MacArthur's Fight to Free the Philippines | Clash Of Warriors (S1, E10) | Full Episode

[music playing] NARRATOR: The campaign to retake the Philippines, between October 1944 and August 1945, was the largest single US campaign in the Pacific War. Its aim was to secure the main islands of Leyte, Luzon, Mindanao, and finally all of the Philippine islands. The American troops would find themselves engaged in grim and bitter fighting against the Japanese defenders. [explosions] Time and again, the US Forces were forced to assault fortified and well defended Japanese positions. [explosions] Casualties, on both sides, would mount dramatically, especially during the bitter fighting for the Philippines capital, Manila. [explosions] The Americans were confronted by a complex and prolonged campaign to clear the enemy from islands larger than those they had captured since the summer of 1942. [music playing] The battle for the Philippines would pit the determined and seasoned American General, Douglas MacArthur, against the ruthless Japanese General, Tomoyuki Yamashita, in a brutal clash of warriors. By June 1942, Japan had carved out an empire across much of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Among its conquests were the US held Philippine Islands, where after a heroic struggle against the odds, the Americans were forced to surrender in May of that year. General Douglas MacArthur, who had commanded the Allied Forces in the Philippines, had been evacuated to Australia two months earlier, but vowed to return. In the meantime, he took command of the Southwest Pacific action. The tide of war began to turn with the first major American success in June 1942 at the Battle of Midway, where the Imperial Japanese Navy lost four of its most important carriers and was forever weakened. The US policy for Japan's defeat in the Pacific was based on a two-pronged attack in the North by the Pacific fleet under Admiral Chester Nimitz and in the South by the Southwest Pacific command of Douglas MacArthur. They were destined to meet up at Leyte in the Philippines. Two years later, the war in the Pacific and Southeast Asia had turned in the allies favor. By 1944, with vastly superior resources, weapons, and tactics, they were pushing back the Japanese empire. [music playing] That June, the Americans destroyed much of the Japanese carrier-borne aircraft force at the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Meanwhile, MacArthur's strategy in the South Pacific was to island hop, bypassing and isolating thousands of Japanese troops. By October 1944, he was preparing to strike the Philippines. After initial US landings on the island of Leyte in the third week of October, the remnants of the Imperial Japanese Navy were virtually annihilated at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The time had come to liberate the Philippine Islands. The success or failure of this venture was about to rest on the skills and characters of Douglas MacArthur and Tomoyuki Yamashita, recently appointed to command the Japanese forces in the Philippines. Douglas MacArthur was born in 1880 at Arsenal Barracks in Little Rock, Arkansas, where his father was serving as a cavalry colonel. [music playing] Douglas inherited an already legendary name. His father, Arthur, had been a hero during the Civil War, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor. He also led a brigade in the American intervention in the Philippines in the 1890s and was Governor General by 1900, A year earlier, Douglas MacArthur had entered the US Military Academy at West Point. He graduated four years later at the top of his class. He was also awarded the coveted title of the first Captain of the Corps of Cadets, for his all around military, academic, and sporting prowess. MacArthur appeared set for a glittering military career. Commissioned into the Corps of Engineers, Lieutenant MacArthur was posted in 1903 to the Philippines. One year later, he was appointed as aide de camp to his father, now a Major General, and traveled throughout the Western Pacific region, including Japan. He also witnessed firsthand the Russo-Japanese war of 1904. [music playing] MacArthur subsequently served on the general staff in Washington, as well as in Texas and Mexico, before America entered World War I in April 1917. Soon after the US declared war on Germany, he joined the American Expeditionary Force in France as a major. He rose through the ranks and was instrumental in forming the 42nd Rainbow Division, so-called because it recruited from across the spectrum of America's states. Known by his men as the D'Artagnan of the Western Front, MacArthur distinguished himself during the American offensives at Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne