
MATERIALS RELEVANT TO
THE BATTLE OF MANILA
THESE MATERIALS
APPEAR IN THE DIGITAL BOOK FORMAT COURTESY COURTESY OF
LTC AND MRS. RWW (R), E/2/503/173 69-7, WHO ACQUIRED THE
FLIPPING BOOK PROGRAM ON OUR BEHALF.
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BATTLE OF MANILA The Battle of Manila, probably
more than any other battle of WWII, has suffered from the false
narratives of post-war revisionism. This was not simply the
result of Japanese reluctance to traverse their war crimes,
but from the efforts of the US to facilitate Japan as a base for the
'police action' in Korea. The predominant revisionist
approach was
that the US had, by surrounding Manila, failed to afford an escape
route for the Japanese to withdraw from the city, thereby causing
damage and death which otherwise would not have occurred. This
approach assumes, incorrectly, that the Japanese wanted to vacate
Manila without fight. The
second revision was to characterise the atrocities as " the
Manila Naval Defence Force under the separate command of the Imperial
Japanese Navy running amok." This was an ex post facto
invention argued by the defense counsel of Gen. Yamashita. The third narrative was that
the damage to Manila was caused predominantly by "American
Bombing" and indiscriminant artillery use.
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