Testimony of Segundo Gube on General Fujishige’s Visit with Lipa Mayor Dominador Luz in 1945 - Batangas History, Culture and Folklore Testimony of Segundo Gube on General Fujishige’s Visit with Lipa Mayor Dominador Luz in 1945 - Batangas History, Culture and Folklore

Testimony of Segundo Gube on General Fujishige’s Visit with Lipa Mayor Dominador Luz in 1945

Batangas History
10 Aug, 2019

[TRANSCRIPTION]

This page contains the testimony of Segundo Gube of Lipa, Batangas on a visit of Japanese General Masatoshi Fujishige with Lipa Mayor Dominador Luz in 1945. The pages contained herein are now declassified and were part of compiled documentation1 of war crimes trials conducted by the United States Military Commission after the conclusion of World War II. This transcription has been corrected for grammar where necessary by Batangas History, Culture and Folklore. The pagination is as it was contained in the original document for citation purposes.

[p. 1584]

SEGUNDO GUBE

+called as witness on behalf of the Prosecution, being first duly sworn was examined and testified as follows through Interpreter Rodas:

DIRECT EXAMINATION

Q (By Captain Pace) Give your name, please.
A Segundo Gube.
Q Where do you live?
A In Mataas-na-Lupa, Lipa, Batangas.
Q Were you in the City of Lipa on February 17, 1945?
A Yes, I was there.
Q That evening, at whose home were you?
A I was in the house of Mr. Dominador Luz.
Q He was the Mayor of Lipa at that time?
A Yes.
Q Did a Japanese come to his house that evening?
A Yes. One Japanese went to his house at about 9 o’clock in the evening.
Q Did you subsequently find out the name of that Japanese?
A When the Japanese left.
Q What was his name?
A The Mayor told us he was General Fujishige.
Q And did he say who General Fujishige was?
A Yes. He said he was the highest commanding officer at our place.

[p. 1585]

Q Where were you when Fujishige and Luz were there?
A We were in the next room.
Q What did Luz and Fujishige do?
A They sat near a table and talked.
Q Alright. What happened?
A When the General got drunk, he threw things on the table and then he shouted, “All Filipinos will be killed.”
CAPTAIN REEL: Sir, we will ask that the answer be stricken. The answer insofar as the matter of drunkenness is concerned is opinion evidence and so it is inadmissible as a conclusion, and the answer as far as any conversation is concerned is hearsay two degrees removed.

GENERAL REYNOLDS: Will the reporter read the question and answer?

(Question and answer read.)

GENERAL REYNOLDS: The question and its answer will be stricken from the record.

CAPTAIN PACE: You may inquire.

CAPTAIN REEL: Is the ruling that the question and answer were to be stricken?

GENERAL REYNOLDS: Stricken from the record.

CAPTAIN REEL: Just one question, sir.

CROSS EXAMINATION

Q (By Captain Reel) Do you know whether Mayor Luz was kidnapped by the guerrillas?
A No.
Q Don’t you know that he was kidnapped sometime about two or three months before you were at his house?
A No. I don’t know of his having been taken from Lipa.

[p. 1586]

Q Mr. Gube, were you friendly to the Japanese? Were you a collaborator?
A No.
Q Were you friendly with Mayor Luz?
A Yes.
Q And wasn’t Mayor Luz a collaborator?
A Yes.
Q And you knew that he was?
A Yes.
CAPTAIN REEL: That’s all.

GENERAL REYNOLDS: The Commission will recess for approximately ten minutes.

(Witness Excused.)
Manila War Crimes Trial US Army
Photo taken during the war crimes trials in Manila.  Image credit:  U.S. National Archives.
Notes and references:
1 “Excerpts from the Testimony of Segundo Gube in U.S.A. v Tomoyuki Yamashita,” part of the U.S. Military Commission compilation of war crimes documentation, online at the Internet Archive.
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