1944, After the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese troops deployed at the Ponson Island and they discovered hundreds of dead Japanese seafarers. The Japanese troops got angry and most of them were Korean conscripts ordered by their Japanese officers to wipe out the entire population of Barrio Dapdap.
The Japanese planned to trick the residents into attending a meeting in the church, promising them with extra food and rice rations. Since many Filipinos were starving, they couldn't refuse. When there were hundreds of them, they was forced to wait for the others in the church.
By noon, people were asking if they are allowed to go home for lunch, but when the Japanese saw that there were enough numbers of residents to satisfy themselves for revenge. They started shooting and stabbing them, the victims tried to run, but they were trapped. When the Japanese left, only 50 people people survived.
The bodies were left to decompose for a month, because no one can bury the dead. Until 1945, the Americans arrived after Japanese have left and saw the gruesome event. The Americans started burying the bodies of the dead. The church had to be drenched with gasoline and burned with the bodies still inside as the smell of decaying of human flesh subdue.
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita was found guilty and hanged on February 23, 1946.