Thelma Magturo was barely a year old when Japan attacked the Commonwealth of the Philipines in December, 1941. The United States had been transitioning the Philippine Islands to independence in a process drawn out over the preceding decades. In 1936 the U.S. had provided some funds to establish the Philippine Army. Facing growing concerns about Japan’s invasion of China and alignment with the Axis Powers, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued orders calling the Philippine troops into service for the United States in July of 1941.
By most accounts, the Philippine Army had been ill-equipped and poorly trained. Many of the troops did not speak the same languages. They were given old rifles, flimsy shoes, and insufficient quantities of helmets, gas masks, blankets, and other tools. Despite all this, Roosevelt asked the Filipinos to stand with the U.S. and fight alongside U.S. troops under Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Roosevelt restated the United States’ commitment to full independence for the Commonwealth.
In January of 1942, the Japanese army occupied Manila. Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur to withdraw in February. Filipino locals continued to resist the Japanese occupation. More than a million were killed. The U.S. would return in 1944 to fight until Japan’s surrender in August of 1945.
Thelma Magturo’s father, Major Dr. Jose Daluz Estrella, was one of the Filipino veterans of the war.
Philippine resistance movement propaganda, printed by the U.S. government