in the fall of 1918. He was highly decorated for his courage and outstanding leadership in battle. A Major General, at only 38 he was appointed superintendent of West Point after the war and was instrumental in modernizing the academy. In 1922, MacArthur returned to the Philippines as commander of the Manila district and served a two year tour in the islands starting in 1928. In 1930, he became the US Army's Chief of Staff. Having been appointed a general. Chief of Staff. Chief of Staff. In the regular army of the United States. In the regular army of the United States. NARRATOR: As Chief of Staff, MacArthur oversaw major reform in the US Army, despite clashes with President Roosevelt over the military budget. But he was to be most remembered for his part in the so-called bonus marches in July 1932, which took place in Washington during the Great Depression. MacArthur was roundly criticized for his heavy handed approach in dispersing a large gathering of unemployed World War I veterans. [music playing] In 1935, another term in the Philippines revived MacArthur's career. The following year, he introduced the Philippines Defense Act. A charter of individual liberty and national freedom. Its purpose is to preserve the integrity of the only Christian state in the Far East. NARRATOR: It set up the island's own defense force under McCarthy's supervision. He was also given command of US forces in the Philippines. On December 10th, three days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops invaded the Philippines. [music playing] Despite the heroic defense of the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor, the Philippines stronghold finally surrendered in May 1942. President Roosevelt had ordered MacArthur to leave two months earlier. On March 11th, he reluctantly fled to Australia. Upon arriving in Australia, he vowed that he would return to the Philippines and evict the Japanese. After his appointment as head of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, MacArthur worked tirelessly to fulfill his promise. Two years later, he was poised to achieve that goal. Tomoyuki Yamashita was born in 1885, the son of a local doctor. As a boy, he was determined to make a career in the army and entered the Tokyo Military Academy in 1903. Yamashita was an outstanding cadet and graduated as an infantry lieutenant in 1906. He became a great friend of Hideki Tojo, the future Japanese military supremo in World War II. 10 years later, as a captain, Yamashita was an outstanding student at the Japanese Staff College and was selected to serve on the Imperial Army General Staff. Between 1919 and 1921, he joined the military staff at the Japanese embassy in Berlin and in Switzerland. By 1922, Major Yamashita was on the general staff at the War Ministry in Tokyo and later became an instructor at the Japanese War college. Colonel Yamashita was commanding an infantry regiment when in February 1936, he was appointed by Colonel Tojo as the principal mediator in a dispute between a group of young officers and the War Ministry. The officers were demanding an end to political corruption. Yamashita's sympathy with the rebels, who had remained loyal to their emperor, led to a fateful cooling of his friendship with Tojo. Nevertheless, between 1937 and 1939, Yamashita led a brigade, then a division in China and Manchuria. And by 1940, he was a Lieutenant General. In the same year, he was appointed as head of Unit 82, a special group of elite officers who, in the event of war, would plan for Japan's Strike South Policy against Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippine Islands, and Burma. [music playing] Yamashita was also head of a special military mission to Germany and Italy in December 1940. Appointed commander of the Japanese 25th Army in November 1941, he led it in a spectacular drive-through British held Malaya in early 1942. It culminated in the capture of Singapore on February 15th. [chanting] Over 100,000 British and Empire troops, together with their commander General Sir Arthur Percival, surrendered to Yamashita's force of only 30,000 men. This military achievement was marred by atrocities carried out by his troops. At the military hospital in Singapore, medical staff and wounded men were mercilessly butchered. Despite this, Yamashita was considered a military hero and nicknamed the Tiger of Malaya by his men. Tojo, jealous of Yamashita's success, sent him to Manchuria, then a military backwater. There, Yamashita took lead of the Japanese First Army. 18 months later, the Japanese high command relented and Yamashita was appointed Commander in Chief of the 14th Area Army in the Philippines, shortly before the first US landings on Leyte. Now, both Tomoyuki