1 The number of deaths may vary with the source and definition of war death. The Encyclopedia Britannica estimates 118,000 Second World War deaths in the Philippines, including civilians. See Britannica, table ‘World War II casualties’, https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/Costs-of-the-war.

2 See for example, Lacambra, Jose Maria, Rising sun blinking: A young boy's memoirs of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (New York: iUniverse, 2010)Google Scholar; Maria Felisa A. Syjuco, The Kempei Tai in the Philippines, 1941–45 (Quezon City: New Day); Ingles, Gustavo C., Memoirs of pain (Metro Manila: Mauban Heritage Foundation, 1992)Google Scholar; Tressa Cates, The drainpipe diary: My internment at Santo Tomas (n.p.: Barajima, 1957). See also Javellana, Stevan, Without seeing the dawn (Boston: Little Brown, 1947)Google Scholar.

3 McCoy, Alfred, ‘Politics by other means: World War II in the Western Visayas’, in Southeast Asia under Japanese Occupation, ed. McCoy, Alfred (New Haven, CT: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1980), pp. 158–203Google Scholar.

4 Ara, Satoshi, ‘Collaboration and resistance: Catalino Hermosilla and the Japanese Occupation of Ormoc, Leyte (1942–1945)’, Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints 60, 1 (2012): 33–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 See for example, Cesar Pobre, ‘The resistance movement in northern Luzon (1942–1945)’ (MA thesis, University of the Philippines, 1962); Agoncillo, Teodoro, The fateful years: Japanese adventure in the Philippines (Quezon City: RP Garcia, 1965), pp. 741–2Google Scholar; Jose L. Llanes, ‘I saw a nation in travail’, mimeo, Archives of University of the Philippines Main Library, Quezon City, n.p.; Manuel F. Segura, TABUNAN: The untold exploits of the famed Cebu guerrillas in World War II (Cebu City: MF Segura, 1975), pp. 113–20; Constantino, Renato, The Philippines: The continuing past (Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1984), pp. 132–50Google Scholar.

6 Ethel Nurge quotes a Bicol study where ‘moneyed people who owned land were referred to as “big people”. The rest of the townspeople were frequently referred to in conversation by the stereotype, “little people”’. See Nurge, Ethel, Life in a Leyte village (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1965), p. 41Google Scholar.

7 For example, Agoncillo, Teodoro, The revolt of the masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1956)Google Scholar; Constantino, Renato, The Philippines: A past revisited (Quezon City: Tala, 1975)Google Scholar; Constantino, Renato and Constantino, Letizia R., The Philippines: The continuing past (Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1975)Google Scholar; Ileto, Reynaldo, ‘Colonial war in southern Luzon: Remembering and forgetting’, Hitotsubashi Journal of Social Studies 33, 1 (2001): 103–18Google Scholar.

8 Nakano Satoshi, ‘Appeasement and coercion’, in The Philippines under Japan: Occupation policy and reaction, ed. Setsuho Ikehata and Ricardo T. Jose (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999), pp. 21–58.

9 Syjuco, The Kempeitai in the Philippines, pp. 78–92.

10 See Michael Cullinane, Arenas of conspiracy and rebellion in late nineteenth-century Philippines: The case of the April 1898 Uprising in Cebu (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014); Jim Richardson, Light of liberty: Documents and studies on the Katipunan (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2013).

11 Alfredo McCoy, ‘Biography of lives obscure, ordinary, and heroic’, in Lives at the margin: Biography of Filipinos, obscure, ordinary and heroic, ed. A. McCoy (Madison: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000), pp. 1–33.

12 See Reynaldo Ileto, ‘Friendship and forgetting’, in Knowledge and pacification: On the US conquest and the writing of Philippine history (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2017), pp. 163–201.

13 See Ranajit Guha, ‘On some aspects of historiography of colonial India’, in Ranajit Guha, The small voice of history: Collected essays, ed. Partha Chaterjee (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009), pp. 187–93.

14 I apply Peter Burke's ideas on historical perspective to this study. See P. Burke, ed., New perspectives on historical writing (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), pp. 115–22.

