I SAW
THE FALL OF THE
PHILIPPINES Colonel Carlos P. Romulo
,
DOUBLEDAY, DORAN &. COMPANY, INC.
Garden City
1942
New
r ork
PRINTED AT THE
Country Life Press,
GARDEN CITY, N. Y., U. S. A.
CL COPYRIGHT, 1942 BY CARLOS P. ROMULO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FIRST EDITION
To My
WIFE VIRGINIA
AND OUR FOUR SONS
The world we shared so joyously has been taken from us. I look forward to greater happiness. I know you are holding the prayer with me, wherever you may be, that we find our ways back to one another.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I HAVE WRITTEN this book, since my arrival in the United States, not as a soldier but as a journalist. It is based upon a diary-kept during the Battle of the Philippines. In such a narrative it is impossible to list all those who fought so bravely through the struggle to hold Bataan and Corregidor. That is a story with thousands of heroes. I write only of those whose experiences I shared. To President Manuel L. Quezon and General Douglas MacArthur, my profound gratitude for ordering my lastminute rescue from Bataan, and to Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright and Brigadier General Lewis C. Beebe for arranging that flight. For aiding my escape from Bataan I will always remember gratefully my pilots Captain Roland J. Barnick and Major William H. Bradford, also Lieutenant Edwards, and that recalcitrant if thoroughly courageous army driver whose name I am certain was Packer. vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
viii
To Major General Richard
J.
Marshall, head of the
Rear Echelon in Manila, Brigadier General Charles Willoughby, Chief of G-2, and Colonel LeGrande A. Diller, my thanks for their friendly interest and example of soldierly conduct. To Colonel Manuel Nieto, my indebtedness for a friendship that has lasted from long before, during, and since the life we knew on Bataan and Corregidor. To Evelyn Wells, my heartfelt appreciation for her valuable editorial advice and co-operation. C.P.R.
The War Department has requested that certain statements in this book be deleted. This request arrived too late to permit the book to be reset. These deletions are indicated by heavy black lines.
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
Colonel Carlos P. Romulo Last Reunion in Manila . Death and Destruction in the Philippines A Filipino Hero, Captain Villamor . Headquarters in a Pigpen, Bataan Burning Barges, Cavite . Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor . Manuel Quezon . The Fallen Enemy A Japanese Propaganda Pamphlet Tough, Determined Filipino Soldiers Navy Yard, Cavite Stranded, Homeless Refugees A Field Hospital on Bataan . General Wainwright . Escape from Corregidor .
12
13 44 45
76 77 100 101
204 20 5
25 2 253 268 269 288 28 9
AV.UA
rOIlND-'TIO~ ,
CIIC .
.. E R I TAG E I saw the fall of the Philippines I Carlos P. Romulo
The statement of General MacArthur on the fall of
IICorregidor needs no co ment from me. its own story at the mouth of its guns.
It has
It has scrolled its
own epitaph on enemy tablets. But through the bl004y haze of its last reverberating sho~, I shall always seem to
." see a vision of grim, gaunt ghastJy men, .still unafraid."
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