The Japanese Army Marches Into Baguio

Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition):

DECEMBER 27, 1941

The Japanese army marched into Baguio on the night of December 27, 1941 with out any resistance. 500 civilians mostly Americans were interned at Camp John Hay for several months. 

Earlier, on December 8, 1941, seventeen Japanese planes bombed Camp John Hay in Baguio, the first place in the Philippines attacked by the Japanese forces. American and Filipino soldiers including civilians were killed. 

John Hay Air Station was established on October 25, 1903 after US President Theodore Roosevelt signed an executive order setting aside land for a military reservation for the United States Army in Benguet. It was named after John Milton Hay, Roosevelt's Secretary of State. 

After the December 8 bombing, John Hay’s commander, Col. John P. Horan, ordered hundreds of Japanese residents in Baguio rounded up and placed in two damaged barracks in the camp. 

Around a thousand American and Filipino soldiers abandoned the area on December 24, destroying most of their weapons and equipment and leaving the Japanese internees locked up without food and water. 

The American Residence, built by US High Commission Paul V. McNutt, which used to be the summer residence of the Governor-General of the Philippines is located inside the camp. 

Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commander of the 14th Army, used it as his official residence and headquarters. 

On April 26, 1945, American forces together with Filipino guerrillas of the USAFIP-Northern Luzon captured Baguio and Camp John Hay. 

Filipino and American forces pursued the retreating Japanese into the forests of the Benguet Mountains. 

On September 3, 1945 General Yamashita surrendered to General Jonathan Wainwright at the American Residence with British General Arthur Percival standing as witness.

(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan Uy) All rights reserved

Photo credit: wikipedia.org