15 The encomienda system was the use of appointed ecomenderos to collect taxes from natives introduced by colonial Spain in late 16th century Philippines. In return, the appointed encomenderos were supposed to look after the welfare and education of the locals, but for the most part ignored their duties and treated the natives as their slaves. See Constantino, The Philippines: A past revisited, pp. 43–4.

16 Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, The colonial odyssey of Leyte (1521–1914), a translation of Reseña de la Provincia de Leyte, trans. and ed. by Rolando O. Borrinaga and Cantius J. Kobak (Quezon City: New Day, 2006), pp. 66–7, 75.

17 The Pulahan (Pulajan, pulahanes) movement, so-called because of their red (pulahan) uniforms, was said to have been started in Cebu by two brothers, Quintin and Anatalio Tabal. The group incurred the special ire of the Americans because the rebels had killed four American teachers living in Cebu. From 1902 to 1907, the movement grew in Leyte, challenging the US-installed local government. See Constantino, The Philippines: A past revisited, pp. 281–2. Also see Richard Arens, ‘The early Pulahan movement in Samar’, Leyte-Samar Studies 11, 2 (1977): 57–113.

18 Emil Justimbaste, Ugmok: A brief history of Ormoc, e-book, pp. 61–3; https://issuu.com/emiljust/docs/ormoc_history/13.

19 Weekly CIC Report, 31 Oct. to 6 Nov. 1944, Headquarters XXIV Corps, 224th CIC Detachment, RG407, box 14829, entry 427, National Archives and Record Administration 2 (hereafter NARA 2), College Park, Maryland. Sakdal was initiated by Benigno Ramos, a writer and poet from Bulacan, central Luzon, in the early 1930s, to attain early independence from American rule. Ramos radicalised the movement, eventually turning to bloodshed against the regime in the ‘Sakdal Uprising’ of May 1935. Ramos’ Sakdal Party won mass support, and he set up many chapters in other provinces including Leyte. See Motoe-Terami Wada, Sakdalista's struggle for Philippine independence, 1930–45 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2014).

20 See Japanese Defense Agency, ed., Hito Koryaku Sakusen (比島攻略作戦) [Philippine Campaign] (Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha, 1966), p. 544. See also the following Japanese War Archives documents:(第２篇 第１期概ね開戦時期より全比島戡定終了迄に於ける作戦／第７章 比島全域の戡定及比島作戦大部の完了に伴ふ諸部隊遂次他軍への転属 自４月上旬至７月下旬)[Section 2: The campaign after the completion of the general strategy in the Philippine Islands from April to July 1942], National Archives of Japan, Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), https://www.jacar.go.jp/english/, ref. C14020646900. This document may have been written after the war, in June 1946.

21 「ビサヤ」「ミンダナオ」作戦計画策定の経緯「フィリピンにおける作戦その６」（第１期 [Philippine Campaign in no. 6 in the Process of drafting the Visayas and Mindanao Campaign], JACAR website, ref. C14020772400. This document shows that the invasion occurred a week earlier than scheduled, on 25 May.

22 Acting Governor of Leyte, Pastor Salazar to Jorge Vargas, 4 Dec. 1942, Pastor Salazar file, People's Court Papers (hereafter PCP), Special Collection Section, Main Library, University of the Philippines, Quezon City.

23 Uldarico Baclagon, The Philippine resistance movement against Japan (Manila: Veterans Federation of the Philippines, 1966), pp. 438–9; Donald Chaput, ‘Ruperto K. Kangleon’, Leyte-Samar Studies 1, 1 (1977): 12–20.

24 Baclagon, The Philippine resistance movement against Japan, p. 442. Blas Miranda, Report on the Western Guerrilla Warfare Forces and Various Information (henceforth Report on the WLGWF), 23 Oct., in RG407, NARA2, Philippine Archives Collection (PAC), box 286, Guerrilla Recognition Files, file no. 17-14, WLGWF folder no. 2. The WLGWF files can be accessed via the PAC website: http://collections.pvao.mil.ph/Guerilla/Collections.

25 Questionnaire to Eduardo Bugho, 15 June 1945, RG407 WLGWF folder no. 1, PAC.

26 Usualdo Laguitan to the Editor, Collier, Ohio, USA, 12 Apr. 1945, in PAC, box 286, Guerrilla Recognition Files, file no. 17-14, WLGWF folder no. 2.

