‘Battle of Manila’ tells the story of the fall of the Philippines
When the Japanese began their conquest of those islands, they forced U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur to hastily abandon his penthouse dwelling in Manila and flee along with his troops across the bay to Corregidor.
Vick Mickunas
Some readers might remember that in 2015, James M. Scott published his book “Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor.” His history of the WWII Doolittle raid went on to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. After the 1941 attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor they quickly moved on the Philippines as well.
When the Japanese began their conquest of those islands, they forced U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur to hastily abandon his penthouse dwelling in Manila and flee along with his troops across the bay to Corregidor.
The American forces there were then besieged by the invaders and ultimately MacArthur was forced to flee the islands while making the promise that “I shall return.”
In his latest book, “Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila,” Scott recounts the story of the fall of the Philippines, the Japanese occupation, and the eventual return of Gen. MacArthur leading a massive force in 1945 to finally drive the Japanese from the region.
The battle to retake Manila became a pivotal conflict and according to the author, a story that has not been covered in sufficient depth before now.
A lot of the book is devoted to first-person accounts by survivors of the Japanese occupation of Manila. There were quite a few Americans being held captive in the city and their descriptions of their experiences are gripping.
By the time U.S. forces were poised to begin recapturing the city, a lot of the internees were at the point of starvation. Many had starved to death already. When word reached the captives that MacArthur’s forces were closing in on Manila, there was eager anticipation along with fears that they would arrive too late to save some of them.
MacArthur’s intelligence from Manila indicated that the Japanese were digging in and fortifying it. The general chose to disregard what the partisans were telling him. He incorrectly presumed the Japanese would be leaving the city without contesting it. Gen. Yamashita was the officer in charge of Manila and from his base outside of the city he did order his troops to evacuate.
A Japanese admiral in Manila was making different plans — he told his marines to dig in and fight to the death. MacArthur was so confident that the city would be taken without a fight that he informed the U.S. press that this had already occurred. He was wrong.
The Japanese had devised ingenious and lethal defenses. Inch by inch the Americans pushed the Japanese back.
Behind enemy lines the Japanese were slaughtering thousands of civilians and burning the city. American artillery was pulverizing what remained.
By the time it was finally over, tens of thousands of Filipinos were dead. Most of the Japanese defenders were dead. A beautiful city was destroyed. Scott closes the volume with the war crimes trial of Gen. Yamashita. Yamashita was executed for his role in the genocide of civilians, but not before his case went to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MacArthur had to cancel his victory parade. His beloved Manila lay in ruins.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.