Students from the University of the Philippines-Manila watched on Tuesday films about the World War II, specifically the Battle of Manila, as the country marked the surrender of the Japanese military forces led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita in Baguio City.

The documentary films, such as the "Manila 1945: The Rest of the Story" and "Unsurrendered 2" were shown in at least three classes of UP Professor Bernard Karganilla, who has done research on the guerillas.

He said the activity was planned because of the "80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II and RA (Republic Act) 11216, the victory day. So, we had planned this back in June."

RA 11216 provides for the declaration of special working holiday every September 3 of the year throughout the country to commemorate Yamashita and his group's surrender in Baguio City.

Bea Anlacan, 18, lamented that many Filipinos appeared to have not known what really happened during the war after watching the one-hour Manila 1945.

"It's a sad realization that many Filipinos don't know these atrocities anymore because we've chosen to forget," said the 2nd year Public Health student.

She expressed hope similar atrocities would not happen again.

"If the Japanese continues to decide about not telling the narrative about the Filipinos and Japanese war, I think it's the burden they always have to take for the rest of their lives because they will never understand how bad they were, how horrible they were during the World War II," said Rupert Estor, also Karganilla's student at Public Institutions 100 subject.

"So, I'm fine with that. Let yourselves be naive of what happened during that time because okay, that's your loss, not ours," he added.

Bani Logroño, director of the Manila 1945, in a message attached to the copy of the movie, expressed hope his documentary would be an "eye-opener" for those who would watch it.

He said to be uneducated about the Philippines' past is "to walk about it blindly." Celerina Monte/DMS