In China, Manchuria, Malaya, and elsewhere, the Japanese army had summarily wiped out entire communities suspected of aiding guerilla or enemy forces, a practice known as Genju Shobun (“Harsh Disposal”) or Genchi Shobun (“Local Disposal”). For more than three years, Japanese forces in the Philippines had given proof of their capacity for wanton violence and sadism directed against innocents. But the stinging humiliation of defeat, combined with signs of jubilation among ordinary Filipinos, incited an unprecedented series of savage reprisals.
