/2024