BACK TO THE PHILIPPINES
Villard, Oswald Garrison
Back To The Philippines By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD ALONG test of patience and planning is over and Gen. MacArthur is back upon Philippine soil striking at one of the weak spots of the Japanese...
...There is an especial dearth of fighting transports and fighting cargo vessels, both new types invented since this war be-^an...
...There are more than 7,000 islands in the Philippines and the problem of recapturing them is an enormous one, but is simplified for us by the fact that we have such overwhelming superiority on the sea...
...There is no doubt whatever that we have so far developed the problem of landing on beaches and now have such a preponderance of naval forces in the Pacific that we can land anywhere we please...
...The Japanese successes in China may prevent the functioning of Gen...
...They are fighting with the utmost tenacity in Burma and to everybody's astonishment lately reinvaded India itself with a small reconnaissance force...
...the Japanese opposition to us, it accomplishes practically nothing against our fleets...
...That leaves open, of course, the question of supplying the troops once they are ashore and this is extremely difficult...
...Some years before Pearl Harbor a group of officers of the Army General Staff for months studied the possibility of recapturing the Philippines in case the Japanese took them in the first rush after war began, as actually happened...
...We have enough warships and men, and the only thing that can hold us back is, as said, the question of supply...
...There is no need to stress again the dogged determination of the Japanese to die at their posts...
...Those who witnessed the pitiful self-destruction of the Japanese civilians, men, women, and children on Saipan can be in no doubt whatever as to what will confront us when we reach the Japanese main islands...
...Task Is Tremendous It must not be thought, however, because we are back in the Philippines that the conquest of the archipelago is over...
...Their fatalistic philosophy, which nearly 40 years ago made them go to war with Russia although their leading statesmen believed they could not possibly win the war but had to enter it in order to preserve their "honor," will undoubtedly lead them to sacrifice their people as long as there is any hope of resistance...
...Chennault's airforces, which was plainly the major aim of the attacks this Summer and Fall...
...A Picture Of Horror The Japanese have made marvelous progress in China and will probably soon have completed the conquest of their interior line which is to do away with the need of much sea transportation...
...The doom of the Japanese is sealed by the perfection to which we have carried our amphibian operations, and the complete superiority of our airforce and equipment of every kind...
...As for...
...The delay has of course not been due merely to the necessity of having time to assemble the forces needed...
...MacArthur is back upon Philippine soil striking at one of the weak spots of the Japanese occupying forces said to number 225,000 men...
...We have achieved the impossible and the incredible, not only in the Pacific, but especially in France, where the miracle of landing a million men and more on the beaches of Normandy has astounded the whole world, and especially most of our leading generals who thought that this could not be done...
...It will be long and difficult...
...Now he is there and it is no secret that enormous convoys have been crossing the Pacific with forces which were destined plainly for the Philippine occupation...
...They decided that the United States was neither rich enough nor powerful enough to recapture the archipelago, and dropped the whole subject...
...With our fleet securely based in the Philippines and our airplanes using the air-fields which literally spring up overnight wherever we land, the road to victory is plainly in sight even if the European war drags on for another six months or a year...
...It is a picture of horror from which there will be no escape for the Japanese unless the government decided to surrender...
...We have had to blast our way from island to island and finally destroy the Philippine airforce of the Japanese...
...He and most Americans have chafed tfoat we have had to wait for nearly three years before reentering the Philippines from which we were so quickly driven with such heavy losses...
...Now we read that in nine days our carrier forces in their relentless attacks upon the Manila and Formosa areas have destroyed 1.333 or more planes, sunk 86 ships, and damaged 127...
...This means that the attack upon the main islands will have to come more and more from the Philippines and Formosa, all of which is merely a question of time and of a great deal of blood since no one doubts that the Japanese will fight to the last man...
...We only had about 75 heavy planes in Manila when the war began...
...But all of this will avail them not...
...MacArthur himself has been reported as being extremely restive and depressed because such a long time passed before the country could give him the necessary forces with which to begin operations on Philippine soil...
...Now we know differently...
...Indeed, it is admitted that we are short of the necessary ships for the coming invasions not only of the Philippines, but of Formosa and the main Japanese islands...
...It does cost us heavily in airplanes and we do lose many lives when we go ashore...
Vol. 8 • November 1944 • No. 45
