The shelters had a hidden exit that extended beyond the camp's barbed wire to a 60-foot (18 m) cliff overlooking the bay.

[6] Those 11 that did escape to southern Palawan, and eventual rescue, were aided by Filipino scouts and guerrillas under the command of Nazario Mayor.

[2]: 114–33 [7] Upon receiving the news, Major general Charles A. Willoughby dispatched a navy PBY Catalina to link up with the scouts at Brooke's Point to pick up the surviving POW's and fly them to allied controlled Morotai; which the Japanese garrison on the island surrendered back in September.

[8] On February 28, the 8th Army landed on Palawan as part of Operation VICTOR III and it is believed that many of the perpetrators of the massacre were killed in action[9] or went missing defending the island in that campaign including the camp commanding officer Lieutenant Yoshikazu "Buzzard" Sato, who carried out the massacre[citation needed].

Palawan garrison battalion commander Captain Nagayoshi Kojima, and garrison company commander Lieutenant Sho Yoshiwara were also missing in action and were not among the Japanese soldiers defending Palawan to surrender after the American campaign to retake the island.

[11][2]: 159 General Tomoyuki Yamashita took the full blame and was charged with the Palawan massacre and other war crimes committed in the Philippines at his trial in 1945 under the doctrine of command responsibility.

[2]: 140, 143–45 [14][15] The diary of a Japanese sergeant major had the following entry for 15 December 1944:[2]: 159–60 Due to the sudden change of situation, the 150 prisoners of war were executed.

He was found guilty of crimes related to the murders of Filipino and Chinese civilians, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad in Japan on 23 October 1948.

[16][17] The massacre most recently has been the subject of the book As Good as Dead, the Daring Escape of American POWs From a Japanese Death Camp: Stephen L. Moore [18] and also the basis for the book Last Man Out: Glenn McDole, USMC, Survivor of the Palawan Massacre in World War II by Bob Wilbanks,[19] and the opening scenes of the 2005 Miramax film, The Great Raid.

Evidence of the episode has been recorded by two of the eleven survivors: Glenn McDole and Rufus Willie Smith from the 4th US Marines.