27 Literally, the ability to disappear or become invisible. John U. Wolff, A dictionary of Cebuano Visayan (Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2012 [1972]); https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40074/40074-h/40074-h.htm.

28 See Richard Arens, ‘The use of amulets and talismans in Leyte and Samar’, in Folk practices and beliefs of Leyte and Samar, ed. Gregorio C. Luangco (Tacloban: Divine World University, 1982), p. 107.

29 Interview with Emil Justimbaste, Ormoc City, 15 Jan. 2015.

30 Interview with Antonio Tabcanon, former WLGWF soldier residing in Villaba, Leyte, 2 June 1995.

31 When he was captured by the Japanese, Kangleon was the commanding officer of the 81st Infantry Regiment of the 9th Military District of the Philippine Army. See Baclagon, The Philippine resistance movement against Japan, pp. 446–7.

32 See Ara, ‘Collaboration and resistance’, pp. 51–2.

33 Interview with Espiridion Espejo, aged 95, 15 Jan. 2015; former WLGWF soldier residing at Barangay Cogon, Ormoc City.

34 Acting Governor Pastor Salazar to the Philippine Executive Commission, 4 Dec. 1942, PCP Pastor Salazar.

35 Benedict Kerkvliet, The Huk Rebellion: A study of peasant revolt in the Philippines (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977).

36 Baclagon, The Philippine resistance movement against Japan, pp. 446–7.

37 Miranda, Report on the WLGWF.

38 Blas Miranda was also known as Col. Briguez by the local inhabitants. See Emil Justimbaste, Heroes or scoundrels: www.oocities.org/ebjustimbaste/heroes5.htm (last accessed Jan. 2015), p. 61.

39 Miranda, Report on the WLGWF.

40 イロイロ憲兵分隊 情報記録綴 昭和１７年１１月上旬～１７年１２月中旬[Information records at Kempeitai Detachment in Iloilo, Nov. to Dec. 1942], JACAR, ref. C13071906200.

41 Instructions for disciplinary action in Leyte and Samar, in The Orders of the 16th Division of the Japanese Army（第 16 師団作命綴）[Dai-Juroku Shidan Sakumei Tsuzuri], JACAR, ref. C13071390000.

42 The PC was first organised in 1901 at the onset of American rule; recruits were insufficiently trained, with low morale. It became a kind of private bodyguard for politicians. See Joseph Ralston Hayden, The Philippines: A study in national development (New York: Macmillan, 1955), pp. 291–3.

43 垣サレ作命 [Orders of 16th Division (Kaki Sare)], JACAR, ref. C13071390000.

44 See 軍政関係法令集昭和17年 (Gunsei Kankei Horeishu) [Decrees of the Military Administration], JACAR, ref. C13071715000. Also see “To create District and Neighborhood Associations’, in Leyte Shimbun, 26 Sept. 1942, paper clipping, Pastor Salazar file in PCP, box no. 240-4.

45 This narration of Collantes’ collaboration is based on the Ricardo Collantes file in PCP, box no. 74–11.

46 CIC Report, 31 Jan. 1945, PCP Ricardo Collantes, box 74-11.

47 Ibid.

48 See 野砲兵第 22 連隊関係 陣中日誌 昭和 19 年 7 月 8 日～19 年 8 月 31 日[Diary of the 2nd Artillery Infantry Regiment, 8 July 1944 to 31 Aug. 1944], JACAR, ref. CI3071715000.

49 Weekly CIC Report, 31 Oct. to 6 Nov. 1944, Headquarters the XXIV Corps, the 286th CIC Detachment, 7 Nov. 1944, NARA2.

50 Ibid.

51 During the American colonial years, the Elmedos were one of the leading landlords around Abuyog. Pelagio Elmedo was a guerrilla leader under Landia. See Confidential Letter from Special Prosecutor Pedro Quinto, 2 Feb. 1946, PCP Francisco Cañavela, box 62-8.

52 Affidavit of Genero Adolfo on 5 Dec. 1944, PCP Ricardo Collantes.

53 CIC Report, Confidential, Headquarters the 24th Corps, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, 21 Nov. 1944, PCP Anselmo Tarazona, box no. 258-8.

