Of 19 46nce in july and they needed a military advisor to create the philippine military. Douglas macarthur at this point brings an impressive resume to that task. Decoratedmost highly american officer in the first world war. He had been superintendent at west point. He had been one of the outstanding graduate from there. Was known in the philippines perry had served there many times i had a lot of friends including in the current philippine government. Had been chief of staff from 1930 until 1935 and after that, except for the post accepted the post of military advisor. He moved out there taking his ailing mother with him and they booked passage on the liner hoover. Macarthur, being a Major General in the army, having reverted to that rank, was seated at the captains table. That is what this program here is from. From october 1935 on their way across the pacific. While there, he meets a vivacious tennessee woman. Jean faircloth. On the first leg of an asian tour with friends. On her way over, and we have the correspondence in our archive, on the way over she strikes out conversations with this general. They become fascinated with each other. Douglas macarthur is torrent between this vivacious woman that he loves to talk to and spend time and his ailing mother who is clearly close to death. He says mom, what should i do and she says i will be fine. They get to manila, and jean cancels the rest of her trip. Of 1937, she becomes the second mrs. Douglas macarthur. They come back to the u. S. For some time in the spring of 1937. mother had died. Is buried in the Arlington Cemetery next to her husband. On the last day of april, in new york city, they get married. They returned to the philippines. As he is concerned, he is not going back to the u. S. Manila is home. He has a penthouse there. He is working for his good friends. Working for the president of the philippine government. In february 1938, the couple has a child. Douglas macarthur the fifth. Born february 20th, 1938. His godparents are the president of the philippines and his wife. If you think about that in the late 1930s, to have ethnic godparents for an american child was quite a statement about where arthur is on racial issues. Macarthur moves everything to manila. Library, fathers library, fathers uniforms and metals. And medals. He is not going back but the state intervenes. The japanese are activating and becoming more expand more expansionist. With the fall of france in 1940, there is some weakness among the colonial powers. Start. Ecides to and so begins to move south against the dutch east indies, todays indonesia and against the french colonies into china. Of this concern, in july of 1941, 75 years ago, this july, Douglas Macarthur is recalled and named commander in in the fare forces east. Charged with defending the Philippine Islands. This is not complete when the japanese attack will harbor and attack the philippines december 7 and eighth of 1940 one. Honolulu, 755 a. M. When the japanese strike pearl harbor, a cousin of the time difference, 3 00 a. M. In manila. Macarthur loses most of his air force to a japanese bombing raid on the first day of the work. The japanese invade a few weeks later and macarthur tries to fight him on the tries to fight them on the beaches. Macarthur decides he will need to abandon manila and fall back to the raton peninsula to the an peninsula. He sends word to the manila hotel, to his wife and done, and on four hours notice on Christmas Eve 1941, Jean Macarthur packs two suitcases, packs her son, her son takes a tricycle and a stuffed animal, and they prepare to leave. Why do i tell you that story . It is why we have these two objects right here. Metals, andiniature the field marshal baton. Macarthur is the only american officer to hold a rank as field marshal. He was field marshal of the Philippine Army. To date, he remains the only field marshal the Philippine Army has ever had. This is his field marshal baton. It is oneofakind. No other one like it in the world. An american by eagle and has the philippine seal. As mrs. Macarthur is walking out of the penthouse, she stops and these these in the glass case and realizes she doesnt want to leave these for the japanese. She takes them and put them in a manila hotel towel and throws them into her suitcase and leaves. A couple of months later, the macarthurs are doing there will and their birth certificates and personal papers and cash they are sent out via submarine. It includes these items. Today. How we have them in 1945, the japanese captured the penthouse, inventoried the contents and in 1945, the manila hotel was a strong point. In the fighting, it was destroyed. The macarthurs lost virtually everything. ,f it was not saved in 1941 chances are it was completely lost. Holes in ourreates ability to interpret his life before because of the loss of personal correspondence and artifacts and the story. Macarthurs fathers medal of honor that he learned that he earned under fire was gone. His library, mostly gone. It is a real tragedy and a high personal price to pay among the Senior Leaders in the United States army in world war ii and something not a lot of people know about, the destruction of the manila hotel and macarthur apartment but that is white we had these but that is why we have these items here. Christmas eve this is the only place they stopped the japanese advance southward. The french and dutch are not able to hold. Elsewhere, they are not able to hold for very long and spent except on bataan. But they are becoming increasingly isolated. Macarthur and his wife are absolutely convinced that they are going to die in the philippines. They have seen the rising sun rise over the manila hotel. As far as they are concerned, this is it. When they send out that trunk by submarine, they are making their will. Not onlyacarthur is the senior american officer in the far