M. N. Querol

MACARTHUR

of the Ph ilippines

by JIll. N. Querol

IN J anuary 1942, Douglas MacArthur found himself in an aw bvard position. HIS Fllamencan tlOOpS had been awarded the coveted Presidential Citation for their masterly withdrawal into the citadel of Bataan; but the tactical situation - which is to say, his tactical situation-had deteriorated beyond all hope. America's Pacific Fleet upon which the democracies had depended to challenge Japan's southward march of empire, lay in the silt of Pearl Harbor. Guam had fallen; Manila had capitulated; Singapore was about to fall. In the Bataan jungles 70,000

Filamericans were walled in between Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma's

imperial troops and the sea.

It was probably the greatest dilemma ever faced by a field commander since the Austrians, badly outmaneuvered at Ulm , surrendered to Napoleon without firing a shot. B'lt MacArthur knew that it is the office of the good commander to be as a torch spilling its light in the dark, that cheerfulness in the face of disaster is one of the secrets of command. Across the blue water from Corregidor sped the words that drew a laugh from the men at the front .... "They have the bottle. But I have

the corle"

MacArthur was determined to hold that cork. He knew that the Philippine Sea had become a Japanese lake and that immediate help was not forthcoming from the outside world, but he had no doubt of the ultimate arrival of a mighty armada loaded with the men 18

and material to beat the J ap. Therefore his strategy of defense was one of depth, capable of sustaining prolonged fighting and incessant retreat. Not for him the tactics of cavalry-fighting one moment and fleei:1g the next. He would make the J ap pay dearly fOl' every inch of ground he took. Let him come and try to smother the Filamericans with overwhelming firepower: they would be dug in along a line of battle, ready to meet him there. When their supplies

became low, he, MacArthur, would duct lightning Taids on the enenlY's

stores, then retire to the safety of his lines with his precious prize. The J ap's

superiority in armament and numbers

would tell in the end and defeat would have to be faced; but even then there was to be no surrender. He intended to spiit his forces into guerrilla ban us, take to the hills, harassing the enemy from every side. Then, when help arrived from the American mainland and fresh troops were landed on the beaches, his guerrilla army would appear from

nowhere and strike at the enemy's rear.

MacArthur arrived at this decision

not upon military considerations alone.

Five years before, he had assured his friend Manuel Quezon that the Philippines could be defended and that no power would attempt a Philippine in-

vasion unless it was prepared to lose

millions of lives and billions in treasure. Upon that assurance he had staked his professional reputation.

Plagued by wonies over possible J apanese encroachment, Quezon had raised the question of Philippine military defensibility in blunt terms. MacArthur's reply was positive and simple: "I've studied the problem since 1928 and I am convinced that it is defensible,

or that its conquest can be made so expensive no nation would attempt it."

HOMMA'S repeated assaults against

the Filamerican line, running roughly

from Abucay in the east to Bagac in the west called upon MacArtbur to prove

his words.

As he pored over his tactical maps and designed the intricate strategy that resulted in the Japanese slaughter at Abucay, he had reason to feel elated. His raw, ill-equipped Bataan army

became overnight an army of tough

veterans under the stress and fire of battle. He had six years to train that

army, to turn it into an effective frontline force. In Bataan's treacherous de-

files it was pl'oving itself equal to the finest troops the enemy could throw against it.

When MacArthur undertook to train

that aI'my, the enemy was, in his judg-

ment, hypothetical at best. Japan? Probably. But if Japan were to make a

Philippine entry upon America's with-

drawal from the Islands, she would split her empire into two parts and render her military position difficult. Mac-

Arthur was convinced that Japan's mili-

tarists were too astute to try a push to the south. Nevertheless he plunged

with grim seriousness into the task of training an army for a war that may never come, and for his complete devo-

tion to that self-imposed duty the grateful Quezon conferred upon him the baton of a field marshal. "It's a big job," MacArthur admitted. "But I want to do it in defiance of the general opinion that the Philippines Cannot be defended."

Oddly, some thirty-seven years before, his father Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur had helped prove that defense of the Philippines against a wellequipped, determined force was hardly possible. A winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor during the War between the States, the elder MacArthur later

commanded a division in General Elwell Otis' American Expeditionary Forces in

the Philippines.

The facts of that campaign, which

constitute an effective argument against

the thesis of Philippine military defen-

sibility, were not sufficiently conclusive

to Douglas MacArthur. Like his father, who as military governor of the Philippines was bold enough to institute the

writ of habeas corpus when Filipino

guerrillas still threatened peace, he was prepared to prove that it could be done.

Throughout the darkest days in Bataan, his faith in that belief was never

shaken. '1.'0 the ailmg Quezon, bedndden in his lateral On COl'l'egidor, he wou l,d

say j oculal'iy : "We'll go back to the Philippines, Mr. President, and if necessary I'll put you back in Malacaiian on the points of my

bayonets.l1

MacArthur meant those words pi:ecise: ly as he said them. He had for Quezon a close and abiding friendship, its roots

driven deep in his aln10st mystical con·

viction that the Philippines formed a do-

minant pattern in the lives of the Mac-

Arthurs. As military governor I the el-

der MacArthur had caught the inlagination and love of the Filipino people. As

general-in-chief of their army, the

younger MacArthur stood between them

and the Japanese conqueror.

