A Prelude to Service: The Philippine Islands - 8 Dec 1941-6 May 1942

Elwood Edward Bradish (1921-2018)

Father

This is the second of three posts that will set the stage for my father’s 20-month tour of duty that began in September 1943 at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. I have two goals for this series of posts. One is to create an impression of the war by focusing on some of the notable events leading up to Dad’s enlistment in the Navy. The other is to weave in what was happening in Dad's life during that time when possible. The posts revolve around these events:

•  the attack on Pearl Harbor,
  
•  the invasion and occupation of the Philippine Islands,
•  the loss of aircraft carriers USS Lexington and USS Yorktown (CV-5),
•  the Battle of Midway, and
•  the Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. 
  

This post highlights the attacks on the Philippines, Luzon Island in particular, and the toll it took on American morale early in the war.

The first post, A Prelude to Service: Hawaii, 7-8 Dec 1941, can be found here and the third, A Prelude to Service: Islands & Aircraft Carriers - May 1942-Aug 1943, here.

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When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Dad was playing basketball with a friend in Clymer, a small town in Chautauqua County, New York. He was just twenty years old. On February 15, 1942, he registered for the draft as required, listing the Jones & Gifford Avenue location of the Art Metal Construction Company Post Index division in Jamestown as his employer. Not surprisingly since the U.S. was at war, Art Metal manufactured aluminum and metal parts for airplanes and ships. 

 

Dad most likely worked at Art Metal until he left for Navy boot camp in October 1942. The plant was conveniently located about a half mile from his home at 815 Cherry Street in Jamestown, which meant he could walk to work, an important consideration since gas rationing was in place. Also, because he was living with his parents at the time and probably earning a good wage, Dad would have been able to contribute to the family finances.

As I wrote this post, I tried to put myself in my father’s shoes and imagine what he was thinking and feeling as the war progressed. By the time he enlisted, he had most likely paid close attention to what was happening in both Europe and the Pacific by reading the paper and listening to the radio.  

        

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8 December 1941

 A Declaration of War

 

In his December 8 address to a joint session of Congress, President Roosevelt summarized the events of the 24-hour period following the assault on Pearl Harbor. His historic "Day of Infamy" speech, in which he actually used the word "date" not "day," lasted only a little over six minutes. This excerpt illustrates the scope of the attack. (Library of Congress)                                                               

           Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. 

           Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

           Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

           Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

           Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

           And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

~ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), 

   in an address to Congress on December 8, 1941 

 

The headlines were the same all over the country on December 8, 1941. Above is a portion of the front page of the Dunkirk Evening Observer on that day. (Newspaper Archive)

 

 

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 8 December 1941 – 31 January 1942

 The Philippine & Pacific Islands

 

It’s difficult to fully grasp the magnitude of what the Japanese were able accomplish in just a few days after the Pearl Harbor attack, since the distances between their next targets were enormous. Consider the following:

• A benchmark: the distance across the United States is about 3,000 miles.
• The Philippine Islands are about 5,300 miles west of the Hawaiian Islands.
• Tokyo, Japan is close to 3,800 miles west of the Hawaiian Islands.
• Tokyo is nearly 1,830 miles north of the Philippine Islands.     

 

A map of the Pacific in 1941. (NPMaps.com)

Due to meticulous planning, the Japanese were able to immediately continue to their next objectives, delivering significant blows to the U.S. military in the the Philippines, Guam, and Midway and Wake Islands, all U.S. territories. Then, in quick succession, the Japanese invaded the British colonies of Malaya, Burma (now Myanmar), and Singapore. Finally, they attacked Thailand, a neutral country, and the Dutch West Indies in Indonesia. They were like a steamroller, flattening everything in their path.

Recall from the first post in this series that Japan’s goal was to become an economically independent world power. Above all, Japan needed to overtake as many targets as possible before the U.S. recovered from the destruction of its military bases, warplanes, and ships. 

 

By the time the war was over nearly all those tiny specks in the western Pacific, with names that are too small to see on the map on your computer screen, became battlegrounds – places such as Tinian, Saipan, the Marshall and Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and many more. 

 

 

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8 December 1941 - 2 Jan 1942

The Invasion & Occupation of Luzon Island, Philippines

  

 

The Japanese assault on the Philippine Islands began December 8, 1941. Just like Pearl Harbor, Clark Field and the remaining air bases on Luzon and other Philippine islands were ill-prepared for the attack, though the warning signs had been obvious; heavy damages were sustained everywhere. All but one of seventeen Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses were destroyed or damaged on the ground, as were thirty-four Curtis P-40 Kittyhawk fighters (some were lost during aerial combat). (Wikipedia) 

 

 

The extent of the damage from all the Japanese attacks was so great that the U.S. was unable to send warplanes to the front until the end of December. 

 

Headlines on the front page of the Dunkirk Evening Observer, Dunkirk, New York, Tuesday, December 30, 1941. (Newspapers.com)

 

The item, "Manila People Overjoyed as Planes Appear" (far right), states:

 

The American and Filipino forces on the north front were encouraged today by the appearance of United States army airplanes over the front as absence of air support has been one of their greatest handicaps.

But on December 31, U.S. troops were withdrawn from the Philippine capital of Manila, a beautiful 500-year-old city with Spanish roots that would lay in ruins by the end of the war. On January 2, 1942, the Japanese entered the capital only to find it undefended.

 

Headline of the Dunkirk Evening Observer on Friday, January 2, 1942. (Newspapers.com)

By late December, General MacArthur and others had realized they couldn’t repel the Japanese on the shores of Luzon. MacArthur ordered a withdrawal of sea forces into the Bataan Peninsula and the heavily fortified island of Corregidor. However, since most supplies were lost during the withdrawal, troops faced a rapidly dwindling supply of food, water, medical supplies, and ammunition. Soon they were down to half-rations or less; starvation, dehydration, and illness set in. Due to a Japanese blockade, there was no possibility of help in the form of reinforcements or supplies.

