Manila, Philippines • February 3, 1945 On this date in 1945, 35,000 soldiers of the U.S. Sixth Army under German-born Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, supported by 3,000 Filipino guerrillas, began entering Manila, capital of the Philippines, a U.S. Commonwealth, and soon liberated nearly 6,000 Allied and Filipino prisoners. Some of them, like the 64 U.S. Army…
South West Pacific Area HQ, Brisbane, Australia • January 24, 1944 On this date in 1944 an advance party of the 93rd Infantry Division landed on the Pacific Island of Guadalcanal, the first African American (“colored” was the term used at the time) infantry unit to see action in World War II. Reactivated on May 15, 1942, at…
Tokyo, Japan • January 8, 1941 On this date in 1941 the Tokyo Gazette published the Imperial War Department’s newly adopted Japanese Field Service Code. It advised soldiers in part, “Do not give up under any circumstances, keeping in mind your responsibility not to tarnish the glorious history of the Imperial Army with its tradition…
Saipan Island, Northern Marianas • January 7, 1945 In early October 1944, nearly 3 years into the Pacific War, the U.S. high command decided that, after securing the Philippine island of Leyte (done before the end of December), Gen. Douglas MacArthur was to liberate neighboring Luzon Island, while Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, from his station in…
Tacloban, Leyte Island, Philippines • December 30, 1944 The island of Leyte, the first island in the Philippine archipelago captured by returning GIs, was securely in U.S. hands by this date in 1944. It only remained for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, to announce the end of organized Japanese unit resistance,…
Mindoro Island, Philippines • December 15, 1944 On October 17, 1944, the naval, air, and land forces of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, began their assault on the Japanese-held Philippine island of Leyte. Three days later MacArthur and his staff, accompanied by Philippine president Sergio Osmeña, waded onto Palo Beach (Red Beach),…
Manila, Philippines • December 10, 1941 At 3:40 a.m. on December 8, 1941 (Manila time), 1 hour and 40 minutes after the start of Japan’s unprovoked air and naval attack on U.S. military installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 62‑year-old Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur awoke to a terrible day of his own. Within 3 hours MacArthur learned that Japanese carrier…
Leyte Island, the Philippines • October 20, 1944 On the same day (Japanese time) the forces of Imperial Japan struck Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise assault on U.S. military installations, they struck the American territory of the Philippines. On May 6, 1942, Japan swept the last American garrison from the archipelago by capturing Corregidor Island,…
Tokyo, Japan • September 30, 1943 On this date in 1943, at the fourth Imperial Conference held since the start of the Pacific War, senior Japanese military and civilian leaders adopted the “absolute defense perimeter” strategy after securing the requisite imprimatur of Shōwa Emperor Hirohito. The strategy reflected a shift in the expectations of both…
Tokyo, Japan • June 30, 1941 On September 19, 1931, soldiers of the Kwantung Army (eventually the largest, most prestigious branch of the Imperial Japanese Army) invaded Manchuria in Northeast China from their Chinese base at Port Arthur (known as Ryojun in Japanese; present-day Dalian or Lüshun Port) and established a puppet state they called…