Philippine Resistance Against Japan

Date: April 3, 1944 • Location: Tokyo, Japan

Philippine resistance against Japan: Cebuano fishermen discovered the Koga papers after a plane crash killed Admiral Mineichi Koga, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet.

During the Japanese occupation of the islands in World War II, there was an extensive Philippine resistance movement, which opposed the Japanese and their collaborators with active underground and guerrilla activity that increased over the years. Fighting the guerrillas – apart from the Japanese regular forces – were a Japanese-formed Bureau of Constabulary, the Kempeitai, and the Makapili. Postwar studies estimate that around 260,000 people contributed to the anti-Japanese underground resistance in one way or another. Such was their effectiveness that by the end of World War II, Japan controlled only twelve of the forty-eight provinces.