1941: Philippine Islands

Japanese Invasion.

On Dec. 7, the Japanese let loose the War of the Pacific by their attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (see also HAWAII, TERRITORY OF). This was followed almost immediately by mass raids on the Philippine Islands, particularly on Cavite and Nichols Field in the Manila district, and by parachute landings at Aparri and Vigan in Northern Luzon. Subsequent landings of large Japanese forces, with all the equipment of modern warfare, in the Lingayen Gulf area to the northwest of Manila and on Lamon Bay to the southeast of the capital, revealed a pincers strategy which finally forced Gen. Douglas MacArthur to consolidate his forces on the Bataan peninsula, west of Manila Bay. As 1941 closed, the fall of Manila seemed inevitable, in spite of the strong resistance of the outnumbered and comparatively poorly equipped United States and Philippine forces. Manila and the Cavite naval base, which had been stripped of its installations, passed into Japan's hands, without fighting, Jan. 2, 1942; but the fortified island of Corregidor, which commands the entrance to Manila Bay, although subject to repeated bombardment, held out; and the United States forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur put up furious resistance on the Bataan peninsula.

Meanwhile, shortly before Christmas hard fighting occurred at Davao, on the southern island of Mindanao, a recognized danger point in the Philippines defense because of the concentration there of Japanese population and enterprises. On Dec. 24 Manila was declared an open city, in accordance with the 1907 Hague Convention of which Japan was a signatory. All defending troops were withdrawn, anti-aircraft batteries dismantled and ammunition destroyed. Thus undefended and, strictly speaking, 'without the character of a military objective,' the city was nevertheless heavily bombed on Dec. 27, with considerable loss of life and damage to property.

The quantitative air and naval superiority of the Japanese was demonstrated by their success in landing such large invading forces at so many points and in establishing air bases. Japan's strategy in striking first at Pearl Harbor and the United States' outposts in the Pacific, Guam, Wake and Midway Islands, thus interrupting the United States' line of communication to the Far East and reducing the chance of reinforcements reaching the Philippines, seems from a military point of view so far to have been justified by the results. The earlier opinions of experts regarding the impossibility of holding the Philippines against a sustained attack may also be borne out. The best that could be expected of the defending forces, MacArthur's 'Indomitables,' was a delaying action, which would serve the larger strategy of weakening the Japanese drive on Singapore. The creation of a supreme Allied command in the Pacific, under Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell, extends his authority to the Philippines. Thus the Battle of the Philippines becomes an item of the Pacific War, just as the whole Far Eastern conflict emerges as an integral part of the world struggle between the Axis powers and the Allied nations. The Philippine campaign must also be considered in the light of Japan's dream of a Greater East Asia, dominated by Japan, from which the white race will be eliminated. The attempt to reduce the fortified Manila Bay area then falls into place in the general scheme of reducing all Allied bases in the Far East.

At the close of the year, at the informal inaugural of President Quezon, who had been overwhelmingly reelected for a second term on Nov. 11, the Philippine President pledged his country 'to stand by America and to fight with her until victory is won.' President Roosevelt has, in turn, pledged to the people of the Philippines Commonwealth the eventual establishment of the independence promised for 1946.

Defense Problems.

Although the Philippine Islands had generally been regarded as a military liability, attempts had been made, in view of the growing crisis in the Far East, to increase their defenses. The Commonwealth had, in 1936, inaugurated a national defense program, and had retained Douglas MacArthur as military adviser and made him Field Marshal of the Commonwealth Army. Subsequent cuts in appropriations for munitions and equipment had indicated a slackening defense effort, however, and in his annual message to the Philippines Assembly, in February of this year, President Quezon said: 'the defense of our country remains primarily the responsibility of the United States.' The Philippine Army, active and reserve, totaled not over 150,000 men; the nucleus was the experienced Constabulary, numbering about 4,000; the reserve force was poorly equipped, and some of it insufficiently trained, although familiar with guerrilla warfare. Besides the Filipino troops, there were the crack Philippine Scouts, numbering at last reports some 6,500, and token United States Army garrisons, bringing the numerical strength of the United States Army in the Philippines, until recent months, to a total of approximately 10,000. Several thousand American soldiers were added to the defense forces of the islands during the year, however, and equipment of an unknown amount. In July, following the freezing of Japanese assets in the United States, President Roosevelt placed the armed forces of the Commonwealth under United States military and naval command for the duration of the emergency, and recalled General MacArthur to active service to take command of the American Army in the Far East. This step was interpreted as the intention of the United States to maintain its full rights in the Far East.