54 This unit was taken over by the 2nd Battalion of the 20th Infantry Regiment, led by Colonel Yamashita.

55 Affidavit of Teodora Dumduma on 1 Dec. 1944, PCP Anselmo Tarazona.

56 Weekly CIC Report, 31 Oct. to 6 Nov. 1944, Headquarters of the 24th Corps, the 286th CIC Detachment, 7 Nov. 1944.

57 CIC Report, Confidential, 224th CIC Detachment on 31 Jan. 1945, PCP Gomerciendo Gobenciong, box no. 134-2.

58 Pelageo Elmedo's testimony, 2 Feb. 1945, in CIC Report, Confidential, the 224th CIC Detachment, PCP Gomerciendo Gobenciong.

59 See numerous affidavits in PCP Gomerciendo Gobenciong.

60 CIC Report, the 483rd CIC Detachment on 5 Mar. 1945 in PCP Jose Gaquit, box no. 126-28.

61 Abe Platoon was part of the Omori Unit (36th Independent Battalion Infantry, 16th Division). Nakazawa Company was in the 33rd Infantry Regiment, 16th Division. Both were stationed in Ormoc from Oct. 1942 to Feb. 1944. See 独立守備歩兵第３６大隊 陣中日誌 昭和１８年４月１日～１８年１２月１４日[Military Diary of the 36th Independent Infantry Regiment Battalion from 1 Apr. 1943 to 14 Dec. 1943], JACAR, ref. C13071688600. Also see CIC Report, the 483rd CIC Detachment on 5 Mar. 1945, PCP Jose Gaquit.

62 Lt Hirayama was commanding officer of a Matsunaga Unit platoon in June 1942, which seems to have been taken over by the Abe Platoon in October 1942. In Ormoc Lt Hirayama allegedly married Irene Larrazabal, a daughter of Potenciano Larrazabal, who was appointed guerrilla mayor after the war in 1945. Hirayama's fate and whereabouts are still unknown; there were rumours that he committed suicide during the US Army's Leyte Campaign in 1944.

63 CIC Report, the 483rd CIC Detachment on 5 Mar. 1945, PCP Jose Gaquit.

64 Colorum was a mass millennial movement in the 1920s–‘30s, parts of which were said to be associated with Sakdal. Its roots may be traced to a religious group led by Apolinario de la Cruz at the turn of 19th century. On Colorum and anticolonialism, see Reyaldo Ileto, Pasyon and revolution: Popular movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910 (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1979), pp. 161–207. Also see Wada, Sakdalistas’ struggle for Philippine Independence 1930–45, pp. 145–6.

65 Confidential Weekly CIC Report, 10 January 1945, CIDT-224-2.1, Weekly CIC Report, 224th CIC Detachment, RG407, Entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

66 On the violence in Alang-Alang and Dagami, see Elmer Lear, ‘Post-war crime in Leyte’, Leyte-Samar Studies 15 (1981): 193–202. Also see Secret CIC Activities, Leyte Samar Operation (20 Oct. 1944–25 Dec. 1944), p. 3. 901-CIC0.3: The 1st Cavalry Division, the 801st CIC Detachment, RG407 (microfilm); also available in the National Diet Library, Tokyo, call no. WOR40899. Additional information from interviews with residents of Barrio Sonlogon, Tabango, Leyte, 30 Aug. 2006.

67 Nakajima Ken-nosuke兵士の戦記 レイテ島生と死の彷徨 (Heishi no Senki Reite-to to Shi No Kobo) [War record of the soldiers: Wandering in Leyte Island] (Tokyo: Bisayakai Izoku Yushi no Kai, 1986), p. 68.

68 Weekly CIC Report, 28 Dec. 1944, CODT-224-2.1, the 224th CIC Detachment, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

69 Interview with ‘Manang Kikay’, an elderly resident of Balite, Villaba, Leyte, 2 June 1995.

70 Weekly CIC Report, 28 Dec. 1944 in CODT-224-2.1, Weekly CIC Report, the 224th CIC Detachment, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

71 Elmer N. Lear, ‘The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, 1941–45’, Data Paper no. 42, Southeast Asia Program, Department of Far Eastern Studies (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1961), p. 228.

