World War II in Leyte

Sixty Years Ago"

HE slept well the night before on board the cruiser Nashville. Unlike the troops in the transport ships of the 7th Fleet, his was a return trip, the fulfillment of a promise made a few years before in Corregidor. Only this time, his mission was not simply to retake the islands that had fallen to Japanese hands. He was bent on retrieving the honor lost by the USAFFE when Gen. Jonathan Wainwright surrendered the country to the Japanese on April 1942.

He rose shortly before dawn, strode to the bridge after he ate a hearty breakfast, and, corncob in mouth, watched the first assault waves land on Red Beach in Palo. Fourty-one years earlier, as a young engineer officer, he was assigned to Leyte. Since then, the islands had not changed much save for the coconuts which now lined its beaches.

BUT now those beaches had to take the punishing and destructive bombardments from the support ships of the 7th Fleet. Even the coconut trees stood limp without their outstretched palms facing the skies. The Red Beach was pockmarked with huge craters and smoke rose from what looked like Japanese installations. The sound of gunfire and explosions had not stopped, and sporadic bursts of machinegun fire were audible even from the Nashville.

Satisfied with what he saw, he strode back to his cabin, took and early lunch and prepared to embark. Just a few minutes before two in the afternoon, the general changed into a fresh uniform, his sunglasses and the familiar gold-braided hat. In his pocket was an old-fashioned revolver, a gift from his father, which he always carried during critical times like today. It was like a good luck charm, his insurance against being captured alive or possibly his last weapon for self-defense.

He descended a ladder to a waiting landing barge already filled with staff officers and newspapermen. Also in that barge was President Sergio Osmeña who was just as eager as the general to put his feet on Philippine soil. To the exiled president, it was a symbolic act, a sign of a fresh resolve. Like the general, Osmeña wanted to reestablish the Philippine government as soon as possible.

Earlier, he had serious doubts about returning to the islands under the general's control. Osmeña was not exactly in the best of terms with the former military adviser of President Quezon. Apart from personal differences, he had misgivings about the general's capabilities. But after talks with US President Roosevelt, Osmeña complied. Now he was just a few minutes from Palo Leyte's Red Beach.

As the barge neared the shore, the general turned to Gen. Sutherland, his chief of staff, and announced triumphantly:" Well, believe it or not, we're here."

Moments later, the barge grounded to a halt about fourty yards from the shore. The ramp went down into a foot of water. As the cameras whirred to record the scene, the general, along with Philippine President Sergio Osmeña, Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Gen. Sutherland and his staff, splashed impressively ashore on Red Beach.

After a brief inspection of the damage wrought by the bombardment, he went quickly to a microphone arranged by signalmen. In a voice deep with emotion, his hands trembling perceptively, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the US Armed Forces in the Far East, began to speak: "People of the Philippines, I have returned!"

That statement spelled the end of Japanese rule in the country and reestablished American power here.