Japanese Naval Ensign Displayed Over Zamboanga, Mindanao

Propaganda photo of a naval infantryman displaying the Imperial Japanese Navy ensign in Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines, around March 3, 1942. The flag was probably taken from the Imperial Japanese Navy light cruiser Kuma. On March 3, 1942, a hundred and fifty men of the Thirty-Second Base Force landed on the Zamboanga beach about half a mile (one kilometer) from the city. The landing force was commanded by Lieutenant Yamada (???? – ????) and accompanied by a light tank and armored cars, which landed from the transports Keiko Maru and Busho Maru. A second unit from Kuma, seventy men, rescued Japanese nationals incarcerated by the Allies at Ayala. Kuma was accompanied by a torpedo boat, Kiji, and a subchaser, Kyo Maru Number 13. The invasion force was covered by seven reconnaissance seaplanes from the Thirty-Second Air Group. Vice Admiral Rokuzo Sugiyama (January 4, 1890-June 6, 1947) was in overall command of the Third Southern Expeditionary Fleet while Naosaburo Irifune (February 27, 1891-December 24, 1953) commanded the Thirty-Second Base Force.

The Filipino-American garrison at Zamboanga was under the command of United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Albert T. Wilson Senior (March 3, 1890-November 11, 1970). The forces around Zamboanga consisted of the First Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment, and two companies of the Forty-Third Regiment, Philippine Scouts, among other units. Wilson had only assumed command in February 1942.

The Japanese occupied Zamboanga City within a few hours, and by March 6, Wilson retreated into the interior of Mindanao to engage in guerrilla action. Wilson surrendered his forces on May 14, 1942. Zamboanga was liberated on March 11, 1945; however, fighting on the Zamboanga Peninsula continued until the end of the war. Colonel Wilson Senior remained in captivity until his sons, Lieutenant Colonel Albert T. Wilson Junior (April 19, 1911-March 1, 1970) Communications Officer for the XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force, and Willard W. Wilson (July 23, 1915-March 14, 1997) commander of the 355th Bombardment Squadron, sent a Boeing B-29B Superfortress “Salome” to the Hoten prisoner of War camp in Mukden, China. The Wilson brothers renamed the plane “Dode” and had a large pipe painted on the plane; that was their father’s trademark. The family was reunited in Kunming. Colonel Wilson, Senior, had not seen his sons since 1939. The Wilson brothers went on to fight in the Korean War.

This photo appeared in Shashin Shūhō (“Weekly Photos”) Number 213 on March 25, 1942. Shashin Shūhō published many wartime photos for the Japanese public as the government’s answer to LIFE Magazine. This photo was printed by the Imperial Navy Press Department, in “Photographic Records of the Greater East Asia War,” published in December 1942.