Holocaust victim

In WW2, did Japan face resistance from indigenous guerrilla fighters in the Pacific Islands, or did they control them with ease?

Most people think that taking control of the Pacific Islands must have been very easy for Japan, but the truth is quite the opposite.

In 1942, an American officer named Russell Volckmann looks through the thick brush of the Philippines.He sees a cloud of black smoke rising from a hamlet that had recently been set on fire by Japanese troops.

The Japanese army’s brutal treatment of the local people turned many of them against the Japanese. War crimes such as massacres, torture, and public executions only pushed more people toward the resistance.

Instead of breaking the spirit of the resistance, the atrocities committed by the Japanese only made it stronger. Defectors from the Japanese army soon joined the growing number of resistance groups made up of Filipinos. By 1943, more than 20,000 guerrilla fighters filled the mountains around the local areas, while the Japanese were forced to stay inside their heavily guarded cities

Guerrilla forces carried out sabotage and ambushed Japanese convoys, cutting off their supplies and using them against the enemy. Just before the Americans began liberating the islands in October 1944, native scouts worked tirelessly to gather intelligence for the resistance.

The scouts entered enemy camps, studied defensive positions, counted enemy ammunition supplies, and reported the information back to the main force.

The information gathered by these fearless scouts and passed on to the main American force waiting to liberate the islands was enough to cripple the enemy when the American attack began.

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