US marks 80th year of war’s end in Baguio
BAGUIO CITY—The 80th anniversary of the surrender of Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, which led to the end of World War II in the Pacific, was memorialized by the United States in this city on Wednesday.
US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson has been preparing for the ceremony since 2024. Last year, she showed off the room where Yamashita stayed before he signed his surrender papers on Sept. 3, 1945, at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Camp John Hay. Yamashita was cornered by Filipino guerrillas and Allied Forces in Kiangan, Ifugao.
Baguio played a historic role, Carlson said, because the war started and ended in this city.
A December 1941 sneak attack by Japanese fighters over Camp John Hay officially drew the Pacific into the war, hours after Japan bombarded Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, prompting the United States to join the conflict against Germany, Japan and Italy.
Japan invaded and occupied the Philippines for four years, encountering strong resistance from Filipino guerrillas and the returning Allied Forces, until Yamashita was forced to retreat to Baguio and the Cordilleras, where he was captured. Yamashita’s formal surrender in Baguio “became the fitting stage for this symbolic triumph—the cessation of conflict on Philippine soil,” Carlson said.
Asked about a similar celebration staged by China, she said attention should be focused on Yamashita’s surrender, which was a victory for the Allied Forces “and a demonstration of the indomitable spirit of the Filipino people who [fought] the Japanese invasion.”
Real celebrations
“When you think of democracy, when you think of the freedoms we enjoy today, we think of the Philippines and we think of the United States,” the ambassador said. When pressed, Carlson added: “I think the implications are that the [real] celebrations are right here [in Baguio].”
“The surrender of General Yamashita, known as the ‘Tiger of Malaya,’ 80 years ago today was far more than a military formality. It was a beacon of justice, a triumph of freedom, and a powerful symbol of hope,” Carlson said in the speech she delivered at the ceremony, which began with the ringing of bells not just at Camp John Hay but throughout the city.
On Tuesday, Ifugao’s Kiangan community also staged its own 80th memorial, which was attended by Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr.
Some scholars argue that Yamashita’s capture there should have been credited as the day that the war ended, but Brawner, who joined the US Embassy event, said he spoke about the future 80 years after the war, when former enemies like Japan have become the Philippines’ friends.
“Following the tragic atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese expressed their desire to surrender on Aug. 15, 1945, and this was formalized internationally [also] on Sept. 2, 1945. This caused much rejoicing, and the Japanese forces were pardoned and allowed to return to their families,” said Regalado Trota Jose Jr., scholar and chair of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
‘Learning from truth’
Moving forward does not mean “forgetting, but searching for the truth and learning from it,” he said, stressing that it is this generation’s duty to make sure the stories of the people who fought and survived the war “are remembered.” Jose said that “Victory Day,” which is how Yamashita’s surrender is now called, should “inspire us to stand up to injustice in all its forms and to work for a better place for future generations to live in.”
Four of the war’s surviving fighters, who are close to or now 100 years old, were honored with plaques by Carlson: Ernesto Carreon Luis Jr., who attended the program in a wheelchair; and Sixta Quiñones Fabila, Florence Rimando Marasigan, and Angelo Viloria Andrada, who were represented by family members.
Earlier, Baguio officials and the children of war veterans offered wreaths for the Filipinos who joined the resistance at the Veterans Park here, which is home to a wall of heroes where the names of the fallen and members of the so-called Mighty 66, the legendary Igorot regiment of the 66th Infantry, are etched.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong used the ceremony as another platform in advocating for his war on corruption.
“If we give up [the fight against widespread graft], we would make the sacrifices of our heroes insignificant, we would have given up on the future of our children and grandchildren, and we would have given up on the survival of our nation,” he said. Magalong was a co-organizer of the memorial at Camp John Hay.
