page_title: Douglas MacArthur in World War II
section_title: Luzon
hierarchical_section_title: Douglas MacArthur in World War II / Philippines Campaign (1944–45) / Luzon
caption_attribution_description: English: Off Leyte, October 1944 Left to right: Lieutenant General George Kenney, Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, President Sergio Osmeña, General Douglas MacArthur
context_page_description: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign.
  MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air force on December 8, 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left Corregidor in PT boats, and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945.
context_section_description: MacArthur's next move was the invasion of Mindoro, where there were good potential airfield sites around the San Jose area. Willoughby estimated, correctly as it turned out, that the island had only about 1,000 Japanese defenders. The problem this time was getting there. A parachute drop was considered, but the airfields on Leyte lacked the space to hold the required transport aircraft. Kinkaid balked at sending escort carriers into the restricted waters of the Sulu Sea, and Kenney could not guarantee land based air cover. The operation was clearly hazardous, and MacArthur's staff talked him out of accompanying the invasion on the Nashville. As the invasion force entered the Sulu Sea, a kamikaze struck Nashville, killing 133 people and wounding 190 more, including the task force commander, Brigadier General William C. Dunkel. The landings were made unopposed on December 15, 1944, and within two weeks Australian and American engineers had three airstrips in operation, but "not since Anzio had the navy experienced so much difficulty supporting an amphibious operation after the initial landing." The resupply convoys were repeatedly attacked by kamikaze aircraft and on December 26–27 a Japanese naval force attacked the area, sinking a destroyer and damaging other ships.
  The way was now clear for the invasion of Luzon. This time, based on different interpretations of the same intelligence data, Willoughby's G-2 Section at GHQ estimated the strength of General Tomoyuki Yamashita's forces on Luzon at 137,000, while that of Sixth Army estimated it at 234,000. The Sixth Army Brigadier General Clyde D. Eddleman attempted to lay out the reasons for the Sixth Army's assessment, but MacArthur's response was "Bunk!". He felt that even Willoughby's estimate was too high. "Audacity, calculated risk, and a clear strategic aim were MacArthur's attributes," and he was prepared to disregard the intelligence estimates. However, all the estimates were too low: Yamashita had more than 287,000 troops on Luzon. This time MacArthur traveled on the USS Boise, watching as the ship was near-missed by a bomb and torpedoes fired by midget submarines. The GHQ communiqué read: "The decisive battle for the liberation of the Philippines and the control of the Southwest pacific is at hand. General MacArthur is in personal command at the front and landed with his assault troops."
  MacArthur's primary concern was the capture of the port of Manila and the airbase at Clark Field, which were required to support future operations. He urged his front line commanders on. On January 25, 1945 he moved his advanced headquarters forward to Hacienda Luisita, closer to the front than Krueger's at Calasiao. On January 30, MacArthur ordered the 1st Cavalry Division's commander, Major General Verne D. Mudge, to conduct a rapid advance on Manila. On February 3, it reached the northern outskirts of Manila and the campus of the University of Santo Tomas where 3,700 internees were liberated. Unknown to the Americans, Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi had decided to defend Manila to the death. The Battle of Manila raged for the next three weeks. In order to spare the civilian population, MacArthur prohibited the use of air strikes, but thousands of civilians died in the crossfire or Japanese massacres. He also refused to restrict the traffic of civilians who clogged the roads in and out of Manila, placing humanitarian concerns above military ones except for emergencies. Most of MacArthur's 8,000-volume military library, which included books inherited from his father, was lost. Nonetheless, he continued his habit of reading military history and biography until his death. For his part in the capture of Manila, MacArthur was awarded his third Distinguished Service Cross.
caption: Off Leyte, October 1944 Left to right: Lieutenant General George Kenney, Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, President Sergio Osmeña, General Douglas MacArthur
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "File written by Adobe Photoshop? 4.0", "Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.10.14", "Image DateTime": "2020:01:21 18:12:43", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "256", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "200", "Thumbnail BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail PhotometricInterpretation": "6", "Thumbnail SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "368", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11351", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB"}