Essay About The Battle Of The Philippines

Japan was on the march throughout the Pacific and a few hours after the attack in Hawaii, a group of Japanese warplanes led another attack on Clark Field. Clark Field was the main American airbase in the Philippines, in America’s most forward and important territory in the Pacific. General Douglas MacArthur, who at the time was serving as the commanding general of all U.S. and Filipino forces, had only just heard about Pearl Harbor when his base was struck. A few days later, Japanese forces landed in the Philippines while American forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. MacArthur and his men fought valiantly against overwhelming forces, until the president ordered MacArthur to Australia to begin the rebuilding of U.S. forces in the Pacific.

Although the Americans were able to stop the Japanese from conquering Australia, there were two significant losses of U.S. Naval vessels. The U.S.S. Lexington and the U.S.S. Yorktown were both casualties of this battle. One of the campaigns in the Pacific that caused controversy was the liberation of the Philippines. Initially, military leaders wanted to bypass the archipelago (group of islands) and trap the large numbers of Japanese forces. General Douglas MacArthur pushed for …show more content…
Leading the invasion was General MacArthur. During the Battle for Leyte, the American Navy fought in one of the greatest naval battles in the history of warfare. The battle would linger on for three days with over 200 warships engaged. It was during this battle that the Japanese would introduce their use of “kamikazes,” or pilots on suicide missions. Even with such tactics, the Allied forces effectively destroyed the Japanese Navy for good. Despite this tremendous victory, however, the Allies would continue to battle the Japanese in the Philippines until the end of the