Yamashita and Douglas MacArthur we're planning their strategies to decide the fate of the Philippine Islands. NARRATOR: From summer 1942 to autumn 1944, MacArthur had leapfrogged his way toward the Philippines while Admiral Nimitz advanced across the Central Pacific. But even as Japanese garrisons were being deserted, the US Navy restricted MacArthur's resources in favor of its own Central Pacific offensive, causing constant friction between him and Nimitz. In July 1944, President Roosevelt called a conference between the two commanders at Pearl Harbor. They were to decide on the next strategic step for the campaign in the Pacific. [music playing] For MacArthur, it was to be the climax and final chance to prevent his own campaign from becoming a sideshow. Nimitz argued that the main offensive toward Japan should be under the Navy's command and aimed at Formosa, present day Taiwan, thus bypassing the Philippines. But MacArthur believed that the Philippines should be the key objective. Their capture would cut Japan off from precious raw materials and enable him to honor his 1942 vow. Above all, he told Roosevelt, if the Philippines were bypassed, America would fall prey to Japanese propaganda. [music playing] Roosevelt compromised. The Philippines would be the first objective, followed by Formosa. [music playing] MacArthur was at last able to announce to an Australian audience. Two years ago, when I landed on your soil, I said to the people of the Philippines whence I came, I shall return. Tonight, I repeat those words. I shall return. NARRATOR: The campaign to liberate the Filipino people began in October 1944 with the invasion of Leyte in the center of the Philippines and the Naval battle of Leyte Gulf. [explosions] MacArthur made a symbolic return to Leyte, but it took six weeks to subdue the island. It was an indication of the vast effort needed to liberate the remainder of the Philippines. MacArthur planned to launch the assault on January 9th, 1945, with landings on the main island of Luzon. From there, he intended to evict the Japanese from the remaining islands. Amphibious landings would be carried out from the north and the south. The northern army would invade Luzon, then the southern faction would attack the other occupied islands. On Luzon, MacArthur's plan was to advance and capture Manila, then systematically clear the islands in the south. [music playing] He would then turn on the now isolated Japanese fortress in the north. To carry out the offensive, MacArthur would use the US 6th Army of 200,000 men, commanded by Lieutenant General Walter Kruger, for the main action on Luzon. [music playing] The 6th Army was to be transported and supported by the US Seventh Fleet, under Vice Admiral, Jesse Oldendorf. The US 8th Army, also 200,000 strong and led by Lieutenant General Robert Eichelberger, was to begin by assisting Kruger's 6th Army. It was to make landings in Manila Bay, close to the Philippine capital, just after the main Luzon landings had taken place. [music playing] The 8th Army would tackle the remaining Philippine Islands in the south, especially Mindanao. Japanese airbases in Formosa, a potential threat, were to be dealt with by the carrier-borne aircraft of Admiral William Bull Halsey's Third Fleet, as well as US planes now based on the Chinese mainland. [gunfire] Finally, MacArthur called on the numerous bands of Filipino guerrilla fighters to disrupt the Japanese. [music playing] MacArthur's invasion forces supporting fleets, carrier-borne and land based air crews, and the native Filipino troops totaled almost one million men. Tomoyuki Yamashita had no intention of losing the Philippines without exacting a very heavy price from MacArthur's men. He decided that the main defensive effort would be concentrated on Luzon. Here, he deployed most of his 14th Army of over 260,000 men. Yamashita divided Luzon into three sectors, each designated as a stronghold. The Shobu Group, commanded by Yamashita himself with 152,000 men, would cover the north. The Kembu Group, led by Major General Rikichi Tsukada with 30,000 men, would defend the center. Finally, the Shimbu Group, commanded by Lieutenant General Shizuo Yokoyama with 80,000 men, would protect the south and Manila. In addition, Lieutenant General Sosaku Suzuki's 35th army of 102,000 men was concentrated on Mindanao and the southern islands. Suzuki intended to force MacArthur's invaders to fight for each of the remaining islands, but instead, put up token resistance before withdrawing. The main exception would be Mindanao itself, where he foresaw a stubborn defense. Yamashita had plenty of artillery and mortars. He also had two regiments of tanks on Luzon. Although Japanese air power was underdeveloped, Yamashita