Homily delivered by Fr. Marcelo Manimtim, C.M., Provincial Superior, Philippine Province, during the mass offered in memory of the 10 Spanish Vincentians (6 priests and 4 Brothers) who were killed by the Japanese on Feb. 9, 1945 during the liberation of Manila and 9 others who died in other parts of the Philippines.What we are celebrating this afternoon is part of a memorial of those fateful 29 days fifty years ago, from February 3 to March 3, 1945. Some people call it the liberation of Manila. Others, like Alfonso Aluit, in his book By Sword and Fire, call it, rather, the destruction of Manila.  Manila was one of the worst destroyed cities in the Second World War, second only to Warsaw in Poland. The question that many historians are still asking is: Why was Manila subjected to wanton destruction both in terms of material property and human life?

Manila was destroyed and lives were lost when the Japanese defended the city against the advancing American forces. But Manila was not supposed to be defended. After the battle of Leyte was lost, General Yamashita intended to engage the Americans in continued battle to prevent them from proceeding to Japan. The battle plan was to engage the American troops inthe mountainous areas of Luzon: Baguio and the mountain provinces in the north, the mountains east of Clark Field in Pampanga, and the Sierra Madre ranges east of Manila. Manila was ordered by Yamashita to be deserted. In his own deposition at the trial after the war, Yamashita declared:

I decided to put Manila outside the battle area. I ordered my troops out of Manila. I decided to abandon it without battle. There were three reasons for this decision. First, the population of Manila was over one
million, therefore it is impossible to feed them. The second reason is that the buildings were very inflammable. The third reason is that it is flat, it requires tremendous strength to defend it.

Yamashita’s orders were not followed. When the Americans came, Manila should have been declared an Open City and thus freed it from bombardment. But the declaration was not made because Manila was still heavily fortified and military supplies could not be moved out. So the Americans resorted to systematic destruction of the city. Was the destruction of Manila by bomb and shell the only way to rid the city of the Japanese? What was the primary consideration of the American operations in the “liberation” of Manila? For all MacArthur’s fixation on the liberation of the Philippines, the primary consideration in all military action was still and always the conservation of precious American life. What value did the Americans place on a victory that destroyed 100,000 non-combatants? This toll was higher than that taken by the atom-bombing of Hiroshima in August of the same year which included 78,150 dead and 37,426 wounded.

This celebration is centered on the Spanish Vincentians who died in the war. Two died violently in the provinces during the Japanese occupation:

? Fr. Alfonso Salda�a at the beginning of the Japanese occupation
in 1942 in Cebu
? Fr. Aniano Gonzalez, at the end of the Japanese occupation in
1944 in Baguio.

Most of the others met their deaths in Manila during the destruction of the city in 1945. The death of the Vincentians is part of that human tragedy which we call war, which spares no one.

For a while the Japanese observed the niceties of international law where neutral nationals were concerned. Yet, in the throes of fury and despair that collectively afflicted those men facing inevitable defeat, these niceties were dropped. Thus the massacres of nationals of neutral countries including the religious.

The American troops entered Manila on February 3, 1945 and concentrated their efforts in saving American lives quartered in University of St. Tomas area. They left the Japanese free to go on rampage in the southern
part of the city, which included the Paco and Ermita area.

On the evening of that same day, the Vincentians were arrested in their own house, the present SV building of Adamson University, and confined to their limited quarters in the ground floor. With the priests and the
Brothers were also an old cook, a first year minor seminarian, two small altar boys of the San Vicente de Paul Church, and three houseboys. In the nearby area (probably in the spot where the present Hall of Justice
is rising) were some Chinese who had been renting a lot from the Vincentians for their garden and poultry.

The Vincentians and companions were held incommunicado for six days. On the evening of February 9, with very intense shelling around the area, the Japanese ordered the Vincentians and the Chinese to take supper
early. Around 11 in the evening, the soldiers came, tied up the occupants of the house, lined them up at the bank of the nearby estero (estuary), where we now have the little theater. Then they were either machine-gunned or bayoneted mercilessly by the soldiers, first the Vincentians, then the others. One of the Chinese, Ching Co by name, was wounded in the neck but not mortally. He was thrown in together with the other bodies in the muddy estero. He succeeded to crawl away from the estero, found his way to their shelter in the garden and took refuge elsewhere. It was he who told this incident to two witnesses who in their turn narrated it to Fr. Manuel Gracia on March 26 of that same year.

Those massacred were six Vincentian priests: Jose Tejada, the Provincial Superior, Luis Ejeda, Adolfo Soto, Julio Ruiz, Jose Fernandez, Jose Aguirreche, four Brothers: Antolin Marcos, Gregorio Indurain, Valentin Santidrian and Alejo Garcia, the minor seminarian Ramon Santos and one of the altar boys.

