1. The Japanese Base:
The second world war brought to a temporary halt the progress of Sagay. The then incumbent Mayor Jose B. Puey, Sr. went on leave and left the administration of the municipality to Vicente Katalbas. The factories were destroyed and the economy was in shambles.

A. Eusebio Lopez Memorial School Building - Barangay Paraiso
The school serves as the incarceration area of captured American pilots and soldiers. It also served as the headquarters of Fourth Flight Division of the Japanese Imperial Airforce which airfield was located in Pula-Bunglas area in Barangay Malubon. During the last days of the war, the Fourth Flight Division of the Japanese Imperial Airforce organized a kamikaze or suicide units stationed here and in Bacolod. Known later as the Third Regiment Suicide Corps, it was headed by Major Tsuneharu Sirai with Capt. Tetsuzu Kimura as his Chief Staff
Officer, of its 59 pilots and crews, 30 were killed in the battle of Leyte Gulf which they played a major role as kamikaze pilots. The Pula - Bunglas area of Barangay Malubon served as the Japanese landing field for the Fourth Flight Division. It was also a site where guerrillas and civilians, after they were identified by Japanese spies as guerrillas member or collaborators were forced to dig holes consequently executed and buried. Old timers believed that almost 1,542 people were buried here.

B. Barrio 3 Wharf, Fabrica
Served as the transport point of processed lumber destined to Japan from Insular Lumber Company and also a docking area of Japanese supply ship during the war torn years. The Iglanggam Bridge at Barangay Tadlong served as the dumping site of executed guerrillas and civilians, known also as the site where confiscated money, especially silver peso coins encased in concrete blocks were dumped by the retreating Japanese soldiers.

C. Balibag Hill, Lopez Jaena
It was in this place where the set of resistance government of Free Sagay under Mayor Tomas Londres (appointed by Island Governor Alfredo Montelibano, Sr.) was established. It was also known as tabo-an or market place during the war and in 1944 a group of Japanese soldiers man-slaughtered about 27 homeguards or “toltog” units of the guerrilla. After the mass killing, the Japanese soldiers set the whole area on fire, burning the shanties and the dead.

D. Big House, Central Lopez, Paraiso
It was in this house where the set of Japanese “puppet” government under Vicente Lacson Katalbas was established. Also a Japanese barracks and checkpoint. A Japanese anti-aircraft still can be found inside the ground of the said house. At Brgy. Poblacion II, Japanese zero fighters left bullet holes when they intended to destroy the water supply of the people during the last days of the war. Holes from 60 mm machine-guns left an indelible mark on the water tank.

2. The USAFE Base
A training site of USAFE under the supervision of Lt. Dominador Gaerland was established at Tangnonon, Barangay Fabrica at the ancestral home of Lopez Kabayao. On July 26, 1942 President Delano Roosevelt of the United States of America ordered a national mobilization in the Philippines and on August 23, 1942, the first group of reservist in Negros were called on duty by virtue of Philippine Army HQ order of August 4 and they were trained here. The first group reported in the said mobilization camp constituted the 71st Infantry Regiment.

3. The Japanese Occupation
During the Japanese occupation, two Civil Governments existed in Sagay. Under the Japanese national government of Jose Laurel, Sr., Vicente Katalbas was appointed mayor, while the resistant government of the province, headed by Alfredo Montelibano, Sr., as governor appointed Tomas Londres as Mayor whose seat of government is in the mountain areas of Sit Balibag, Lopez Jaena. Their term however, abruptly ended when the American forces liberated the province from the Japanese at the early part of 1945. When Serge OEMs, Sr., as vice-president to Manuel L. Queen who died during the war took over the helm of the national government Teodoro Lopez, Sr., was appointed Mayor of Sagay. During his short term Teodoro Lopez, Sr., concentrated in rebuilding the administrative machinery of the local government.

--- END --