The Commonwealth had developed airports and landing fields, but their equipment was slight. It had, therefore, little to offer to supplement United States naval defense, and this last was almost negligible. Of the 7,000 islands, Corregidor was the only fortified island. No naval stations or fortifications existed on Mindanao, the second largest island. The naval base at Cavite and the naval station at Olongapo were quite inadequate to service a powerful fleet. The United States Asiatic Fleet consisted, at the outbreak of the War, mostly of two heavy and two light cruisers, a squadron of destroyers, about two dozen naval patrol planes, some long range bombers, a few mine layers, an aircraft carrier, and a recently reinforced submarine fleet. The United States Pacific Fleet, based on Pearl Harbor, was 5,000 miles away.

In March President Quezon appointed a Civilian Emergency Administration to coordinate the program of civilian defense. The financing of civilian protection has been a bone of contention between the Philippines President and the American High Commissioner, with Sr. Quezon taking the position that, until 1946, this was the United States' responsibility and Mr. Sayre considering it the burden of the Commonwealth. The latter view prevailed and the Commonwealth took it over, hoping that funds for the purpose could be obtained from the United States Congress from credits which have been accumulating from the processing tax on sugar ($33,000,000) and from the gold devaluation fund ($21,000,000). As a result of this indecision, air-raid precautions were lacking and the civilian population virtually unprotected, although efforts have been made to increase the essential foodstuffs and the supplies of fuel. Blame for the inadequacies of civilian protection was attributed by President Quezon, late in November, to the check on his emergency powers caused by 'imperialistic Americans' and by critics of his alleged dictatorial tendencies. The American Civil Liberties Union called this charge 'wholly unwarranted' since it, the chief critic cited, was concerned with the abrogation of civil liberties, not with the exercise of economic and military emergency powers.

Economic Condition.

Disturbed world economic conditions in 1941 caused the Philippines great business losses, due primarily to the critical lack of tonnage for the shipment of its exports and to excessive freight rates, although a Bureau of Commerce report for the first four months of the year indicate a 9 per cent increase of exports over the corresponding 1940 period. Adverse effects of the world conflict led the National Assembly, in May, to ask Congress to suspend the graduated export tax, this year amounting to 5 per cent of the normal United States tariff on the Commonwealth's major exports, which became effective Jan. 1. Economic ties with the United States were strengthened by the World War. For the first nine months of 1941, 94 per cent of the Philippines' exports were shipped to the United States (valued at $72,925,000) and 80 per cent of the Commonwealth's imports came from the United States (valued at $81,490,000). The American defense program led to increased buying of Philippine chrome, manganese and Manila hemp, which, in June, were given priorities, affecting adversely the shipment of Philippine sugar. The outbreak of war in the Pacific has now cut off sugar imports from the islands, which normally supplied 16 per cent of the United States' annual consumption. A problem, now likewise academic but earlier the cause of great anxiety to the United States, had been the leakage of war materials to Japan, and possibly Germany, via the Philippine Islands, which legally controlled their own exports. In March the Commonwealth offered to ban exports of strategic materials, including hemp, copra and coconut oil, and important ores, to all countries except the United States, a move which would have seriously affected its trade relations with Japan, since that country had been taking practically all the Philippines' iron and copper ore, had largely financed the iron industry, and, in 1940, had drawn over one-quarter of its imports of ferrous raw materials from the islands. In May the United States' export licensing system was applied to Philippine exports. This ruling was extended, in August, to prevent the reexport of vital goods to the Axis powers, especially to Japan, by requiring that all licenses for exports from the Philippines be granted in the United States. It was thus hoped that the use of the Philippines as a transshipment center for airplane parts, automobiles, tires, machinery and food, which was apparent in 1940 and the first months of 1941, might be stopped.

See also JAPAN: War in the Pacific; UNITED STATES; WORLD WAR II.