Editing Cebu (section)

=== Japanese occupation ===
[[File:Boljoon Church, Cebu.jpg|thumb|In 2009 Japanese - Filipino [[archaeologists]] in [[Boljoon]] discovered ancient Japanese pottery that has been to believed to been in existence since the early trading activity between [[Japan]] and Cebu in the 16th to 18th century.<ref>{{cite web |date=May 30, 2011 |title=Ancient Japanese pottery in Boljoon town |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/10434/ancient-japanese-pottery-in-boljoon-town}}</ref>|left]]
Cebu, being one of the most densely populated islands in the Philippines, served as a [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] base during their occupation in [[World War II]] which began with the landing of Japanese soldiers in April 1942. A Japanese businessman established Cebu's first "comfort station" during the war, where Japanese soldiers routinely gang-raped, humiliated, and murdered kidnapped girls and teenagers who they forced into sexual slavery under the brutal "[[comfort women]]" system.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/11/29/939811000/philippine-survivor-recounts-her-struggle-as-a-comfort-woman-for-wartime-japan|title=Philippine Survivor Recounts Her Struggle As A 'Comfort Woman' For Wartime Japan|newspaper=NPR.org|publisher=NPR|access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9IsBB-RVTlQC&dq=comfort+gay+philippines+japan&pg=PR9|title=The Other Empire: Literary Views of Japan from the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia|year=2008|publisher=The University of the Philippines Press|isbn=9789715425629|access-date=15 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.awf.or.jp/e1/philippine-00.html |title=Women made to be Comfort Women - Philippines }}</ref> The [[3rd Infantry Division (Philippines)|3rd]], [[8th Infantry Division (Philippines)|8th]], 82nd and 85th Infantry Division of the [[Philippine Commonwealth Army]] was re-established from January 3, 1942, to June 30, 1946, and the 8th Constabulary Regiment of the [[Philippine Constabulary]] was reestablished again from October 28, 1944, to June 30, 1946, at the military general headquarters and the military camps and garrisoned in Cebu city and Cebu province. They started the [[Philippine resistance against Japan|Anti-Japanese military operations]] in Cebu from April 1942 to September 1945 and helped Cebuano guerrillas and fought against the [[Japanese Imperial forces]]. Almost three years later in March 1945, combined Filipino and American forces [[Battle for Cebu City|landed]] and reoccupied the island during the [[liberation of the Philippines]]. Cebuano guerrilla groups led by an American, [[James M. Cushing]], is credited for the establishment of the "Koga Papers",{{sfn|de Viana|2005}} which is said to have changed the American plans to retake the Philippines from Japanese occupation in 1944, by helping the combined United States and the Philippine Commonwealth Army forces enter Cebu in 1945. The following year the island achieved independence from colonial rule in 1946.