September 3 Declared National Holiday in Philippines to Commemorate Japanese WWII Surrender

Americans Coming Ashore at Leyte

September 3 has just been made a national holiday in the Philippines, commemorating the Japanese surrender to the United States in WWII on this day in 1945.

Actually, Japanese General Yamashita came out of his tent waving a white flag on September 2, surrendering to Philippine guerrilla forces, but, then officially signed the paperwork in front of the American and British generals the next day.

A day after bombing Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, 17 Japanese bombers attacked the John Hay Station, an American encampment in the Philippines on December 8.

A bloody war ensued with the United States taking 13,384 casualties, while the Japanese lost over 320,000 men, prompting a saying in the Philippines that the "Japanese fought to die, the Americans fought to live."

The brunt of war casualties were absorbed by the Philippines, losing 1,100,000 men in the war, roughly 1 in 17 of the population at the time.