72 Miranda, Report on the WLGWF.

73 Ibid.

74 Interview with Esperidion Espejo, 92, former WLGWF guerrilla, Cogon, Ormoc, 15 Mar. 2015.

75 Weekly Report, 24 Dec. to 30 Dec. 1944 to Commanding Officer, 224th CIC Detachment, 7th CIC Detachment, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

76 Lt. Col. Cartwright to Commanding General, the 8th US Army, 21 May 1945, file no. 17-14, WLGWF, RG407, Philippine Archive Collections, WLGWF files, folder 4, box 288, NARA2.

77 CIC Memorandum for the A.C. of S., G-2, XXIV Corps, Civilian internees, 31 Oct. 1944, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

78 CIC Memorandum for the A.C. of S., G-2, XXIV Corps, Filipino blacklist, 31 Oct. 1944, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

79 USFIP Headquarters, 95th Infantry, 92nd Division, LAC, Consolidated list of enemy spies and collaborators, 31 Oct. 1944, RG407, entry 427, box 14829, NARA2.

80 福知山連隊史(Fukuchiyama Rentai Shi ) [The history of the Fukuchiyama Infantry Regiment] (Kyoto: Fukuchiyama Rentai Shi Kanko Kai, 1975), p. 210.

81 I conducted these interviews in these towns in June 1995 when NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) was making a documentary on the Japanese invasion of Leyte in 1995.

82 ‘Resolution passed by the civilian head leaders and the teniente del barrio of Abuyog, Leyte, during their joint conference held on 13 November 1944’, Poblacion, PCP Ricardo Collantes.

83 ‘Memorandum of the accused’, PCP Ricardo Collantes.

84 ‘Coercion of internee's family’, the 492nd CIC Detachment, United States Army Forces in the Far East, 28 Apr. 1945, PCP Ricardo Collantes.

85 Memorandum for The Honorable Solicitor General through Special Prosecutor Filemon Saavedra, Office of Special Prosecutor, Tacloban, Leyte, 6 Mar. 1946, PCP Ricardo Collantes.

86 Mentioned in the ‘Resolution passed by the civilian head leaders’ , PCP Ricardo Collantes.

87 Gobenciong was sentenced to ‘reclucion perpetua’ (life imprisonment) in Manila on 3 Oct. 1947 while Bartiquin was sentenced to death in Cebu on the same date. See PCP Gemerciendo Gobenciong and Ceferino Bartiquin. Baloran's sentence was mentioned in the Decision on Bartiquin on which this narration relies. Baloran's file in the People's Court is still missing.

88 Interview with Lt Federico Buron, 60, chief of Philippine National Police, Ormoc City, Leyte, 2 June 1995.

89 Interview with Esperidion Espejo.

90 McCoy, ‘Politics by other means’; John T. Sidel, Capital, coercion, and crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999).

91 Karl Hapal and Stefen Jensen, ‘The morality of corruption: A view from the police in Philippines’, in Corruption and torture: Violent exchange and the policing of the urban poor, ed. Stefen Jensen and Morten Koch Andersen (Aalborg: Aalborg University Press, 2017), pp. 39–68. See the documentary, The Nightcrawlers: Truth hides in darkness, National Geographic Channel, 2018.

92 Brian Fegan, ‘Entrepreneurs in votes and violence: Three generations of a peasant political family’, in Anarchy of families: State and family in the Philippines, ed. Alfred McCoy (Madison: University of Wisconsin, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 33–107.

93 Lear, The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, Leyte, pp. 238–41.

94 Other paramilitary groups such as the Standing Army, the Komeihei or the Tokumutai were organised in Negros, Cebu and Panay, respectively. See Satoshi Ara, ‘Nihon Senryoka No Senji Boryoku to Sengo no Tai-nichi Kyoryoku Saiban wo Meguru Fubyodo na Dan-zai: Firipin Negros to no Rei’ [Wartime violence in rural Philippine society and disparity in convictions for collaboration cases: With special reference to cases in Negros Occidental, Philippines], Ajia Keizai 62, 3 (2021): 32–62.