The Philippine Veterans Bank and the Philippine Daily Inquirer announced recently the start of the 2010 World War II True Stories Contest.

Now on its second year, the competition aims to encourage high school students all over the country to discover little-known stories about the war from people who were witnesses to one of the most memorable episodes in Philippine history when Filipinos—either as fighters or plain citizens—displayed extraordinary valor, selflessness and patriotism.

The 2010 competition is being launched in February because the month marks an important milestone in the struggle to retake the Philippines from the occupying forces of Japan—the Battle for Manila.

American forces finally entered Manila about 6 p.m. on Feb. 3, 1945, having made their way into the city from Mindoro, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur returned and landed in December 1944, and from Lingayen Gulf, where other landings followed.

They were met by a sparse crowd because, according to historian Teodoro Agoncillo, most of the Filipinos stayed “indoors for fear of Japanese atrocity.”

But as a tank unit liberated American and Allied soldiers imprisoned at the University of Santo Tomas campus, the evening resounded with jubilant singing of “God Bless America,” followed by the “Star Spangled Banner.”  (The Japanese had converted some of the schools in the city into garrisons.)

Most destructive

The Battle of Manila is considered as the most destructive Allied engagement in Asia during WWII, and is second only to Warsaw, Poland, in the entire world.

The US forces lost about a thousand men, while the Japanese lost 12,000 soldiers. But the death toll among Filipino civilians was much higher, in fact comparable to the Hiroshima bombing. Some 100,000 Filipinos in the Manila hostilities, and yet only a handful recall this tragedy every year on  Feb. 3—the members of Memorare 1945.

The fierce fighting, including heavy artillery fire from both camps, utterly destroyed Manila which, before the war, was known as the “Pearl of the Orient,” with its magnificent buildings, schools, churches with unique architectural designs and countless cultural artworks and literature.

After the battle, only a few buildings remained intact. Among those destroyed were the Legislative Building, National Museum and structures within the historic Walled City of Intramuros.

War historians said the Allied forces had presumed the battle for Manila would be quick.

But the Japanese forces in the city fought fiercely. They engaged in house-to-house struggles with the American soldiers and Filipino guerrillas.  Instead of surrendering, many Japanese fought to the death, some venting their anger on civilians—raping women, bayoneting babies, killing the elderly and committing other acts of brutality.

There must be an untold number of true stories out there that happened during the “Massacre in Manila” alone.

Those accounts and others that occurred in others parts of the country during the Second World War are precisely what the Philippine Veterans Bank wishes to gather through the 2010 WWII True Stories Contest.

The contest is open to all Filipino students 13 to 18 years of age attending public or private high schools in the Philippines.

History and/or English teachers are encouraged to guide students interested in participating in the contest. The endorsing teachers of the winning students will be awarded P5,000 in PVB savings account each.

Deadline for submission of entries is 4 p.m. on March 16, 2010.

For the complete mechanics of the contest, log on to www.inquirer.net.