east, and in the the physicaland embodiment of the United States in many ways to the average filipino, he is also husband and father because his wife and son who turns four during the him as well. Ith not only does he have the pressure of command, but he has to be a father and a husband as well and to be strong for his family because they are taking his cue. There are a couple of objects here that illustrate some of the themes that i talked about. Cap. , this small khaki this was given to Arthur Macarthur on his fourth birth day. It was handmade by one of the tailors on corregidor. They also gave a little cigarette holder. Wearingacarthur loved his hat and Walking Around smoking his invisible cigarette using his holder. One of the sergeants saw him a wearing this and called him general and Arthur Macarthur indignantly stopped him and said i am not a general. I am a sergeant. Why is that . Sergeants drive cars. Such is the view of a fouryearold. The other item in here of most people gloss over it but it speaks a great deal about how macarthur was viewed in the philippines the signet ring on display in this case as well. Is evacuated. Macarthur accompanies him to the take a boat out to a summary. Of tuberculosis and will die in exile. Both men think they will never see each other again. Off and puts it on his finger and say when they find your body, i want them to know that you fought for my country. And then they part. This is a small object. Of it carries a great weight a motion for the men that share it in february of 1942. A couple of days later, macarthur is granted a reprieve because Franklin Roosevelt, the u. S. President , under pressure from both his allies including a request from the Australian Government for a senior American General to take command, pressure from the u. S. , from the press and political opponents, realizes he cannot leave macarthur to the japanese. He orders General Macarthur to leave the philippines and macarthur who tries to duck this because he does not want to leave, doesnt want to leave his men and his home, he tries to duck this but his staff talked him out of resigning. They say that he is the only man that can lead back this expedition. He accepts the order. On march 11, 19 42, he, his family, and 19 other officers, Staff Officers primarily, to bite depart on four pt boats. Oakley is on board. They go 500 60 miles through japanese waters, through the philippines from the northern part of the philippines down to the southern Philippine Islands where they meet up with some b17s and on the night of b6 they flight 1500 miles through japanese airspace. They make it without loss. Evidence that the japanese new they were flying at that particular time but they made it. Macarthur later said the escape of a commander in chief and his party through a situation like this is unique in the annals of American History. And i agree. One of the great adventure stories in the history of the united dates military. Macarthur gets to australia. He issues a statement which has made him it was one of the more famous once you made. The president of the United States ordered me to break through the japanese lines for the purpose of organizing the american offensive against japan. Primary objective of which is the relief of the philippines. I came through. And i shall return. That promise, to go back and liberate the philippines, would drive much of the war in the pacific. The war in the pacific, particularly in the southwest the civic was unusual. Unlike just about any other conflict the u. S. Had fought him before for two main reasons. First, the geography of the area buthe vast space of it particularly the island of new guinea. It is one of the least developed. Infrastructuree like there is in europe where you can find ports and roads and accessible terrain to be able to operate. In new guinea, whatever you need to fight, you will probably have to take with you. The land does not provide it. And so, that creates an engineering and supply problem that is unlike just about anything weve seen before. That is the first part. The second part is that for General Macarthur to get where he needs to go, from eastern new ,uinea back to the philippines he needs help. It cannot just be the army. It has to be the army, navy, and the air corps, now the air force, working together. No one service can win the war in the pacific. That is one of the things that this panel really shows us and develops these themes. The first is the airpower piece. That is why we have the air force patch. Force, the fifth air force in particular develops a great reputation for being able to support ground operations and to be a great menace to japanese shipping. One example. In battle of the bismarck 1943. Japanese reinforcement convoys coming from new britain to new guinea across the straits was almost completely watched washed out by the fifth air force. They lost their ships and had disruption of their division headquarters. The general did get on shore. It was disorganized. Were of did get ashore limited value for a while to the japanese commander. That is the effect of airpower. Macarthur never jumped very far beyond his air umbrella. If he had to, he stayed within the umbrella of his airpower because he knew how important he was to the success of what he was trying to do. That is what you see from some of these photos and the air attacks. That points out the other thing about macarthur. This is true of any general or organization or ceo, he needed a good team to get to where you need to go. Macarthur had a great team. He had some extremely good engineers, good supply officers. At the heart were the three ks. The ground commander, admiral thomas kinkade, the navy commander, and general george kenney, who was an airpower dearest, one of the more innovative american airmen at the time. He was commanding the fifth air force. Those three working