Chase’s Flying Columns

By Ed Miller Santo Tòmas University, Manila, Philippines, about 9:00 p.m., February 3, 1945: Louis G. Hubele, a 45-year-old civilian internee of the Japanese, heard more than the usual amount of vehicle traffic on España Street. Unsure of the reason, he headed to the Education Building, intending to talk to other internees about this development. They were aware of the American activity well north of Manila, yet they had no details. Perhaps the GIs were bearing down on the city. On the other hand, had the Japanese stopped the Americans? Outside, Hubele saw the enemy soldiers taking up positions at the entrances to the compound and on the lower floors of the Education Building. Though weakened by hunger and unable to reach his own room in the building, he summoned the will to reach the third floor, where he found an open room and some other internees. The sound of large engines grew by the second. As they hunkered below the windowsills, they began to hear unfamiliar voices—in English! The clamor grew. Shouts. Orders. “Get out of the windows! We will shoot at movement inside the building!” Figures in green uniforms fanned out in the twilight. The U.S. cavalry came to the rescue as if a Western film played out in real life. Three years in Japanese captivity were over for Hubele and many others. Hubele remarked, “We didn’t know any American troops were anywhere near Manila.” The story of the liberation of about 4,000 Allied internees at Santo Tòmas University