Meanwhile, the Japanese high command had activated its plan to defend the Philippines with the Combined Fleet. Japan's warships were organized into four groups. The northern force was built around the Combined Fleet's remaining aircraft carriers, now bereft of their warplanes, and was to wait as a decoy north of Luzon. Japan hoped to lure the American Fast Carrier Task Force to a point far enough from Leyte Gulf for it to be out of action while the Emperor's other three forces, composed of surface warships, annihilated the American shipping supporting Major General Douglas MacArthur's beachhead on Leyte. Thus, they hoped to strand the American invaders on Leyte as MacArthur's soldiers had been caught on Bataan some three years before. The more powerful of these surface forces was to cross the Sibuyan Sea, transit San Bernardino Strait, and descend upon Leyte Gulf from the north. The other two were to emerge from Surigao Strait and attack the invaders in Leyte Gulf from the south.