The correct answer is: “was in control of the islands”
The Japanese invasion of the Philippines started on December 8th of 1941 a few hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan occupied the country for three years - until the surrender of Japan at the end of the war -. Japanese government organized a new government structure in the Philippines, created a Council of State. But it was not an easy occupation, the Philippines opposed to it with a guerilla activity that covered most of the country - 60%-.
<span>Capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast Asia flank. Its strategy called for roughly simultaneous attacks on Malaya, Thailand, American-held Guam and Wake, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and Hawaii. Although the aim of the air strike on Hawaii's Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 was to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet in its home port, the others were meant to serve as preludes to full-scale invasion and occupation.
