Analysis Of Three Years Of Enemy Occupation By Claro M. Recto

The United States fought war against the Japanese throughout the Southeast Asia area. One of the main countries that was fought between the two was the Philippines. Even though the fight was between the United States and the Japanese, the Filipinos played a major role in the outcome of the fight. On March 11, 1942, MacArthur first departed from the Philippines as a way to flee the Japanese; He did not return until October 20, 1944. For 953 days, the Filipinos had to continue their fight against the Japanese without the “unstoppable” Douglass MacArthur. Their story is the one that needs to be told. It just so happens, that their story is also incredible interesting. The Gorillas in Luzon were responsible for devastating the Japanese military
Recto covers a whole range of information that is relevant for this research. However, its value is in its information that it provides about the guerrilla groups, how they were formed, and the roll that the youth played in fighting the Japanese. In order to give the reader an idea of what the guerrillas were up against and why they were so determined to fight against the Japanese, I will be referencing Captain Vicente M. Agdamag who wrote, 150 Days of Hell Japanese Invasion of the Philippines 8 Dec 1941-May 1942. His real accounts of his time in the area of study during the Japanese occupation gives a very clear picture as to the horror that was going on and why they people chose to fight against the Japanese. Being a Filipino commander it makes his work even more relevant than the work would be had it been from an American who was there during that time. Because Agdamag does such a great job describing what went on during that time he also gave great accounts of the military movements, this includes both the movements of McArthur (when he was still in the Philippines) as well as the guerrillas. This military information will prove to be vital to constructing this research paper. The final key to my research is a documentary that was created entitled, Bloody War with the Japanese Invaders - The Philippines Hell. This documentary gives a great account over everything that was going on in the area well after
Any questions regarding the decision of McArthur, more specifically, his decision to leave the Philippines is not in the realm in which this paper will be researched. Studying McArthur and his decisions is a massive rabbit hole that would easily steer me away from what I need to be researching. Thus all questions regarding the General will be selected with extreme caution. However, there will be one main question that I will answer through this paper. This is a question that is what makes this research worth studying in the first place. Could the Americans have successfully have taken back the Philippines from the Japanese without the help of the Filipino guerrillas or the Commonwealth of the Philippines? My research will make it clear to all who read it that, without the efforts of the Commonwealth in the favor of the Americans, retaking the Philippines would have been next to impossible. It became possible for the Americans to return not only through the actions of the Commonwealth but also for the simple reason that these rebels needed to pick a side. So, if they did not pick the side of the Americans they would have been siding with the Japanese creating an even bigger opposition for McArthur and even possibly creating a country that would not be worth America trying to