From
Aparri in the north to Zamboango in the south the fire of resistance
to the invader spread. Whole divisions of Japanese troops that the
Emperor badly needed elsewhere, deployed against phantom units."
Before Nakar's untimely capture, he had received the following
message: "THE COURAGEOUS AND SPLENDID RESISTANCE MAINTAINED BY YOU AND
YOUR COMMAND FILLS ME WITH PRIDE AND SATISFACTION - Stop. IT WILL BE
MY PRIVILEGE TO SEE THAT YOU AND YOUR OFFICERS AND MEN ARE PROPERLY
REWARDED AT THE APPROPRIATE TIME - Stop. MY AFFECTIONS AND BEST
WISHES. MACARTHUR."
Within a few weeks we learned that an unfaithful Filipino had betrayed
Col. Nakar. The Nipponese had captured him and the regimental radio in
a mountain cave near Jones, and had taken him to the old Spanish Fort
Santiago in Manila where they threw him in a dungeon to face
starvation, thirst, water rats, the ingenious system of Japanese
questioning and torture by the Kempie Tai Qapanese Secret Police), and
finally beheading.
Col. Nakar's short war was far from fruitless. His tender years did
not prevent him from becoming a "champion of liberty!" His message to
MacArthur actually signaled the end of Allied defeats and withdrawals,
and the beginning of an unbroken series of crushing defeats for the
Japanese Empire.
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