September 12, 1942
With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it was evident that the next move of the Japanese Imperial Army was to invade the Philippines. In fact, after Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers were immediately mobilized to attack Davao (Dec. 8, 1941) and Jolo (Dec. 25, 1941), two strategic sites that were critical to their planned expansion in Asia.
In response, the American-supported Commonwealth Government immediately began to mobilize and organize a local resistance force. General William Sharp, Commander of the Visayas-Mindanao Forces of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), created the 81st Division to defend Lanao and Misamis Occidental provinces and the adjacent areas.
By January 1942, Brig. General Guy Fort organized the Lanao Bolo Battalion with Lt. Mamarinta Lao as commander and Manalao Mindalano, Busran Kalaw, Domocao Alonto, and Ali Dimaporo as sector commanders (appointed February 15, 1942).
This was followed by a rapid deployment and training of personnel to key strategic areas. However, the resistance forces did not predict the changes in the tides of the war when the Japanese Imperial Army rapidly organized its invasion of Mindanao. By May 2, 1942, Dansalan was already occupied. The lakeside communities, once the bastion of resistance against foreign colonizers and subjected to several “pacification campaigns” by the Americans, were once again brought under another foreign occupant.
Following the establishment of the Japanese Military Administration in Davao, a battalion commanded by Lt. Col. Tanaka Yoshinari was assigned to Lanao and established its headquarters in Dansalan. The Japanese attempted to establish order by winning the cooperation of key local officials. However, they also pursued punitive expeditions against hostile communities, such as the case of Wato, wherein sometime in June 1942, they killed 24 people, including women, and burned eight houses. Thus, the image being propagated by the USAFFE forces was proven correct, and the Meranaws began to be wary and hostile towards the Japanese. It was around the lake that a foreign resistance movement arose, set into motion by an incident in September 1942.
The American anthropologist, Thomas McKenna (2022), would assert “the Battle of Tamparan was the gravest defeat inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Army by irregular forces in the Philippines and quite likely their greatest loss at the hands of civilians in the entire course of the Pacific War.” In one single incident, an entire community defied a stronger opponent, and this would define succeeding Japanese policies towards the Meranaws.
THE INCIDENT
In the eastern part of the present Province of Lanao del Sur lies the Municipality of Tamparan. It is bounded to the north by Taraka and Poona-Bayabao in the south. On the west is Lake Lanao. It is approximately 27 kilometers from Dansalan (presently Marawi City) where the Japanese established their headquarters. Traditionally, Tamparan would be part of what the Meranaws would classify as ‘basak’ (literally defined as marshland) or low-lying areas near the lake. It is one of the largest and densest communities around the lake and is often identified in historical records, indicating its antiquity and prominence.
According to the accounts of Edward Kuder, an American educator who was taking refuge in Nunungan during the incident, the Japanese received reports that Busran Kalaw, the famed guerrilla leader from Momungan, was in Tamparan organizing a local resistance force.
Immediately, a company led by First Lt. Yoshioka Sunao (Atsuo Takeuchi in his accounts) was dispatched to the area. The expeditionary force consisted of 90 Japanese soldiers, several headquarters’ personnel, interpreters, local guides, and POWs who served as cargadors.
On September 11, the contingent embarked from Dansalan on three launches and reached the Tamparan wharf at dawn the next day. Coincidentally, the Japanese forces arrived in Tamparan during the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadhan.
The Japanese soldiers immediately headed towards the local settlement, and upon reaching a junction near the road, they discovered a kota flying a red flag – a symbol of war and hostility. This indigenous fortification was allegedly owned by Datu Dimalaan Manking.
While both Kuder and Japanese sources could not identify who shot first, what followed was an exchange of fire between the Japanese soldiers and the Meranaws manning the kota. The Japanese immediately deployed their mortars and shelled the position of the kota, which had awoken the entire area. Instead of evacuating to safety, a swarm of Meranaw warriors from the different nearby communities, such as Taraka, Maguing, and Gata, and armed only with panabas, attacked the Japanese position from all directions. A hand-to-hand combat ensued, and the Japanese forces, outnumbered and short of ammunition, were forced to flee towards the marshlands along the shores of the lake. The Meranaw warriors, driven by vengeance, pursued them in a vicious bloodbath.
The Japanese historian, Kawashima Midori, who did her fieldwork in Tamparan, would relate that there are conflicting narratives as to the duration of the battle, with some sources saying that it only lasted for less than an hour, while others would say that it went on for several hours.
Nevertheless, all sources would point out that the Japanese were almost wiped out. Edward Kuder, in his accounts, would argue that out of the 90 soldiers who were dispatched, only 5 survived. Furthermore, First Lt. Sunao, the one leading the attack, perished during the battle. The Meranaws, on the other hand, suffered around 200 to 300 casualties.
AFTERMATH
The Battle of Tamparan was a huge blow to the morale of the Japanese Imperial Army. In fact, it took them days before they could retrieve the remains of their fallen comrades. The Japanese commander in Dansalan, Lt. Col. Yoshinari Tanaka, had to offer rewards to the locals just to retrieve the bodies. The body of First Lt. Sunao was mutilated beyond recognition.
In reprisal, the Japanese subjected the town and neighboring communities to bombardment for twenty-five days, though primarily from a distance. Contemporary accounts suggest that the attacks were intended less as direct assaults and more as a display of force, as the Japanese sought to avoid further provoking Meranaw resistance.
Yet this interpretation is contested: Mohammad Adil, a Maguindanaon guerrilla officer, recalled a report that a mosque was struck during the shelling, resulting in the deaths of some 80 men, women, and children who had taken refuge inside. Nonetheless, the succeeding Japanese policy was to avoid a direct confrontation with the Meranaws.
In the aftermath of the battle, the Japanese ordered the return of Brig. General Guy Fort to Dansalan. Between October and early November, he was transferred back to Mindanao, where he was tortured and forced to issue a statement ordering the guerrilla resistance in Lanao to surrender to the Japanese. Fort resisted, and as a result, he was executed to set an example. Yet the intended impact of his execution failed to subdue the Meranaws. Instead, Fort emerged as a local hero. His sacrifice, together with the victory in Tamparan, became a source of inspiration that fueled successive retaliatory attacks against Japanese forces.
Meranaw resistance effectively confined the Imperial Army to its bases for much of the occupation of Lanao. By 1944, American aircraft were flying unopposed over the provinces, and by November the Japanese had begun their evacuation. This stands as clear testimony to the effectiveness of the guerrilla movement in Lanao and to the Meranaws’ enduring tradition of love for freedom and devotion to their homeland.
REFERENCES
Kuder, Edward & Pete Martin. “The Philippines Never Surrendered Part III.” The Saturday Evening Post, Vol. 217, Issue 35. February 24, 1945.
Mckenna, Thomas. Moro Warrior: A Philippine Chieftain, an American Schoolmaster, and the Untold Story of the Most Remarkable Resistance Fighters of World War II. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2022.
Midori, Kawashima. “The Battle of Tamparan: A Maranao Response to the Japanese Occupation of Mindanao.” In Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire, edited by Paul H. Kratoska, 223-243. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.