together, they were able to come more coordinate, communicate, and collaborate. Well. When macarthur said i want to leapfrog down the new guinea coast and this is the objective, help me get there. He would give it to those guys. They and their staffs would figure it out. By the time they got to the philippines, they had the process of an Amphibious Landing down very well. On several occasions, they were managing three or four separate three or four Amphibious Landings several hundred miles apart and they were all successful. That is a great team at work. When you think about macarthurs campaign and his press relations often focused on macarthurs campaign, even macarthur understood that he had good people working under him and working as an effective team. These guys were contemporaries of him. He knew them and trusted them. And perhaps most importantly, unlike what would get him into trouble later in korea, macarthurs people would be able to tell him no. It was very free discussion. A great team working together at often does not get the credit that it deserved. Looming over all of this, for all of the successes in new guinea, there is still the question when and if going back to the philippines. Mcarthur got his answer in the summer of 1944, one of the great moments of the pacific war. Right after the Democratic National convention had nominated franklin resolute Franklin Roosevelt for a fourth term, he flew to pearl harbor to chesterh admiral nimitz, general Douglas Macarthur, at pearl harbor. And as fdr said, where next . They were nearing the china coast and nearing formosa, and taiwan where do we go . Fortz presented a case formosa. Which was very much what the Navy Department in washington wanted to do but macarthur made the case for the philippines. He said mr. President , we have to go there. There were several reasons. First, strategic. The philippines were in a tremendous strategic position with the best harbor in the far east. A chance to use it as their base for operations against japan and other japanese held positions. Another reason you promised. Americans have made a promise to the philippines. We promise to independent but we also promised to redeem. Franklin roosevelt even said that. He said i pledge the full resources of the United States thatand behind the pledge the independence of the philippines will be redeemed and protected. Dwight eisenhower said in 1941, the philippines, asia is watching what we do in the philippines and will excuse excusethat they will not and abandonment. Not sure if macarthur ever read that statement that is something he felt in his heart. President , wer. Have made a promise and we have to go back. Ameer a moral imperative. And there are 17 million filipinos on the brink of starvation and there are over 10,000 american prisoners of war that are dying and languishing in prisoner of war camps. We have to go back, we owe it to them. Ultimately, what turned the debate was logistics. Can you do the philippines with the resources in the theater it that we have including the ships and the men . Macarthur said yes. That is when asked the same question about the foremost operation, nimitz said i need reinforcements from europe. 26, 1944. The same time the normandy breakout is happening. The french campaign. Consider the global priority among the allies. It is heating up and advancing towards the german order. There is no way nimitz is getting reinforcements from europe. That decides the decision. Macarthur would go back to the philippines. The fact that the United States, alone among the colonial powers, kept that promise, influences the u. S. Position in asia today and to some ways understand the toition in asia, you have understand this history of world war ii and understand the role of Douglas Macarthur. That brings us to one of the iconic pictures of one of the iconic moments in the pacific war the return of Douglas Macarthur to the philippines. Here he is waiting ashore wading ashore. To his right is the successor of the president of the philippines commonwealth. That is some strategic communication. He is coming ashore with the philippine commonwealth president on his right. Morning,ashore that october 20, 1944. The picture below, he broadcasts a message to the philippine people. People of the philippines, i have returned. Sets up ater, he philippine commonwealth government. That handset is the one he is using to broadcast his return to the philippines. Douglas macarthur, achieves personal success here that it is not one that is finished until the end of the war. He spends the rest of the war devoting the large part of his energy and the forces under his command to liberating the Philippine Islands. A task not complete until august 15, i do five when japan surrenders. War, they arethe planning the invasion of japan which purports to be one of the great battles in the history of the world and one of the bloodiest in the history of the world. The atomic bombs of hiroshima and nagasaki resulted in the invasion not needing to be done. They needed a Supreme Commander of the allied powers to rule japan on behalf of the allies and that job goes to General Macarthur. This is an example of him understanding japan, he studied japan and the far east and had lived in asia for a while but it also shows his ability to understand the value of symbolism and stage management. This brings me to this display behind me. Another one of the murals which shows the japanese signing the surrender of japan on the deck of the uss missouri, september 2, 1945. You can see some of the principles General Macarthur presiding. Dr. General richard sutherland. The man wearing the cap is william holley. Behind macarthur are some of the International Delegates representing some of the other countries at war with japan. Notable people here representative from the soviet ,nion, australia, the french the liberat