While Brother Pedro Navarro of San Fabian, Pangasinan, about two hundred kilometers (124 miles) north of Manila, and several others were cycling to Manila to get literature for field service, they learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On their way back, they saw that the American forces (USAFFE​—United States Armed Forces in the Far East) were deploying themselves along the roads and beaches and that people in general were evacuating to the hills. So, upon reaching Pangasinan, these brothers also left their homes and went with their families to the hills of Lobong, to San Jacinto, Pangasinan.

On December 14, 1941, seventeen of these brothers were arrested. They were asked by the Filipino military authorities if the Kingdom they were proclaiming was the Japanese government and if Jehovah was the name of a Japanese god. The brothers answered clearly that the Kingdom was God’s and that Jehovah is the God of the entire universe. The army sergeant then spread both an American and a Filipino flag side by side on a tree trunk and ordered Brother Navarro to strip to his shorts and kneel and kiss the flags. When he remained standing he was beaten mercilessly in front of the other brothers until he fell down. Told to stand up, he was immediately knocked down again. The brother was beaten by alternating groups of four soldiers from nightfall until 1:30 the following morning, with only brief intervals in between. Brother Navarro suffered a dislocated rib as a result of the mistreatment.

After further mistreatment, during which Brother Navarro and his uncle were chained together and regularly beaten in an open plaza, the Witnesses were finally transported to Manila in an army truck. Since the Japanese were frequently bombing bridges and highways at that time, whenever an air raid came the soldiers would take cover by the side of the road, but, with their guns trained on them, they would leave the brothers in the truck, hoping they would be bombed on the highway. They survived, however, and, upon reaching Manila, were investigated at the USAFFE headquarters, where they were cleared of the charges against them and were released.

The freed Witnesses remained in Manila for a few days, trying to contact the brothers, but the first time they went to the branch office, it was closed. The following day they went again and were happy to meet Brother Dos Santos, who had just arrived after being released from the National Penitentiary. On December 26, 1941, however, the American forces had declared Manila an open city. The Japanese armies already were marching toward the capital city and in a few days they would be in complete control of Manila. Realizing this, the branch overseer urged Brother Navarro to return to Pangasinan, taking along as much literature and other supplies as he could carry. How the brothers and sisters in San Jacinto rejoiced when Brother Navarro and the others arrived back home safe and sound, since they felt sure the entire group of brothers had been executed!