still had one valuable weapon to throw against MacArthur's supporting fleets and transports, the dreaded kamikazes. These had wreaked havoc during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. [music playing] The kamikaze pilot located enemy vessels and then carried out a suicide attack by steering his aircraft into a targeted ship, often with devastating results. By the first week of January 1945, both Yamashita and MacArthur were poised for the battles that lay ahead. Both knew that much depended on their men. NARRATOR: By January 1945, the American forces in the Pacific had become a formidable fighting machine. There great strength lay in the ability to carry out large scale amphibious operations. But given the sheer size of the Philippines compared with their previous island hopping campaigns, MacArthur's troops knew that a long road lay ahead. [music playing] Their aim was to liberate the Filipino people and to avenge their defeats of 1942. [music playing] The infantrymen and Marines had developed highly effective methods for clearing a dogged, often fanatical, enemy. They realized that close cooperation with tanks, artillery, and mortars was needed to isolate and destroy Japanese strongholds. [explosions] At sea, the US Navy was by now the largest and most modern naval force in the world. It had recently decimated the remaining strength of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Above all, its carrier force and the carrier crews were the pride of the US Navy. With their flexibility and carrier-borne air power, they had given the American servicemen in the Pacific great confidence. [music playing] MacArthur's men were beginning to sense that the end of the war in the Pacific might be just around the corner. [music playing] Above all, they believed in their commander. MacArthur felt a deep responsibility for his men. And they revered him for his combat experience and leadership. Yamashita's troops remained fearsome and fearless fighters. Still formidable in their jungle and island defenses, the Japanese were now well aware that their resistance had to become more dogged if they were to prevent the US forces from reaching their homeland. [music playing] As a result, many Japanese soldiers were willing to fight to the last man rather than surrender. [music playing] Under the samurai tradition, death with honor was better than capture. The view was reinforced by their absolute loyalty to their ruler, Emperor Hirohito. The Japanese ability to fight on against overwhelming odds had been most recently demonstrated on Leyte, the Americans first toehold in the Philippine Islands. It took them six weeks of hard fighting to secure it. [gunfire] The Japanese troops knew that their commander, General Yamashita, had already defeated the Western Allies once at Singapore. And many believed that he could do it again. [music playing] The ruthlessness of Japanese soldiers had already been displayed in the Philippines. They regarded the Filipinos as an inferior race, whose lives counted for little. Allied troops captured in 1942 had suffered untold barbarities. Almost 80,000 US and Filipino troops went into captivity that spring. And thousands died during the notorious Death March out of Bataan. Two and half years later, the Japanese and American troops prepared for another round in the fight for the Philippines. [music playing] Douglas MacArthur and Tomoyuki Yamashita each knew that their imminent clash would be long and bloody. NARRATOR: During the first days of January 1945, the US 6th Army was taken from Leyte to the Lingayen Gulf off Luzon by the US Seventh Fleet. Admiral Bull Halsey's Third Fleet conducted preemptive strikes against Japanese aircraft in Formosa. While US aircraft from Leyte and Mindanao neutralized the remnants of the Japanese Air Force on Luzon. But Seventh Fleet's fire support group lost heavily to kamikaze attacks. [explosions] Among the many battleships damaged, the escort carrier, Omani Bay, was sunk and another, Manila Bay, hit. Undeterred, MacArthur's first assaults on Luzon began on January 9th in Lingayen Gulf. Yamashita did not contest the landings. Consequently, the US 1st and 14th Corps landed on Luzon virtually without incident. They quickly consolidated the beachheads and prepared to advance inland to clear Luzon. In the north, Major General Oscar Griswold's 14th Corps pushed aside the Japanese delaying groups and pressed on to the important air base of Clark Field, which it reached by January 23rd. [music playing] But soon after Major General Innis Swift's first Corps had moved out from its beachhead, it met heavier resistance from the bulk of Yamashita's Shobu Group. The Americans found themselves having to systematically destroy