In the Battle of the Philippines in the Pacific War, Japanese troops massacred Filipino civilians in Tapel, Cagayan Province, Luzon, on July 1, 1945. At a small bridge leading to the village of Tapel, Japanese troops killed three Filipino civilians.

　　Japanese troops massacred Filipino civilians in Tapel, Cagayan Province, Luzon, on July 1, 1945, during the Battle of the Philippines in the Pacific War. At a small bridge leading to the village of Tapel, Japanese troops killed three Filipino civilians. on November 23, 1945, the man in the photo, Pedro Serono, exhumed the bodies of eight Filipino civilians massacred by Japanese troops and displayed eight skulls he found after the massacre. The skulls were used as evidence in the Japanese war crimes trial after U.S. military officials identified the location of the massacre.

　　Japanese war crimes in the Philippines began with the U.S.-led Manila trial of former General Yamashita Bongbun, which opened in October 1945, and continued until April 1947, after the independence of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946. Over a period of about 18 months, 97 trials were opened and 215 defendants were indicted. The results of the war crimes sentences were 92 death sentences, 39 life sentences, 66 fixed-term sentences, and 20 acquittals. The U.S.-led war crimes trial in Manila ended in April 1947, after the Philippines gained independence in April 1947.

　Immediately thereafter, beginning in July 1947, the Philippine authorities took over the trials of the remaining Class B and C war criminals. from 1947 to 1949, the Republic of the Philippines conducted 73 war trials against 155 Japanese Imperial Army and Navy officers who had committed war crimes during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. As a result, by December 28, 1949, 138 people had been convicted and 79 sentenced to death. 73 trials were held primarily for war crimes committed by the raging Japanese military in the Philippines, ranging from murder, rape, and torture of civilians to inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. 155 of the Japanese military accused, Of the 155 Japanese military defendants, 149 were sentenced. Of the Japanese military defendants, 79 were sentenced to death, 31 to life in prison, 28 to varying terms, and 11 were acquitted; Lt. Col. Yasuo Omura (Yasuo Omura), accused of war crimes in Cagayan Province in July 1945, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on September 12, 1949, He was pardoned by President Elpidio Quirino in a July 4, 1953 pardon.