I grew up hearing stories from my dad of a family friend who served in the Philippines during WW2. As the story goes he was shot down early in the war and spent the majority of it fighting from the jungle with Filipino resistance fighters. I've been told stories of them making airplane engine powered boats that they mounted guns on the front to shoot up Japanese troop barges. Of using a headhunters sword ( IMG1 & IMG2 ) in a raid to get supplies. And of the grounding of a Japanese destroyer where the family friend had cut free a lamp as a souvenir ( IMG1 & IMG2 ). This family friend caused to much havoc that eventually a bounty in gold was placed on his head. Unfortunately the family friend passed away many years ago and so I don't have the chance to ask him myself. I had a chance to take some pictures of a few items my dad was given by the family friend and it got me thinking about these stories and how much was actually embellished and how much could have been true. I added a few of the images here in case they may help with the answer.
Americans did fight alongside and even lead Filipino guerrillas during WW2, and the Kempeitai did put bounties for the killing or capture of guerrilla leaders. Rewards though would have been in Japanese-issued Philippine pesos and not gold.
The Philippine resistance to Japanese occupation was massive. It's estimated that there were 277 different units across the archipelago with as many as 260,000 guerrillas. The makeup of the units included groups of bandits, one group of socialists, the Hukbalahap, as well as larger groups led by former members of the US and Philippine Army.
On Luzon, much of the larger guerrilla units were led by former Filipino and American officers from the Philippine Division and especially the Philippine Scouts. A number of these US officers were captured and executed including former Provost Marshall Maj Claude Thorp, LTC Martin Moses, Capt. Ralph Praeger, and Capt. Joseph Barker the last three formerly of the Philippine Scouts. The most famous American Guerilla leader on Luzon was 1Lt Ed Ramsey also of the Philippine Scouts who would go on to survive the war. He would write in his memoir, Lieutenant Ramsey's War: From Horse soldier to Guerrilla Leader that bounties had been put on the heads of all the main guerrilla leaders on Luzon.
Wendell Fertig is another interesting character. He had been with the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Philippines when war broke out and would go on to lead 30,000 guerrillas on Mindanao.
Most of the larger US led units were eventually supplied by MacArthur via submarine. MacArthur asked them to only disrupt Japanese activities and provide intelligence rather than engage in large scale operations to avoid retaliation against civilians. Filipino guerrillas were invaluable during the invasion of the Philippines in providing intel, disrupting movement and sometimes taking major objectives before US units arrived. The unit led by Maj Robert Lapham and Capt. Juan Pajota were instrumental in planning and carrying out the liberation of the POW camp at Cabanatuan, and many Filipino guerrillas would go on to fight directly alongside US military units in the mountains of north Luzon for the liberation of the Philippines
Source:
Morningstar, J.K. War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944.