Japanese strong points to maintain their advance. At the end of January, MacArthur's force on Luzon was reinforced by the 11th Corps and 11th Airborne Division from Eichelberger's US 8th Army. And as planned, they landed north and south of Manila Bay. The 11th Corps then drove straight across the top of the Bataan Peninsula. But the subsequent advance was a costly one. Yamashita says men rushed into defensive positions and waited for the offensive. [music playing] The 38th US Infantry Division was to lose 250 men, with 1,000 wounded in a two week battle, through a tangled web of defensive positions held by the Japanese Kembu Group in ZigZag Pass. [music playing] To pry the enemy out of their well-sighted positions, the Americans were forced to use tanks and flamethrowers, which rained fire on Japanese tanks and their supporting infantry. [gunfire] [music playing] [gunfire] To the south, 11th Airborne Division made better headway and advanced rapidly toward the capital, Manila. [music playing] Meanwhile, 14th Corps encircled Manila from north and south of the city. They reached the outskirts of the Philippines capital on February 3rd, after some heavy fighting. To preserve his forces and prevent Manila's complete destruction, Yamashita had ordered the city's Garrison not to contest it and withdraw after brief resistance. But as the Americans closed in on Manila, the Japanese Garrison commander decided to disobey Yamashita and defend the city to the death with his force of over 20,000 men. [music playing] MacArthur's task of clearing Luzon was about to become a great deal tougher than he had expected. The fate of his offensive was about to hinge on the battle for Manila. NARRATOR: Once MacArthur's forces had reached the outskirts of Manila, on February 3, 1945, they were faced with the awesome prospect of having to fight hard to take it from Yamashita's men. A bloody battle for the city began. The 20,000 Japanese defenders had divided Manila into sectors and turned a huge number of the buildings into a series of well fortified and heavily defended strongholds. [gunfire] Many vantage points teamed with deadly Japanese snipers. [gunfire] [music playing] [gunfire] In other parts of the city, the defenders thrust field guns into street ambush positions and then fired them over open sites at US troops. Each stronghold was held to the last man and the last round. American artillery initially attempted to avoid destroying important buildings, but MacArthur's gunners were left with no choice, and Manila was gradually reduced to rubble. Japanese resistance was so determined that American tanks supported by infantry and self-propelled artillery, were forced to a street-by-street assault, destroying the enemy strong points one-by-one as they swept through the blazing city. [music playing] [gunfire] Casualties mounted rapidly on both sides. [music playing] Within a week, the central districts of the city were surrounded, but the Japanese resistance was as fierce as ever. [explosions] [music playing] Gradually, MacArthur's troops inched their way to the core of the Garrisons defenses. By February 22nd, the Japanese had been driven back into the 16th century citadel of Intramuros. [music playing] More heavy fighting followed. Hardly a building was left untouched. Manila was now a total ruin. Finally, on March 3rd, almost a month later, the city was secured by MacArthur's men. Over 100,000 civilians had died during the fighting. Many as a result of frenzied Japanese brutality. [music playing] Yamashita's 20,000 strong rebel Garrison had kept its word and fought this savage battle to the last man. Meanwhile, as the fight for Manila raged, 11th Airborne Division had carried out a spectacular attack on the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. On February 16th, supported by an amphibious landing from Bataan, an airborne assault had surprised Yamashita's Garrison. [music playing] But it took 10 days of fighting to secure the island. [gunfire] [music playing] MacArthur felt that the 1942 ghosts of Corregidor and Bataan had finally been laid to rest. [music playing] US ships could now move into Manila Bay. [music playing] On the 13th of April, the Bay's last fortification, Fort Drum, known as the concrete battleship, was overcome. First, it was pounded by aerial and naval gunfire. [explosions] Once the massive Japanese Naval guns on the fort's superstructure fell silent, MacArthur's troops assaulted it. [music playing] The ventilation shafts were packed with kerosene, white phosphorous, and high explosives. Time fuses were lit before the attackers withdrew. [music playing] The subsequent massive explosions killed any remaining survivors of the Fort Drum Garrison. But the battle for the