The Philippines indeed is a land to come back to. Here in this land of tall palms and sweet rice, he had seen the hand of destiny. He had begun his mi'litary career with a survey of Leyte as a lieutenant of engineers. As a brigade commander, he had journeyed to

Bataan upon his own responsibility and mapped out a defense line capable

of protracted resistance. Now the impatient Homma was subjecting that line to fierce amphibious attack; but the defending troops, deployed in mass upon it were holding well. In the Philippines had received his first practical train-

ing as a combat officer;

opaque jungles he was proVlng hiS fitness for command.

In this hour of grave peril, MacArthur and the Philippines were one.

So at his headquarters on Corregidor he bent over his battle maps-the American commander of a predominantly Filipino army. A white man, he was at heart as Filipino as the lowly frontline soldier whose face had become as brown as a ripe coconut under the Ba-

taan sun.

TC1 Douglas MacArthur, Manuel Que-

zon was not Manuel Quezon: he was "Mr. President." Every day, on Corregidol',

h'1 visited the sick leader, giving good Aheer to dep'Tessed spirits. Directly from MacArthur, Quezon learned of th" little victories snatched from the J apanese by the men at the front. MacAr-

thur was Quezon's messenger of news

from the outer world.

In the President's lateral, while enemy aircraft roared, Quezon and MacArthur talked of the coming peace and the rebuilding of Philippines. When Quezon at first refused to leave Corregidor upon Franklin Roosevelt's request, MacArthur insisted upon it as vitally necessary to the coming peace.

That night, in the submarine that started Quezon on his trip to Washington and to death, MacArthur was silent and subdued. The President was sick: Could he stand the strain of an. underwater journey? What if he were caught by the Japanese?

HE fretted at his headquarters until he got official word that the President had reached his distination without mishap. Then he concentrated on the problem at hand: Homma's divisions were poised on the left-center of the Bataan line, ready for a whirlwind thrust.

The situation was rapidly becoming critical, but MacArthur was determined to see Bataan through. When orders came from Washington instructing him to proceed to Australia and assume command of the Southwest Pacific, he refused. Not until his staff officers convinced him that he was the man to lead the counter offensive from the south did he change his decision.

His final orders to his successor in Bataan, Li-eutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright, were brief:

I want you to make it known to all the element8 of your command that I am leaving ov..- my repeated p?·otest.

The defense of Bataan must be deep. For any prolonged defense, you must have depth.

When the supply situlation impossible, there must be no thought of surrender. You must p,ttack. You should aetack stmight no?·th with the I Corps and reach Olongapo. The II CO?·ps 8hould advance rapidly to Dinalupihan and thence move quickly west on OlonlJapo, where you will join forces and be able to seize Japanese supplies.

In the hot, oil-smelling cabin of the submarine that took him to Mindanao that night, MacArthur saw visions of a rugg.ed army, ful! of mobility and striking power, grappling with the Jap. Above this army was a swarm of divebombers-artillery on wings-terrible in the sun. This was such an army as he would lead in the Philippines when the time was ripe.

From the time he drove the Japanese inch by bloody inch from Mount Owen Stanley in New Guinea, the whole world knew that MacArthur had a personal war against Japan. "I shal! re-

turn," his promise to the Filipinos was

no mere propaganda slogan; it was a formal pledge redeemable when the date fen due.

With fierce insistence he wheedled the men and material needed for a sustain-

ed Pacific offensive. This was not easy: Washington was preoccupied with the European front. To get his requisitions approV1ed, MacArthur continually threatened to resign his command.

But at last the triphibious campaigns could go on-battles that were marked with his personal touch: the quick feint, the swift by-pass, the wide envelopment. One by one the Japanese bastions fell:

Lae, Buna, Biak, Hollandia, Morotai,

Angaur. As he landed his great army on

Leyte's beaches, he saw a dream come

true.

MacArthur had returned, but someone had fallen on the eve of the journey home: Manuel Quezon was not with him. At the joint session of the Philippine Congress, another leader was on hand to receive his supreme tribute to the courage of the Filipino people.

For his fidelity "to his plighted word, after a long and difficult campaign," the Congress declared him an honorary citizen of the Philippines. His likeness will be stamped on coins bearing the

inscription "Defender-Liberator," and

his name will be carried in the permanent rolls of the Army. When his name

is called in parade formations, the senior non-commissioned officer will reply, "Present in spirit!"

This honor accrues to MacArthur a. long as this country exists, a fitting memorial to a life dedicated to the service of the Philippines. To Douglas MacArthur, the Philippines is home, and

the reply, ((Present in spirit!" will never

be an empty phrase.

Life Over Death

WHILE strolling about the ruins of Fort Santiago days after the booming of cannon had ceased, I came to a place where a pile of bleached bones and skulls was smothered by thriving weeds. In the midst of

this desolation a tiny vermillion flower

bloomed in solitary splendor. It was like a speck of light in a murky sea. I stooped to contemplate this symbol of hope over despair, of life over death. To my amazement I noticed that the little plant was growing from under a skull. In its struggle to see the light of day it had pushed outward and curled its tiny stem until it found an openinga cavity of the eye-through which it reached upward to spread its leaves in the sunshine, blooming above the nasty world even if only for awhile.

Contributed by SANCIiO ENIUQUEZ