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Manila. February 1945.<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/span>World War II at its agonizing climax brought forth 100,000 burned, bayoneted, bombed, shelled and killed in the span of 28 days.\u00a0Unborn babies were ripped from their mothers\u2019 wombs. Babies were thrown up in the air and caught, impaled on bayonet tips.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n With rape on the streets and everywhere else, the Bayview Hotel became Manila\u2019s rape center.\u00a0Victims’ nipples were sliced off, and bodies bayoneted open from the neck down. Right photo shows a young girl whose nipples were amputated by a Japanese soldier. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe devastation of Manila was one of the great tragedies of World War II. \u00a0 Seventy percent of the utilities, 72 percent of the factories, 80 percent of the southern residential district, and 100 percent of the business district were razed. Hospitals were set <\/span>on fire after patients had been strapped to their beds.\u00a0The corpses of males were mutilated, females of all ages were raped before they were slain, and babies\u2019 eyeballs gouged out and smeared on walls like jelly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pearl of the Orient turned into rubble<\/span><\/p>\n Manila was a melting pot of four cultures and the acknowledged Pearl of the Orient. It was turned completely to rubble and smoldering ash and ruins. <\/span><\/p>\n In dramatic foreshadowing, the Irish Columban priests at Malate Church got a taste of what was to come.\u00a0An unknown volunteer worker at the Remedios Hospital wrote that on Dec. 22, 1944, \u201cmost beloved\u201d Father Patrick Kelly and Father John Lalor, were taken away by enemy soldiers.<\/span><\/p>\n On Christmas, Dec. 25, 1944, the priests offered dinner for 200 poor folks.\u00a0 \u201cWe had to put up a brave front with smiles on our faces and lead in our heart.\u201d\u00a0The missing priests returned to Malate on Dec. 29 to great rejoicing, but they never talked about what strife they had undergone.<\/span><\/p>\n Hotel turned into hell<\/span><\/p>\n Wives and children were ordered to Bayview Hotel where the only water is out of toilet water tanks, and females are wantonly raped.\u00a0Amid screaming when the building begins to burn, the Cabarruses flee, stepping over bloodied bodies dead and dying.\u00a0They run to Judge Felix\u2019s house on Arquiza, where 150 refugees have taken cover.\u00a0His grandmother and baby sister lie on a bed, with the rest on the floor.\u00a0There was shelling, explosions and finally, a cannon shell, flames, screams and smoke.\u00a0Older sister Maria Ines and he wait in the garden, their mother dashes into the flames for her baby, emerging with the infant whose legs are severed, and head bloodied.\u00a0She soon expires.\u00a0An aunt\u2019s head has been blown off, while his grandmother burns to death.<\/span><\/p>\n Across the street from where the Century Park Hotel now stands on Vito Cruz, the Carlos Perez-Rubio home is set on fire.\u00a0 Escaping from their home, Carlos is instantly shot, and his son Javier, 23, bayoneted to death. <\/span><\/p>\n The matriarch, Milagros Alvarez de Perez-Rubio, and other members of the family and house help, together with refugees, are all killed wherever they hide. <\/span><\/p>\n Their son Miguel, 19, future presidential Protocol Officer, escapes the massacre because he is being held prisoner by the Japanese in Baguio. He says his sister Lupe, 17, who tried to escape, was killed, but may also have been raped.\u00a0 His brother, Carlos II, was beheaded at the Masonic Temple together with his fianc\u00e9e Helen McMicking and her family, some of whom were bayoneted.<\/span><\/p>\n La Salle Brothers Massacre<\/span><\/p>\n Still talked about until today are the brutal killings of 40 Christian Brothers and refugees at De La Salle College on Taft Avenue\u2014some shot and others bayoneted.\u00a0 Among the dead refugees are members of the Carlos, Aquino, Uychuico and Vasquez-Prada families. <\/span><\/p>\n Do\u00f1a Lorenza Bibby Baltazar is hit by a shrapnel as she runs out of her home on Taft Avenue.\u00a0The mother-in-law of Cinema King Ernesto Rufino is rushed by her children, to her doctor, who amputated her leg. She expired some hours later, but all her children can do before fleeing is to tie a handkerchief with her name on it around her other leg, to reclaim her body another day.<\/span><\/p>\n Refugees at the Remedios Hospital numbering over 400, as well as doctor Tony Lahorra and Father John Lalor, were all killed by friendly fire.<\/span><\/p>\n At San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Jose Maria Zabaleta Sr. reported that his father was killed by the Japanese, together with over a hundred Spaniards. They were marched from the church to be shot and bombarded with grenades. The next day, the Americans liberated the church and saved what was left of the Zabaleta family.<\/span><\/p>\n Both Japanese and Americans destroyed six of seven grand old churches in Intramuros.\u00a0Only San Augustin Church still stands today.<\/span><\/p>\n Prisoners at Fort Santiago were simply disposed of by burning them alive in their packed dungeons, after gasoline was poured over them.<\/span><\/p>\n As for the city itself, Enrique Zobel who later became head of Ayala Corporation harnessed his polo ponies to calesas<\/em> (four-passenger two-wheeled affairs), earning fares to support his mother. His father Jacobo fought with the US Army Forces with the Far East in Bataan. <\/span><\/p>\n Annually, during the month of February, a day is set aside to remember at the Memorare monument in Intramuros. Attendees are composed of members whose families were war victims. \u2014 Joan Orendain<\/a> (Philippine Daily Inquirer<\/a>) <\/strong>Read more: <\/strong><\/span>http:\/\/globalnation.inquirer.net\/99054\/february-1945-the-rape-of-manila#ixzz2tQcOVjTr<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manila. February 1945. World War II at its agonizing climax brought forth 100,000 burned, bayoneted, bombed, shelled and killed in the span of 28 days.\u00a0Unborn babies were ripped from their mothers\u2019 wombs. Babies were thrown up in the air and caught, impaled on bayonet tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}