Bahay na Pula

The Bahay na Pula (Tagalog for "Red House") is a former hacienda in San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the Philippines. It is the most important site for remembrance of the horrors committed by the Japanese against the hundreds of men who were murdered at the site and the hundreds of women who were forced into slavery as comfort women.

It was constructed in 1929 at Barangay Anyantam under the orders of Don Ramon Ilusorio of the Ilusorio family, who owned vast hacienda lands in the area. as a family mansion with two storeys. It was made largely out of wood and painted red on the outside, giving it its name. The house was surrounded by large gardens filled with tamarind, camachile, and duhat trees.

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, on November 23, 1944, the Geki Group of the 14th District Army under Japanese Imperial Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita attacked Mapaniqui, Pampanga. The town was suspected by the army to be a stronghold of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon or Hukbalahap. All men in the area were gathered, beaten up, and murdered afterwards in a genocide-like fashion. A verified report noted that one man had his genitals hacked off and was forced to eat them. The bodies of the men were all thrown into a huge pile and set on fire. No religious practices for the dead were allowed to be performed for the murdered men.

The Japanese Imperial Army afterwards looted numerous households in the area. In contrast, the women were brought into Bahay-na-Pula, which had been captured by the Japanese. The women, who numbered more than a hundred and came from the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga, were told to bring items, and once they arrived, they were all raped routinely and repeatedly by an entire army of Japanese soldiers. Several of the girls were eight and nine years of age. Girls and women who fought back were stabbed to death using bayonets. Some of the women managed to escape, but many were forced into slavery and became sex slaves or "comfort women". Documented reports have showed various human rights violations. One account says that the Japanese army at Bahay-na-Pula had a "favorite slave", who was raped by different Japanese soldiers 30 or more times every single day. The woman was later murdered through drowning after she fought back.