A little?known air crash off the island of Cebu on April 1, 1944 leads to the capture of Japanese military officials including a high-ranking Japanese admiral by Filipino guerrillas. Along with the capture was a mysterious bunch of papers for
which the Japanese military undertook a massive recovery effort. The guerrillas by an American named James Cushing
took the prisoners to the interior of Cebu and held them for ten days until a severe Japanese rescue campaign forced
them to surrender them to the enemy. The high ranking Japanese officials who turned out to be led by Vice Admiral
Shigeru Fukodome, Chief of Staff of the Japanese Imperial Combined Fleet. It appeared that the party was traveling on
an inspection mission at the time of the crash. One of those believed killed in the crash was Admiral Mineichi Koga,
commander of the Japanese Imperial Navy whose loss was acknowledged with the appointment of his successor in May
1944. The papers which were captured by the guerrillas were sent by American submarine to Australia and were found
to contain important information about Japanese defenses in the Philippines and other areas. The papers also revealed
the weakness of defenses in central Philippines which were confirmed by American intelligence. The episode led to the
acceleration of the American return to the Philippines from December 1944 to October 1944 and a change of landing
sites from Mindanao to Leyte. This event which was witnessed by a Filipino guerrilla noted the blunders of the Americans who did not immediately act despite repeated messages requesting for their advice on the developments.