Japanese forces took the Philippine islands between December 1941 and May 1942. After US naval victory in the Battle of Midway (June 1942), Allied forces slowly gained naval and air supremacy in the Pacific war. In October 1944, US forces began the liberation of the Philippines. The campaign on Luzon, largest and most northern of the islands, began in December 1944. This battle footage shows many Japanese soldiers being taken as prisoners of war.
On Luzon in the Philippines as throughout the Pacific, a mighty dragnet tightens on the enemy. Except for a few last holdouts, the Japanese have now been driven completely from the Philippines. Those who still resist are destroyed, adding to the 450,000 Japanese killed in these islands.
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