Japanese Atrocities at Los Baños

For three days, Captain Ginsaku Saito men shot, bayoneted, and set fire to over 1,500 people in the Los Baños area.

By Donald J. Roberts II Within a week of the Los Baños raid, paratroopers from Burgess’s 1st Battalion moved back into the Los Baños area to occupy the region. They made a horrible discovery—the Japanese 8th Division had committed brutal atrocities against Filipino civilians in the area. The unit primarily responsible for the attacks on the civilians was the Saito Battalion, under the command of Captain Ginsaku Saito. Following the successful American/Filipino raid, Saito ordered two com