6. Facing Allied liberation, almost 150 POWs held at Puerto Princesa in the Philippines were massacred by the Japanese rather than be allowed to be free
In response to advancing Allied forces in the Philippines, on December 14, 1944, soldiers of the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army, under the command of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, initiated the aforementioned liquidation order of the War Ministry. In an attempt to prevent the approximately 150 POWs held at Puerto Princesa, located in the Philippine province of Palawan, from being rescued by their comrades, these prisoners were herded by the Japanese into shelter trenches under the pretext of an incoming air raid. Once assembled, the POWs were doused in gasoline and set on fire; those who attempted to escape the flames were shot by machine gun.
In total, just 11 of the 150 prisoners survived, scaling a cliff along the side of the trench. The testimony of one of these survivors, Private First Class Eugene Nielsen, sparked outrage and a mass operation by the Allies to retrieve as many of their captured soldiers before they could be similarly executed by the Japanese. On January 30, the U.S. launched a raid on Cabanatuan, on February 3 at Santo Tomas Internment Camp, on February 4 at Bilibid Prison, and on February 23 at Los Baños. Although 16 Japanese soldiers were sentenced to death in 1948 for their role in the Palawan Massacre, they were released as part of an amnesty before execution.