Evening star., 1944-10-20
Back to the Philippines

Bataan and Corregidor were about
to fall. The Philippines were doomed
The hour was as dark as any in
American military history. But Gen.
eral Macarthur, who had just left
the islands on President Roosevelt's
order and who was now in Australia,
made simple but eloquent vow: II
will return" he said The battle
was just beginning.
Today, some 81 months later, the
VOW is fulfilled. General Macarthur
and his forces are back in the
Philippines, landing in the Leyte
Gulf region, and perhaps at other
points, to undertake one of the
unquestionably great and decisive
campaigns of the war-a campaign
designed not merely to liberate the
valiant Filipinos but to sever all the
lifelines between Japan proper and
its island empire to the south.
Aerial blows in the Pacific have
been clearly foreshadowing just such
an invasion for weeks past. This is
particularly true Of the mighty
operations carried out by our Third
and Fifth Fleets from October to
Is, during which period our naval
air forces, in attacks against the
Ryukyu Islands, Formosa and Luzon,
destroyed no fewer than 915 Japa-
nese planes, plus sinking or damag-
ing 312 ships and small craft.
The overall preparations for the
Philippines campaign, of course, 20
back clear to the day when the
islands themselves fell. The march
back, under the top command of
Admiral Nimitz and General Mac
Arthur, began in the green hell of
the Southwest Pacific and involved
operations over vast stretches of
ocean as far north as Attu and
Klska. 1t involved the Battle of the
Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway:
the soaring Battle Of Guadalcanal
and the SolomonS; the terrible test
OF New Guinea; the recapture of the
fogbound Aleutians; bloody Tarawa
and the Gilberts; Kwajalein and the
Marshalls; Saipan and the Mari
anaS; Peleliu and the Palaus-each
bitter trial of faith and courage,
each calling for brave men to die.
According to reliable account, con-
siderable areas of the Philippines
have long been held by Filipino and
American guerrillas who escaped
into the jungle after the fall of
Bataan and Corregidor. But the
battle in these islands will probably
be far harder than any of the hard
battles yet fought in the Pacific. The
terrain factor, the supply problem,
the desperation Of the japanese and
their well-known whirling-d -dervish
fanaticism - all these things add
up to the sobering probability that
months of violent fighting may be
necessary before General MacAr-
thurs return is complete and our
nag flies everywhere from north
ernmost Luzon to southernmost
Mindanao.
AS this far-reaching campaign
begins, moreover, we shall be serving
ourselves we'll if we remember that
1t, too, like the Battle of the Solo,
mons or the Battle of the Marianas,
is merely preparatory. For after the
Philippines are won back, or possibly
even while General Macarthur is
still in the process of winning them
back, our forces will have to under
take the gigantic task of driving the
enemy out. of China and of moving
directly against his homeland. A
mighty new climax has been reached
In the Pacific, and we can thrill to
that and pray that our men and
their arms will meet with good for
tune; but at the same time the event
must be kept in perspective, for
though it marks the beginning of
the end for Japan, the end itself
may yet be long way off. In
President Roosevelt's words, Leyte,
important as it is. is but a way
station on the road