Heroism of Scouts recalled

CLARK FREEPORT—Sergeant Dominador Figuracion, 92, begged off from talking about the Fall of Bataan to the Japanese Imperial Army on April 9, 1942, and how he and some 70,000 Filipino and American soldiers had been forced to march to a concentration camp in Tarlac.

Around 7,000 to 10,000 soldiers perished during the Death March. About 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino prisoners of war at Camp O’Donnell in Tarlac died of dengue, malaria, dysentery or starvation when this was closed in January 1943, according to historical accounts.

Instead, in a room filled with war veterans on Saturday, Figuracion, garbed in his military uniform, declared: “The Philippine Scouts (PS) is not a Boy Scouts organization.”

This mistake, he said, diminishes or erases the role the PS made in defending freedom during World War II.

Historian Chris Schaefer wrote: “In 1901, the United States Army organized the Philippine Scouts to combat insurgents and bandit groups in the islands, and when the insurgency was over the Scouts became the US Army’s front line troops in the Pacific.”

Schaefer said the PS bore the brunt of the Japanese attack on the Philippines at the outset of World War II. “Survivors of the Battle of Bataan, to a man, describe the Philippine Scouts as the backbone of the American defense there,” he said.

Figuracion came all the way from his Lakewood City home in Washington to set the record straight—a matter that he said meant a lot to him, his few surviving comrades, fallen soldiers and their relatives.

The event marked the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society’s (PSHS) 28th annual reunion, the first to be held in the Philippines.

On Saturday in this free port, the reunion was hosted by PSHS’s Fort MacKinley chapter that was cofounded by Philip Garcia and led by Jojo Dy.

Surviving members have dwindled to between 60 and 70, said Jose Calugas Jr., PSHS president.

MacArthur’s elite troops

Rhode Island Senator John Patterson and PS officers founded the PSHS in 1989 to preserve the history and legacy of what they call outstanding soldiers.

“Not too many people know about the PS. Some thought them to be Boy Scouts. They were the elite soldiers of (US General Douglas) MacArthur. They were American-trained, disciplined, good marksmen,” Calugas said.

As in the United States, there has also been a lack of recognition for the PS in their native country.

“The museum of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] has not mentioned the PS,” said Donald Plata, who documented the exploits of PS in the film, “Forgotten Soldiers.”

This was because the AFP might have “considered them Americans,” Plata said.

Schaefer, in a report on the PSHS website, provided the context:

“After the surrender of Japan in August 1945, the US made good on its previous commitments and granted the Philippines full independence on July 4, 1946. At that point the Philippine Scouts held a unique status in US military history: They were soldiers in the regular US Army, combat veterans at that, but now they were citizens of a foreign country. To solve the dilemma, the United States offered the Philippine Scouts full US citizenship.”

Not a citizenship issue

Schaefer said most of the surviving Scouts accepted the offer and the US Army transferred them to other units to finish their military careers. He said in 1946, President Harry Truman disbanded the unit.

Citizenship should not be an issue, said Figuracion whose father, Juan, signed up in the early batches of the PS.

“I followed my father’s footstep. We were then under the US. You have to get involved. The Japanese were invading the Philippines,” he said. “I took my US citizenship on Nov. 10, 1946, because the Philippines was in ruins, the socialists and communists were harassing us in Pampanga and the US was where the jobs were.” He joined Boeing.

“I love this country. Every year I come here,” Figuracion said.

“The truth is, we did suffer much. I should never forget. We tried our very best. We are brothers. This togetherness and solidarity [between Filipino and American soldiers] should be passed on to the next generations,” he said.

The PS is credited with delaying the advance of Japanese troops to the last stronghold of the Allied Forces in the Pacific.

Distinguished record

The 26th Cavalry Regiment, to which Figuracion belonged, had a distinguished record. Backed artillery, it attacked the Japanese during initial landings at Lingayen Gulf, said retired Colonel John Olson, PSHS historian emeritus, in an account posted on its website.

In the withdrawal to Bataan, the regiment served as rear guard, becoming the last to reach the peninsula with only 200 of 600 troops alive, Figuracion said.

Members of the regiment, he said, were the last to charge the enemy on horseback, sending the Japanese fleeing the defense line in Abucay, Bataan.
Half of the PS units were killed in Bataan. Some escaped the O’Donnell and Cabanatuan camps and led guerrilla forces. They later rejoined the PS to liberate Manila.

Capt. Felipe Fernandez, 96, attended the reunion but refused to talk about the war “because some wounds have not healed.” He talked about Fort Stotsenburg (Clark Air Base) as a pasture for horses.

He was on the verge of tears when he recounted that for lack of food during the Japanese onslaught, the PS butchered their horses, including his own, Mike.
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By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer Central Luzon

A Philippine Scout's Diary: Revenge Bataan Unit

The Year was 1945.

I was part of the contingent of Philippine Scouts that greeted the first Americans at Lingayen, Pangasinan. We were briefed the night before by our commanding officer to accompany the GIs on their way to Manila to liberate the more than 3,000 prisoners of war interred at the University of Santo Tomas Campus.

