Long before banks were too big to fail,
Douglas MacArthur was too big to fail. For nine hours hearing about
Pearl Harbor, MacArthur did virtually nothing (l. 7657). As a result,
US forces in the Philippines were taken completely by surprise by
Japanese air attacks. Men and planes were slaughtered before they had
a chance to get off the ground with an ease that surprised even the
attackers (l. 7700). Then and for years afterward, MacArthur shifted
blame up and down the chain of command while glorifying himself, and
was allowed to do so because the the perceived need for heroes.
At a loss for options, MacArthur dusted
off old Washington-generated military plans he once had derided as
“defeatist” (l. 7767). He declared Manila an open city and
prepared to concentrate the joint US-Filipino force on defending
Bataan, an earlobe-shaped peninsula on the west side of Manila
harbor, and Corregidor, a mountain island at the mouth of the harbor.
MacArthur managed an extremely complicated contraction of all troops
to this small area while fighting rear-guard action against the
Japanese, a feat that is regarded as genius, even by Karnow (l.
7785).
Corregidor is the size of Manhattan. It
was heavily fortified and had a warren of impregnable caves (l 7811).
Starting about Christmas 1941, MacArthur's headquarters were there,
along with his wife and family, and that of the US civilian governor
and his family. Quezon and Osmena also went with him. José
Laurel, the secretary of justice, had spent time in Japan and was
known to be sympathetic to the Japanese, so he was left behind to
manage as best as he could. “Keep your faith in America, whatever
happens,” MacArthur warned Laurel, or else, “when we come back,
we'll shoot you” (l. 7819). Later, Laurel was chosen by the
Japanese to head of the collaborationist government. Benigno Aquino,
future father-in-law of Cory Aquino, was named Vice-President.
In
February 1942, Quezon, Osmena, and the civilian governor left the
island to establish a government in exile. Quezon gave MacArthur a
half-million-dollar cash gift, which he accept in defiance of
regulations (l. 7882). At the same time, he was showered in gifts and
honors in
absentia
in the US.
Meanwhile,
Australia lay under threat of Japanese attack, so threatened to
remove its troops fighting in North Africa. Roosevelt agreed to take
up Australia's defense, and named MacArthur to head the effort. He
departed Corregidor on 11 March 1942 (l. 7925).
In
late March, the Japanese received an influx of fresh troops and
closed its grip on Bataan. On 9 April, the Americans crossed the
Japanese lines to discuss terms for the surrender of troops of
Bataan. The Japanese would accept unconditional surrender only. The
American commander agreed. It was the largest capitulation of
American forces in history (l. 7981). The transport of an enormous
amount of prisoners to inadequate camps devolved into the Bataan
Death March, during which as many as ten thousand men died from
disease, malnutrition, and wanton brutality (l. 8020).
The
Japanese drove the Philippines into the a state of chaos during the
war by a mixture of brutality and stupidity. The Japanese attempted
to grow cotton for the home market instead of sugar, with ruinous
results (l. 8166). They shipped the remaining gold and silver
reserves to Japan and printed worthless money, causing inflation and
associated problems, including a widespread black market and general
breakdown of law and order (l. 8185). All of the above was further
aggravated by numberless episodes of cruelty by the occupying
Japanese.
The
strongest indigenous guerrilla movement was a coalition of communists
and socialists named the People's Anti-Japanese Army but called the
“Huks”, a shortened version of their Tagalog acronym (l. 8211).
Relations between the Huks and the US armed forces during the war was
lukewarm but each side helped the other. After the war, the US
favored non-communist/socialist groups and arrested Huk leaders,
which led to further Huk rebellions later. Ferdinand Marcos claimed
that he commanded a guerrilla movement called the “Noblemen” in
northern Luzon, but in 1986 his claim was revealed as fraudulent by
an American scholar (l. 8236).
On
19 October 1944, the first ships of an invading American fleet
reached the eastern island of Leyte, not far from where Magellan
landed in 1521. Quezon had died in upstate New York the previous
August, so Sergio Osmena, now commonwealth president, accompanied
MacArthur in a lead ship (l. 8275). There is a famous photo of Osmena
and MacArthur wading ashore. The US Navy stomped the Japanese in the
battle of Leyte Gulf, destroying much of Japan's naval power, an
accomplishment that in retrospect can be attributed in equal parts to
good luck and superior firepower (l. 8312). There followed slow land
drives and island-hopping under very difficult monsoon-season
conditions. Japanese soldiers were exhorted to fight to the death. At
the end of the campaign, two hundred thousand Japanese had died,
compared to eight thousand Americans (l. 8359).
On
9 January 1945, the US, led by MacArthur, launched an invasion of the
main island of Luzon (l. 8385) at the same place the Japanese had
chosen. The landing was uncontested but there were major battles on
the way to Manila. The first columns reached the outskirts of Manila
on 3 February (l. 8416). Soldiers freed skeletal US military and
civilian prisoners.
The
Japanese overall commander in the Philippines declared Manila an open
city, but in the end the city became a battle zone. Although the overall commander was later convicted for war crimes in this matter,
Karnow places the blame on his underling, the commander of the naval force (l.
8432), who ignored orders, bombarded the city from the harbor, and sent sailors
ashore, who committed atrocities (l. 8445). By mid-March, the city
was reduced to rubble by the artillery
shelling of both sides and was abandoned by the Japanese (l.
8470). Further fighting was necessary to capture Corregidor, where
two thousand Japanese and scores of Americans were killed in a
suicidal detonation of an underground arsenal (l. 8479). Remnants of
the Japanese army were still staging ragtag guerrilla actions elsewhere in
August when the word came that Japan had surrendered.
MacArthur
presided over the formal surrender on 2 September 1945 on the
battleship Missouri in Tokyo
Bay. No Filipinos were present.
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