General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines
General Douglas MacArthur's return to the Philippines marked a significant moment in World War II, symbolizing the Allied effort to reclaim territory from Japanese occupation. After the fall of the Philippines to Japanese forces in early 1942, MacArthur was ordered to escape to Australia, where he vowed to return and liberate the islands. His promise was fulfilled on October 20, 1944, when he landed on Leyte Island during the American invasion of the Philippines. This operation was part of a larger Allied strategy to regain control of the Pacific, which included coordinated efforts from both MacArthur's forces and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's command.
MacArthur's arrival was met with a rallying call to the Filipino people, urging them to rise up against their occupiers. The campaign to secure Leyte resulted in heavy casualties, but by the end of 1944, American forces had successfully regained control of the island. Following this, MacArthur continued to advance, ultimately reestablishing the Philippine government in 1945 and declaring the islands liberated once the last Japanese forces were overcome. His return not only signified a military victory but also aimed to restore hope and sovereignty to the Filipino people.
General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines
General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines
In the three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Philippine Islands were the scene of desperate defenses led by General Douglas MacArthur and Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright. When Manila and Cavite fell to the Japanese on January 2, 1942, the American and Filipino forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula, where they resisted a siege for three months. Bataan fell on April 19 and the defenders retreated to Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. Finally, on May 6 Wainwright surrendered Corregidor and its garrison of 11,500 .
During the battle for the Philippines, President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed General MacArthur to leave the islands for Australia, where he was to become supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific Area. MacArthur left Corregidor by boat on March 11 and reached Australia on March 17. Arriving in Australia, MacArthur told reporters of his determination to avenge Allied losses: “The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.”
MacArthur fulfilled his promise two and one half years later, on October 20, 1944, when he waded ashore at Leyte Island on the first day of the American invasion of the Philippines.
American strategy, developed in the early days of World War II, called for two lines of advance against the Japanese. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of Pacific Ocean Areas, was to attack westward from the Hawaiian islands. General MacArthur was to proceed northward from Australia. Early in 1944 forces within MacArthur's Southwest Pacific command fought to secure Papua (the southeastern section of New Guinea), seized the Admiralty Islands, and began a series of amphibious assaults along the northern coast of New Guinea. In the Central Pacific Area, forces under Nimitz's command took the Gilbert Islands late in 1943 and invaded the Marshall Islands early in 1944. Meanwhile, additional encounters, including the struggle for the bitterly contested western Solomon Islands, were taking place in other areas of the Pacific. By March 1944 the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., agreed that the Allies should return to the Philippines, and they proposed November 1944 as the date for an invasion of Mindanao, the southernmost and largest of the Philippine Islands.
During the spring and summer of 1944, MacArthur continued his offensive across the northern coast of New Guinea, leapfrogging his forces in a series of amphibious operations supported by air cover from Nimitz's carriers. By the end of July MacArthur was at New Guinea's northwest tip. Meanwhile, Nimitz moved farther westward across the Central Pacific. His carrier forces defeated the bulk of the Japanese fleet on June 19 and 20 in the battle of the Philippine Sea. His army and marine divisions took the island of Saipan in July and then stormed Guam. By mid -September 1944, with the invasions of Morotai and the Palau Islands, the stage was set for the retaking of the Philippines.
Flying in support of the Morotai and Palau landings, Admiral William Halsey's carrier planes bombed the central Philippines on September 12 and 14, 1944. The Japanese offered little resistance, and Halsey recommended that MacArthur and Nimitz change the next major objective from Mindanao in the southern Philippines to Leyte. More centrally located, Leyte offered the Allies potential air and logistical bases from which to carry out further operations. The target lay beyond the reach of land-based planes, but Nimitz offered to make aircraft carrier support available. MacArthur immediately agreed to the proposal and set October 20, 1944, as the new date for his return to the Philippines.
Coordinated army and navy operations underlay the Leyte plans. Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's Sixth Army, with over 200,000 men, was responsible for the actual invasion of the island. On October 17 an Army Ranger battalion landed on Dinagat and Suluan, two of several small islands that guard the entrance to Leyte Gulf. However, poor weather conditions forced the postponement of further landings until October 18. Minesweepers began operations to clear the waters for the troop carriers, and on October 20 the full invasion began. At 9:30 A.M. the 21st Regimental Combat Team captured the Panaon Strait. Four divisions then began to land in Leyte Gulf.
Behind the third assault wave of American troops, MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte with Philippine president Sergio Osmeña. Standing in pouring rain on the island, MacArthur spoke by radio: “People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil; soil consecrated by the blood of our two peoples.” Reporting that President Osmeña was with him, MacArthur urged the Filipinos to rally to him:
Let the indomitable spirit of Bataan and Corregidor lead on…In the name of your sacred dead, strike! Let no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled. The guidance of Divine God points the way. Follow in His Name to the Holy Grail of righteous victory.
By the end of the year, the Americans secured the rest of Leyte in hard fought campaigns that cost them 15,584 casualties and the Japanese well over 70,000. On January 31, 1945, the 11th Airborne Division made an amphibious landing at Nasugbu, southwest of Manila, and began a drive toward the capital. By February 3 two vanguard columns from the First Cavalry reached the outskirts of the city and seized Malacañan Palace, the official residence of the president of the Philippines. The last Japanese resistance in Manila was overcome by March 4.
Even as the fighting raged, MacArthur reestablished the Philippine government. On February 27, 1945, MacArthur announced the restoration of the constitutional government of President Osmeña in a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace. On July 5, having defeated the remaining Japanese forces in the islands, MacArthur announced that: “All the Philippines are now liberated.”