1947 / Oil on canvas / 130 x 96.2 cm / Artist: Diosdado Lorenzo / J. Antonio Araneta collection

Atrocities in Paco stands as a unique example of the range of Lorenzo’s oeuvre in that it is not the usual pastoral theme he explored before World War II (Guillermo 2009, 58). Done in 1947, it depicts a Filipino family whose members have been massacred by Japanese soldiers. Paco was one of the major strongholds of the Japanese in the Battle of Manila in 1945. In this bloody encounter with American troops, desperate Japanese soldiers went on a rampage, brutally burning houses along with the people inside and mercilessly executing Filipino civilians.

Lorenzo depicts this carnage, showing a mother in the foreground huddled and cradling her baby, protecting it from the sharp bayonet of the Japanese soldier who stands behind, ready to stab his next victim. On the mother’s side is a dead boy and behind her, a man about to fall from the impact of a gunshot. The mother looks askance at the Japanese soldier with a brave and unflinching expression. The Japanese soldier is depicted as cold and merciless, all human expression erased from his countenance. In the background are raging hot flames from the burning of Manila. Lorenzo’s powerful and frenzied brushstrokes and his use of untamed reds and yellows heighten the feeling of doom. In its stark realism and emotional force, the work stands as a testament to the brutality of war and the fate of its victims.