So off we went with the 2nd squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division under the command of a certain Lt. Col. Haskett Connor, with tanks, jeeps, weapons carriers, command cars, trucks and engineering and service outfit with one task in mind -- to liberate UST from the enemy.


February 2 -

We encountered a stiff resistance from a hard-fighting unit of the Japanese Imperial Army in the highways off Bigaa, about 18 miles from Manila, but their weapons were no match for our mounted light and heavy machine guns as well as 20 mm & 40 mm mortars. We annihilated them in no time and squeezed into the blown up bridges and pockmarked dirt roads with minimal casualties.

February 3-

We were able to move from Bigaa at noon to Sta. Maria just before midnight with sporadic clashes with the rag-tag enemies. At dawn we could hear the bell tolls from nearby churches and chapels, a signal that the town was liberated of the last bands of Japanese resistance.

The “Japs” fought to the last man. There were no prisoners taken.

Then at 10:00 A.M., on our way out of Sta. Maria, Col. Connor received a report that our Recon team was ambushed and wiped out. We positioned our artillery and shelled the Japanese position. After about an hour or two, a lull in the fighting was declared and we passed by the burning Japanese tanks and the dead bodies littered on the ground. But there were lots of skirmishes and pocket resistance from the “Japs” that slowed down our advance.

A staff meeting was immediately called and Col. Connor was now growing impatient because our objective was to be in Manila before dark. He told us that we should annihilate the last enemy at all costs and be in Manila by twenty hours.

It was raining hard when we finally arrived at Novaliches about eight miles from Manila. The dirt road turned into a soggy slippery mess, bogging down our advance, when all hell broke loose. The Japanese resistance was heavy. From the two-story house on the other end, we could see the smoke and the heavy volume of fire, and hear the familiar staccatos of the Japs’ Machine guns and 75s.

But the 'Revenge Bataan Unit' would not be denied, and after another hour of fierce fighting, the last resistance in Novaliches was finally silenced what with the two-story house that served as the maching gun nest leveled to the ground from the constant bombarding from our tanks and 105-howitzers.

We proceeded without any resistance until we reached the Chinese Cemetery, when a young boy warned us that there were a handful of Japanese soldiers inside, but after consultation with his officers and Filipino volunteers, Col. Connor decided to bypass them and proceed to our main objective.

We passed by Grace Park Airfield with its hangars burning briskly from constant US bombardments, and then we swung into the area of Rizal Avenue until we finally reached the walls of UST. We could see that fires were burning over much of the city.

The half of the University of Santo Tomas front gate was open and the inside was black. We shouted in the dark and got no answer. Then two tanks rumbled into the front gate with their powerful lights turned on. We cut a hole in the fence and crawled in, but saw nothing.

Then, near the guard house at the gate entrance, a Jap with his Arisaka rifle jumped out from nowhere and fired point blank at us. The flash from the gun momentarily blinded me. When I regained my sight, the Jap was gone and my two companions lay dead, but I was miraculously unharmed.

Then a battle basic medium tank rammed and broke into the concrete fence as if it were corrugated cardboard. We made our way inside the Campus with bullets whizzing in between and above our heads from the enemies holed up inside.

Then somebody shouted "Grenade!" and we all scampered and dropped to the ground, but it was nothing but a knee-jerk reaction from an overly anxious soldier that made some of us laugh albeit nervously.

Then an excited voice coming from the main building was heard, "You Americans?

"Yes"

Followed by a chorus of-

"Thank God you're here."

"Oh how long we’ve waited."

"God Bless America!"

Suddenly, there was firing from the Education Building, just to the right of the Main Building. We were told that about 65 “Japs” with 201 American interns were holed inside. The “Japs” were on the second floor, the Americans on the third. The troops attempted to break in, but the enemy had an overwhelming advantage -- besides, the Education Building was composed of steel-reinforced concrete.

February 4-

There were short and sporadic exchanges of fire between our men surrounding the building under Col. Connor and the Japs inside, and we suffered light casualties as the day wore on. The next day negotiations went on and it was agreed upon to give the Japanese forces safe conduct passes which was accepted by some of the men grudgingly. The Officers told their men to keep their fingers off the trigger and honor the terms of the agreement.

We hastily formed a unit to escort the remnants of the Japanese Army out of UST with Col. Connor himself leading it. Slowly but surely, the Japanese soldiers emerged and staggered from the building and marched in formation with their weapons, until we arrived at Legarda and Aviles Sts.

Col. Connor then told a certain Col. Hayashi, the Commander of the Japanese Army,

"This is as far as we go. This is the front line. You are on your own."

They then saluted each other as the Japanese Army marched up north to live and fight another day, but we couldn’t care less, for what was important at that point in time were the lives of the Prisoners of War that we liberated.
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(As told to the author, Bill Mitsuru T. Shimizu, by Mang Berting, an indigent patient and a frail old man in his 80’s during a Medical Mission in Bagong Nayon, Antipolo, Rizal in 1996)