 

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3 January - 8 April 1942

The Battle of Bataan 

 

This United States Army Signal Corps map depicts the disposition of U.S. forces in Luzon, Philippines in 1942. (Library of Congress)

After four months of intense fighting on Luzon, the number of American and Filipino troops had diminished significantly due to casualties, while remaining troops were no longer physically able to fight having become so weakened by starvation, dehydration, malaria, and dysentery. To continue would have been the equivalent of suicide. It was under these circumstances that Major General Edward King, Jr. reluctantly surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942, hoping to spare his troops more suffering.

 

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9 April 1942 

The Surrender of Bataan

 

  The front page of the April 24, 1942, issue of The Tribune, a Manila newspaper, had a headline that

           read, "Bataan Completely Occupied by Japanese," along with this photo at the bottom.

Transcription of The Tribune caption above: 

SURRENDER – The surrender of Filipino American troops on the eastern front of Bataan was offered in this historic scene somewhere in Bataan when Major General Edward P. King, Jr., second from left, accompanied by Col. Williams (with face covered), expressed his wish to a representative of the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Imperial Forces. (Wikipedia Commons)

 

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10-17 April 1942 

The Bataan Death March

 

 

Route of the Bataan Death March (PCDSPO, Government of the Philippines)

 

The day after the surrender, the Japanese force-marched 66,000 Filipino and 10,000 American troops to Camp O’Donnell, a prison camp near Capas. The captives, already in poor physical condition, suffered from further dehydration in the extreme heat, along with gratuitous violence at the hands of their captors. Prisoners were beaten, shot, and killed with bayonets; there were many cases of beheadings.

 

Prisoners who could not keep up with the group were often killed. It was not uncommon for Japanese soldiers, or even Filipino citizens along the way, who offered water or showed mercy to a prisoner to be killed themselves.

 

It is estimated that as many as 2500 Filipinos and 500 Americans may have died before reaching Camp O’Donnell. Once there, another 26,000 Filipinos and 1500 Americans died, many from starvation and disease, others from mistreatment. (Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo was taken during one of the rest stops on the March of Death. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this photo, prisoners’ hands are tied behind their backs during the Bataan March of Death. (National Archives)

 

 

 

 

Prisoners who survived the 65-mile march to San Fernando were forced into filthy, hot boxcars for the train ride to Capas. Prisoners were forced to stand during the trip because they were packed in so tightly – 100 men in a boxcar with a capacity for only 40 to 50. Not surprisingly, many more men died on this leg of the march. Once in Capas, the captives were forced to walk the last seven miles to Camp O'Donnell (Wikipedia), where conditions and treatment were still deplorable. Of the estimated 76,000 that started the death march, only 54,000 made it. (Britannica.com) Americans were unaware of the atrocities until a year later when escaped prisoners were finally able to tell the story.

– WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE? –

General Masaharu Homma was commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. Before the war, he had a diplomatic career that spanned two decades, during which he came to respect the West. After the surrender on April 9,  General Homma’s orders were to treat the prisoners with respect, but clearly that order was not followed. By his own admission, it could have been due to his lack of close supervision. 

When the war was over Homma was tried by an American military tribunal for the atrocities committed by Japanese troops against, and deaths of, the Filipino and American prisoners on Bataan. He was found guilty and sentenced "to be shot to death with musketry," considered a more honorable method of execution than death by hanging, which was reserved for common criminals. Homma was executed on 3 April 1946. (Wikipedia)

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6 May 1942

 Siege & Surrender on Corregidor Island

Four weeks after the Bataan Peninsula surrender, General Jonathan Wainwright, who had succeeded General MacArthur, surrendered to the Japanese. After four months of fighting, the remaining American forces in the Philippines and on Corregidor Island were greatly outnumbered, starving, dehydrated, and ill. 

This was the largest army – 76,000 Filipino and American troops – to ever surrender while under American command. It was a crushing defeat for the United States. (Britannica) The news had to be demoralizing for Americans, especially young men like my father who knew they could be called at any time to fight what seemed to be a losing battle.

 

Headline in the May 6, 1942 edition of The Daily Monitor Leader, Mount Clemens, Michigan. (Library of Congress)

6 May 1942 – A captured Japanese photograph shows American and Filipino soldiers and sailors surrendering to Japanese forces at Corregidor in the northern Philippine Islands. (Wikimedia Commons)

 

After the surrender of Corregidor, Japanese brutality against the prisoners continued for several reasons. Because the number U.S. and Filipino troops remaining on Luzon was nearly double the Japanese estimate, they did not have a way of quickly and efficiently transporting the POWs to prison camps. U.S. troops had destroyed vehicles and equipment before their surrender, so the Japanese could not use those vehicles as an aid to transportation. 

Nor did the Japanese have adequate food, water, and medical supplies for the extremely undernourished, severely ill prisoners. Probably the most significant factor, however, was that the prisoners were held in disdain because they had surrendered. During military training, the Japanese were taught to be ruthless, to be otherwise was a sign of weakness.

In early June, American POWs were transferred to a prison camp at Cabanatuan, about 40 miles east of Camp O’Donnell. It would be three years before the prisoners were rescued.

NEXT: Prelude to Service: Islands & Aircraft Carriers - May 1942-Aug 1943

 

 

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– DIG A LITTLE DEEPER –

 

~ Read about the effective Filipino underground resistance and guerrilla movement.

  

 

 

Bradish-Scott Familly History - February 2021