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Friday, March 13, 2020

Zambo relives wartime history

ZAMBOANGA RELIVED its wartime history and re-enacted the city’s liberation by the American forces from Japanese occupation 75 years ago.




Filipino and American soldiers re-enact the “Liberation of Zamboanga City” in Upper Calarian. (Bong Serondo)

Mayor Beng Climaco led the anniversary celebration which was attended by National Historical Commission of the Philippines Executive Director Carmina Arevalo and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office Administrator Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, and Western Mindanao Command chief, General Cirilito Sobejana and other officials.



The re-enactment of the Liberation of Zamboanga held recently in Upper Calarian was participated by Filipino and American soldiers.

When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in 1942, Zamboanga acting Governor Felipe Azcuna moved the capital from Zamboanga City to Dipolog. After the defeat of the American-Filipino forces in Corregidor, most of the province went under Japanese control. 

The establishment of the general headquarters, garrisons and concentration camps of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces was stationed in Zamboanga.

During the battle for the Liberation of Zamboanga from January 1944 to 1945, the combined U.S. and Philippine Commonwealth military forces, including the local Zamboangueño guerrilla resistance fought against the Imperial Japanese military forces in Zamboanga.

Local Filipino ground troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army 6th, 10th, 101st, 102nd and 105th Infantry Divisions, and the Philippine Constabulary 10th Infantry Regiment began sending local combat military operations and recaptured and liberated the province of Zamboanga, and then aided the Zamboangueño Christian and Muslim resistance groups that attacked the Imperial Japanese military forces for fifteen months. 

U.S. liberation forces under Major General Jens A. Doe of the U.S. Army's 41st Infantry Division landed in Zamboanga in March 1945 and mounted military combat operations, aided by local troops, military officers and tank commanders, for 3 months and defeated the Japanese Imperial ground forces.

American forces also seized an airfield in Dipolog giving an opportunity for the liberation of the whole province. American troops were aided and helped by the local Philippine Commonwealth military forces and the Zamboangueño guerrilla resistance groups in Zamboanga province against the Japanese soldiers.

By the end of the month, the province of Zamboanga and Zamboanga City were officially liberated and returned the provincial government from Dipolog to Zamboanga City. After the war, on June 16, 1948, Molave was designated as Zamboanga's capital by the virtue of Republic Act No. 286 signed by President Elpidio Quirino. (Zamboanga Post)


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