Requiem Mass for ‘Battle of Manila’ victims

MANILA, Feb. 4, 2012— A Requiem Mass will be held for the thousands of Filipino civilians who died during the “Battle of Manila” in the early 1945.

To be led by Bishop Leopoldo Tumulak of the Military Ordinariate of the Philippines, the service will be held at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros at 10 a.m. on February 13.

Organized by the Prayer for Warriors of the Holy Souls, a lay Catholic group, the event seeks to pay tribute to the victims of the month long confrontation in Manila between Japanese and American forces.

“We want to remember those people who have died and forgotten somehow, so they would know that there are still people who remember them,” said Carlos Oda, the group’s deputy executive director.

Also known as the “Liberation of Manila”, it was fought side-by-side by Filipinos and Americans against the Japanese forces and ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the country.

After the battle an estimated 100,000 Filipinos had died in the city as well, likely one of the highest civilian casualties in urban combat of any World War II battle, second only to Russia’s Stalingrad City. [Ronalyn R. Regino/CBCPNews]