Philippines was by no means over. Between April and August 1945, the weight of the 6th Army turned to the North of Luzon, with a series of assaults against Yamashita's mountain stronghold. His forces had to be bombed out and their positions picked off one-by-one. [music playing] The Japanese fought more zealously and continued to delay MacArthur's advance on their final Luzon bastion. [music playing] Meanwhile, in the south, the US Eighth Army had gradually reduced the number of Japanese held Philippine Islands, as it raced East toward Mindanao. Between February and July 1945, the US Eighth Army had to conduct more than 50 separate amphibious operations against General Sosaku's Suzuki's 35th Army. For the most part, the Americans would land, secure the island, and then leave cleanup operations to the local Filipino guerrilla units. [music playing] As planned, Suzuki concentrated his main defenses on Mindanao, which became another tough and difficult battleground for MacArthur's men. By carrying out a series of landings from the north, east, and south, they finally isolated Suzuki's Garrison into two groups, but were unable to eradicate them before wars end. Back on Luzon, Yamashita and his men continued to fight with their typical ferocity. After Americans dropped the atomic bombs on Japan, Yamashita decided that further resistance on Luzon was futile and an official cease fire was agreed on the 19th of August 1945. He was captured alongside 50,000 of his men. The campaign to retake the Philippines was the largest single US campaign in the Pacific War. MacArthur's forces suffered 8,000 losses and nearly 33,000 wounded. Yamashita had lost a staggering 192,000 men. Over 70,000 Japanese troops became prisoners of war. After the Philippines, MacArthur was appointed to command the projected invasion of Japan, but instead, the war came to an abrupt end with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. [explosions] On the 2nd of September, he presided over the formal Japanese surrender. I now invite the representatives of the Emperor of Japan, and the Japanese government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters to sign the Instrument of Surrender at the places indicated. [chatter] These proceedings are closed. NARRATOR: MacArthur was the effective ruler of Japan during the occupation after the war's end, with Hirohito under his power. He then commanded the United Nations forces sent to stop the Communist North Korean invasion of the South in 1950. [music playing] MacArthur carried out audacious landings at Inchon, deep in the North Korean rear. And drove them back to the Yalu River on the Chinese border. This provoked Chinese intervention. And by early 1951, US President Harry Truman wanted an armistice. [music playing] But MacArthur was convinced that the only course to victory was the use of nuclear weapons. [music playing] I believe that we must try to limit the war-- NARRATOR: Truman feared that this would provoke World War III. On April 11th, 1951, he dismissed MacArthur. It was the deepest personal regret that I found myself compelled to take this action. General MacArthur is one of our greatest military commanders. But the cause of World peace is much more important than any individual. [music playing] But when MacArthur returned to the United States, he received a tumultuous tickertape reception in New York, as if he were a conquering hero. He also addressed the US Congress in Washington. [music playing] At age 71, after 52 years of military service, he became a prominent businessman. MacArthur died in April 1964. He served as a general in three American wars and became a legend in his own lifetime. He remains a mythical, though controversial, figure to this day. After Tomoyuki Yamashita's defeat in mid-august 1945, he surrendered formally to American Major General William Gill, on September 3rd. He was indicted as a war criminal and tried in Manila at the end of October. The trial remains a debatable issue even today. Many of the atrocities for which Yamashita was accused had taken place before he arrived in the Philippines. And the acts of terror that were committed during the Japanese defense of Manila had been against his orders. Nevertheless, Yamashita was found guilty and hanged on February 23rd, 1946. He remains one of the most outstanding Japanese commanders of World War II. The retaking of the Philippines was a vital step toward the defeat of Imperial Japan. [music playing] While the campaign was long and exhausting, it could only have one end result. [music playing] For Douglas MacArthur, it was the fulfillment of a pledge to return, which he did triumphantly. But for Tomoyuki Yamashita, it was a disastrous and ultimately fatal clash of warriors.