Jasmine Curtis-Smith in the first episode of “Massacre of Manila: Untold Stories of the Battle of Manila 1945″. Image: screengrab from Facebook/@memoraremanila1945
The docu-series telling stories from survivors of the bloody “Battle of Manila” is now out. These tales of pain and suffering are being brought to life by top celebrities from both cinema and theater.
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the “Battle of Manila,” where around 100,000 Filipinos perished at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army, Memorare Manila 1945 and the Philippine World War II Memorial Foundation came up with the series released today, March 3, on the same date that the “Battle of Manila” ended.
Titled “Massacre of Manila: Untold Stories of the Battle of Manila 1945”, the series is being narrated by Enchong Dee, Ian Veneracion, Agot Isidro, Angel Aquino, Iza Calzado, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Gabby Padilla, Leo Rialp and Richard Cepeda.
The first episode has already been posted earlier today on Memorare Manila 1945’s Facebook page. Titled “The Bayview Hotel Incident (PROLOGUE)”, the episode featured Curtis-Smith, Calzado and Padilla telling the testimonies of three sisters who were abused by Japanese troops.
“Listen to the stories of sisters, Priscilla, Evangeline and Esther Garcia, who were forcibly separated from their families on February 9, 1945,” the page stated.
“Past 10 p.m. that night, the siblings are brought to the Bayview Hotel along Dewey Boulevard (Roxas Blvd.) together with 40 other young women. The women would suffer unspeakable acts of brutality at the hands of their Japanese captors.”
The stories are testimonies of massacre survivors taken by investigators from the United States military starting June 1945, according to Memorare Manila 1945.
The harrowing events of the “Battle of Manila” saw the indiscriminate torture Manileños endured from Japanese troops, who bayoneted, bombed, shot, beheaded, raped or burned unarmed civilians, including children and infants. The battle ran from Feb. 3 to March 3, 1945.
In the wake of the war, Manila came out as the second-most devastated Allied city, next to Warsaw, Poland. The 28-day battle was also considered “the single most devastating instance of urban warfare in the Asia-Pacific theater of World War II,” according to Memorare Manila 1945. JB
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