Another member of the San Marcelino community was Fr. Elias Gonzalez, chaplain of the ICM Sisters of St. Theresa’s College who together with the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres, took refuge in the grounds of the
Assumption College. On February 11 he was separated by the Japanese soldiers from among the 250 prisoners, composed of Sisters, men, women and children, and was never seen alive again. Much later, the Sisters of St. Paul narrated what they believed to have been the cause of the killing. A group of Japanese soldiers had wanted to violate some of the Sisters but did not succeed. When the Sisters told Fr. Gonzalez about it, the Father, who knew the Japanese language, came out and scolded the soldiers. This was tantamount to signing his death sentence.

After the massacre of the civilians, the Japanese soldiers remained in San Marcelino building. When the Americans were almost at the gate, the Japanese set fire to the interior of the church and convent. In the
church, all images and benches went up in flames. The crypt with its niches that kept the remains of many Vincentians, was desecrated and converted into a kitchen.

On February 24, the Americans drove away the Japanese and seized the
house of San Marcelino. The Japanese in small pockets continued the
futile fight against the pursuing Americans. An American infantryman
caught a Japanese on the run with a bullet and chased his quarry when he
saw him fall. The Japanese had fallen into the estero and the American
soldier was horror-struck when he saw not only the body of the Japanese
stuck in the murky waters but a whole army of dead bodies. Those bodies,
in a state of advanced decomposition but still recognizable were of the
victims of February 9. They were retrieved from the estero and buried in
a common grave on March 6. They were later transferred to the crypt of
the church.

The gospel that we have just heard talks of time of trial and
persecution. In times like these, treachery occurs even among family
members. In a sense the Vincentians of San Marcelino felt like a stab of
treachery on the part of the Japanese. Why?

Two years earlier, from March to December of 1942, Bishop Taguchi of
Osaka resided as guest of honor of the Vincentians. He was the chief
liaison officer for the mutual intelligence of the Philippine Church
authorities with the Japanese Imperial Army. In the first year of
Japanese occupation, the San Vicente de Paul church was used as the venue
where the petition to the Vatican was made for the beatification of
Japanese Catholic Justo Takayama Ukon. Ukon was a native of Nagasaki,
expelled from his city because of his conversion to Catholicism, resided
and died in Manila in the 17th century. During the celebration, photos
and movies were taken, showing the church of San Vicente de Paul. Some
of these movies were used in the Japanese Propaganda in the provinces and
in Japan itself.

The Vincentians actually thought they would not be hurt. Two thirds of
the SV building was occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese troops were
separated from the Vincentians only by partition walls. When the
Provincial, Fr. Jose Tejada, advised the confreres to seek refuge
somewhere else in the thick of the war, many of them stayed. The priests
took it their duty to stay with the parishioners of San Marcelino. We saw
that none of these good relations were of any help in the final hours of
the disaster.

The first reading, taken from the second letter of Paul to the
Corinthians, expresses the Christian stand and attitude in the face of
suffering, persecution and death. It says in part, “Trials of every sort
come to us, but we are not discouraged, �we are persecuted but not
abandoned, knocked down but not crushed.”

The Philippine Vincentians paid heavy casualties during the war. We lost
22 members: 13 priests and 5 Brothers perished in violent death; 4 other
confreres died from natural causes, i.e., exhaustion and fatigue. Today
we are celebrating a memorial to them as martyrs, because in the words of
Paul, “they carried in their person the death of Jesus, so that the life
of Jesus may also be manifested in them.” Most of those who died arrived
in the Philippines in the first and second decade of the last century,
and dedicated themselves to the principal work of the Vincentians in the
Philippines, the training of the local clergy. Among the victims were
those who had worked in the seminaries of Cebu, Jaro, Naga, Calbayog, San
Pablo, Lipa, and the San Carlos Seminary of Manila, then based in
Mandaluyong.

We do this celebration in faith, confident that in the Spanish
Vincentians and companions who died in the war the paschal mystery of
Christ’s death and resurrection results in a more abundant life for the
Philippine Province. From the almost exclusive seminary work before the
war, the Philippine Vincentians now find themselves in parishes, foreign
and local missions, social upliftment and education. Those Vincentians
could have said the words of Paul, “as death is at work in us, life comes
to you.”

We invite you to share in this celebration of gratitude, because we know
that in us the words of St. Paul have certainly become true: “everything
is for your good, so that grace will come more abundantly upon you and
great will be the thanksgiving for the glory of God.”