“It was as if the Philippines had become one vast military prison,” one writer remembered. A diarist described Manila in the second month of Japanese rule: “Every day on my way to the office, I run across dozens of Filipinos who have been tied to posts as punishment for some trivial offense which they have committed. Usually the victims are black and blue or bleeding from the terrific lashings they have received.” Public beheadings, carried out on the spot and without a trial, were not uncommon.
