January-February - Air Defense Artillery

Philippines in the War*
By Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth
The Japanese General Staff perhaps counted on an
eJ~Y victorywhen they ordered the attack on the Philippines.
OnIv about 14,000 American troops were there to
block the way. Nothing seemed necessary but to overwhelm
this small force-and then the road would be
openfor the Japanese to continue the southward march
10 speedyvictory.
But if the Japs thought so, a bitter surprise was in
~torefor them.
92,000 Filipino soldiers instantly sprang to the side
of ~lacArthur's handful of Americans. Overnight, the
Philippinesbecame world-wide symbols of dogged couraoe.Twentv
thousand Filipino soldiers and three thou-
I:> -
~nd American soldiers died in the fighting, knowing
that they were stemming the enemy long enough for
the United Nations to mobilize their far-flung Pacific
defenses.
\\'hen the Battle of the Philippines was over, the
nameof the Fighting Filipinos was indelibly written on
that special page of history where mankind has placed
Thermopylae, and Valley Forge, and the Marne. The
Fighting Filipinos had fought for freedom as only
free men fight. They and their American allies had
upset the time-table of the Japanese advance so thoroughlythat,
even in defeat, they had accomplished one
of the great delaying-actions of all time.
That, in a nutshell, is the historic military contribution
which the people of the Philippines, under Mac-
Arthur's military command, made during 1941 and
1942 toward the ultimate victory of the United Nations.Just
as little Belgium stopped the Germans in
1914 long enough for the Allies to gather their forces
fordefense,so in this present war fate decreed that the
newest outpost of democracy, the Commonwealth of
the Philippines, should bravely obstruct the march of
the Japanese aggressors in the Pacific.
But there is more to tell about the role of the Philippinesin
the war than merely a great military saga: In
totalperspective, my nation is more fundamentally impo~ant
in ways which are largely nonmilitary-ways
\\'~Ichhave to do with the things of the human spirit,
WIthoutwhich no great military feat such as the Battle
of the Philippines is ever possible.
The wartime achievements of the Filipino people
-If *From United States at 1l7ar. by permission of the editors of the
'my al1d Nary Journal.
have been the outcome of a unique national history that
has given us the strength and the democratic character
which make a people willing to die for their freedom.
That is why the Philippines are important in more than
merely a military way: we Filipinos are a symbol to the
whole world, not only of the spirit of personal sacrifice
through which this war must be won, but also of those
principles of mutual respect and equality among nations
which are basic post-war aims of the United Nations.
Let me stress that, when war came, the President of
the United States had the lawful power to call into the
service of the United States all the organized armed
forces of the Philippines. President Roosevelt did not
do this. Of their own free will-and mark this well-the
Filipino people stood by the United States, placing at
the disposal of President Roosevelt not only our Army
but all our man power and everything we had.
The reason is to be found in the enlightened spirit
and methods employed by the United States in its relations
with the Philippines since 1898. My people have
been treated by the people and government of the
United States, not as an inferior colony fit only to be
exploited, but as a fellow-nation which had a right to
independent self-government.
The story of American administration of the Philippines
is thus a story of square-shooting which fostered
in the hearts of all Filipinos their burning desire for
freedom. With American help, the Filipino people
achieved constantly increasing self-government, culminating
in the Commonwealth established under President
Roosevelt in 1935, with complete independence
soon to follow.
The ~nd-product of this policy was that, when the
Philippines were attacked, we Filipinos had something
worth fighting for.
All of the great military feats which the world then
witnessed-in Bataan, and elsewhere in Luzon, Visayas
and Mindanao during the Battle of the Philippineswere
thus a perfectly natural and inevitable outgrowth
of applying the freedoms later set forth in the Atlantic
Charter. To the people of the Philippines, those principles
were nothing new or untried. For years, they
had been coming to fruition in the Philippines.
The Filipino people have for all time vindicated the
policy of self-determination and have lighted a guiding
beacon for the post-\var world which is now in the
making.