[WWII] The Nasugbu Landing of January 1945 from the Japanese Perspective

Most of the information available on Operation Mike VI, more commonly remembered as the “Nasugbu Landing” of 31 January 1945, is understandably from the American perspective. On the said date, the United States Eighth Army under the command of General Robert L. Eichelberger, landed troops on the beaches of Nasugbu in western Batangas in support of the invasion of Lingayen Gulf earlier in the same month.

It is well established from earlier narratives written that the operation, initially set up as a “reconnaissance in force¹,” became a full invasion upon confirmation that Nasugbu was, indeed, lightly defended by forces of the Japanese Imperial Army (JIA). Why this was so was explained by a declassified United States Army document with information obtained from the interrogation of Captain Eikichi Ysegashi of the 10^th Company, 2^nd Battalion, 31^st Infantry Regiment of the JIA².

The defense of the Tagaytay-Nasugbu area had been given to the 8^th Division of the Japanese Army. An initial part of the 31^st Regiment sailed from Fusan (most likely “Busan”) in Japanese-occupied Korea to a port in San Fernando, Luzon in August of 1944.

The journey was perilous, and in fact, the regiment’s 2^nd Battalion lost 150 men after a transport ship carrying them was sunk by a United States Navy submarine. Another 200 men or so were lost on the 5^th of September after a second transport ship was sunk by another submarine attack.

After a brief layover in Formosa⁴, what remained of the 31^st Regiment’s initially batch of troops finally arrived at San Fernando harbor, most likely in La Union. From there, the troops traveled to Manila by train, staying at the country’s capital for two days until ordered to hike to Tagaytay on the 29^th of September.

Since the main body of the regiment was still en route to Luzon, by early October, the early arrivals started preparing defensive positions in Tagaytay after scouting the terrain. Roads were also constructed on Mt. Batulao and Mt. Cariliao, both at the Nasugbu-Cavite border, by troops of the 7^th and 8^th companies, respectively.

The regiment’s main body finally arrived in Luzon soon afterwards and made haste for Tagaytay to reunite with the early arrivals. Although the regiment had suffered severe losses in personnel en route, it was augmented with fresh troops from both Formosa and Manila, reorganized and given the task of defending the Tagaytay-Nasugbu area.

When the Japanese learned of the Allied landing on the beaches of Leyte on the 20^th of October, the 5^th Regiment, also of the 8^th Division, was ordered south to help repel the invasion. The positions left behind by the 5^th Regiment were taken over by the 1^st Battalion of the 31^st Regiment, or 3,000 soldiers or so less.

Moreover, by the end of December, the bulk of the 31^st Regiment stationed in the Nasugbu-Tagaytay were ordered north to the Ipo Dam area to support the Shimbu Group of the JIA. Thus, the defense of the Nasugbu area was left in the hands of the 3^rd Battalion of the 31^st Regiment⁵.

Numbering in the neighborhood of 5,000 men in December, the following month, when the invasion of Luzon was scheduled to be undertaken by the Allied Forces, the number of troops available to the 31^st Infantry Regiment to defend the Nasugbu area had been significantly reduced by the deployment north to a mere 800 or so soldiers.

The redeployment of troops because of the Allied invasions of Leyte and Lingayen Gulf also meant that in the Nasugbu-Tagaytay area, the construction of “adequate defense positions and the stocking of ammunition and foodstuffs had not been accomplished at the time of the American invasion⁶.”

The numerous Filipino guerrilla outfits that had converged in the area in anticipation of the Allied landing also contributed to the misery of the Japanese. The guerrillas had been given orders to sever Japanese communication lines on the eve of the Nasugbu landing, so that according to Ysegashi, news of the landing could not be communicated to all units and this created confusion.