Salipada Pendatun's brother-in-law, Major Datu Udtug, also fought against the Japanese, and in Cotabato, the focal area of the anti-Japanese resistance was Papalungan.
An American prisoner-of-war, Herbert Zincke, recalled in his secret diary that the Japanese guarding him and other prisoners were scared of the Moro warriors and tried to keep as far away from them as possible to avoid getting attacked.
[12][13][14][15][16][17] Bladed weapons like the spear, tabar, campilan, barong, and kris were used by the Moro Lanao against the Japanese, according to Sa Ramain, to compensate for their lack of guns.
[26][27] An oath was sworn by Alonto, the Sultan of Ramain, and 10,000 other Moros in Lanao that they would fight to drive the Japanese out, and they sent a message that said, "We have prepared our bladed weapons because we lack firearms, and with sharp kris, barong, campilan, tabas and spear we will attack or defend as ordered.
[37][38][39] US Captain Edward Kraus recommended Moro fighters for a suggested plan to capture an airbase in Lake Lanao for eventually driving the Japanese occupiers from the Philippines.
"[45] Japanese Major Hiramatsu, a propaganda officer, tried to convince Kalaw that Japan was bombing the American mainland.
"[50] Amer Manalao Mindalano, Datu Busran Kalaw, and Sultan Mohamad Ali Dimaporo were all Maranao Moro Muslim guerilla leaders who fought against the Japanese.
[51] Mohamad AH Dimaporo, Domocao Alonto, and Busran Kalaw commanded the largest resistance forces in the region.
[52] As a famous guerilla leader whose assaults were a "thorn in the side of the Japanese," Kalaw's anti-Japanese speech in Tamparan, which galvanized the people there in the struggle.
[53] Kalaw objected to the decision to surrender to the Japanese by US General Guy O. Fort, the commander of the USAFFE forces in Lanao in 1942.
[54] After the USAFFE had surrendered, Kalaw and other Maranao Moro leaders like Naguib Juanday, Manalao Mindalano and others organized their own resistance movements to fight the Japanese.
[83] The Moros had cleared the Japanese from the Muslim areas of Mindanao six months before the Americans returned to liberate the Philippines at the Battle of Leyte.
[89] Nur Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front faction stated that the Japanese "exhibited tyranny, cruelty and inhumanity at its lowest level" and "had to suffer their worst defeat and highest death mortality at the hands of the Bangsamoro freedom fighters.