The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company brings you the sound of war. The actual sound record of World War II, 2,191 days from the time Hitler's Panzer divisions moved across the Polish borders to the ceremony of the Japanese surrender aboard the United States Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. World War II, the most terrible period of death and destruction in the long history of man. World War II, a drama preserved for all time through the medium of radio. An era never to be forgotten. Tonight, the Philippine Islands, their death, their life. It's the long one down to around the three yard line. Ward Cuff takes it. He's coming up to his left. He's over the ten. Nice block there by Lehman. Cuff still going. He's up to the 25. He's down to the three yard line. Rue de Canard makes the tack. We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin from the United Press. Flash, Washington. The White House announces Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At 2 26 p.m. Sunday afternoon, December 7th, 1941, listeners to the New York Giant Brooklyn Dodger professional football game heard that announcement as the regular play by play of the broadcast was interrupted. 24 minutes later, just before the New York Philharmonic Orchestra was to go on with its 3 p.m. Sunday concert, a nationwide audience heard the news. One of those who heard the report by radio was Admiral Chester Nimitz. In her regular Sunday evening broadcast to the nation, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt revised her prepared Sunday program to tell the following news. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm speaking to you tonight at a very serious moment in our history. The cabinet is convening and the leaders in Congress are meeting with the president. The State Department and Army and Navy officials have been with the president all afternoon. In fact, the Japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time that Japan's airships were bombing our citizens in Hawaii and the Philippines and sinking one of our transports loaded with lumber on its way to Hawaii. By tomorrow morning, the members of Congress will have a full report and be ready for action. In the meantime, we the people are already prepared for action. For months now, the knowledge that something of this kind might happen has been hanging over our heads. And yet, it seemed impossible to believe, impossible to drop the everyday things of life and feel that there was only one thing which was important, preparation to meet an enemy no matter where he struck. That is all over now and there is no more uncertainty. We know what we have to face and we know that we are ready to face it. I should like to say just a word to the women in the country tonight. I have a boy at sea on a destroyer. For all I know, he may be on his way to the Pacific. Two of my children are in coast cities on the Pacific. Many of you all over this country have boys in the services who will now be called upon to go into action. You have friends and families in what has suddenly become a danger zone. You cannot escape anxiety. You cannot escape a clutch of fear at your heart. And yet, I hope that the certainty of what we have to meet will make you rise above these fears. We are the free and unconquerable people of the United States of America. As the reports came in from Pearl Harbor, Americans who were generally unaware of just where Pearl Harbor was or even why the Japanese were not already blasted from the water and air, received the news with shock and indignation. But soon there was the realization that a crippling blow had been struck the United States. When the final tally of destruction at Pearl Harbor was added up, the contrast between American and Japanese losses was appalling. The United States had 18 fighting ships sunk or damaged, 188 planes destroyed, 159 damaged, and 403 Americans were killed. The loss for the Japanese, 29 planes, 5 midget submarines, 55 airmen were killed, and 9 members of the midget fleet never returned to the surface. Ironically, in the greatest defeat ever suffered by the United States, one Japanese sailor was captured. On Monday, December 8th, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to a joint session of Congress. On December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire. With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. Delano, help us God. The following evening, President Roosevelt spoke to the nation by radio. Dear President, we are now in the midst of a war not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this nation and all this nation represents will be safe for our children. We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished this and found the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini. We are going to win this war and we are going to win the peace that follows. And in the difficult hours of this day, through dark days that may be yet to come, we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human race are on our side. Many of them are fighting with us. All of them are praying for us. For in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well. Our hope and their hope of liberty under God. Two days later in the Reichstag, Chancellor Adolf Hitler proclaimed to a cheering house of ministers, a historical revision of unique scope has been entrusted us by the Creator. Germany and Italy immediately declared war on the United States. In reply, Congress declared that a state of war had been thrust upon the United States. War was immediately declared on the whole of the Axis alliance. The battle had been joined. Immediate hostility was felt for anything and everything that was Japanese, but the United States had a large and loyal Japanese American population. Many of these citizens resided in California. Governor Olson of California spoke by radio. Well, my plans are to ask all of the people of California to behave with dignity and forbearance toward all Japanese persons in our state. Our distrust of the Japanese government does not warrant our taking out our hatred and distrust upon those about us. We have in California a large population of Japanese and Koreans. The great majority of these people are native-born American citizens loyal to the government of the United States. Many older non-citizen Japanese and Koreans in California are for the most part completely loyal, although they are not eligible for American citizenship. These loyal people, citizens, and non-citizens alike are anxious to render every possible assistance to our government in the prosecution of the war against Japan. They have so expressed themselves in great numbers and in no uncertain terms. Soon it was realized that the attack on Pearl Harbor was not the only place that the Japanese had struck. In its far-flung, magnificently timed and coordinated attack, the Japanese hit British, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island, and the Philippine Islands. On December 10th, the first United States territory was captured, the island of Guam. Less than two weeks later, the last message was tapped out by a wireless operator on Wake Island. The message read, Urgent. Enemy on island. The issue is in doubt. Soon this report was heard over American radio. The Navy announces that Wake Island is probably captured by the enemy. And now it is disclosed that fewer than 400 Marines held Wake Island for at least 14 days against heavy Japanese attacks. The Marines had 12 fighter planes and a small quantity of weapons. They were commanded by a 38-year-old Marine Major James P.S. Devereux. They sank one Japanese light cruiser and three destroyers. They held out against 13 raids. Meanwhile, the Japanese had been active against the British. Almost immediately after the attack on Pearl, Prime Minister Winston Churchill told a cheering House of Commons that Great Britain would immediately join the fight against the Japanese. The show of loyalty brought immediate disaster to the British Navy, a follow-up to the American tragedy at Pearl Harbor. On Monday, December 8, almost at the moment President Roosevelt was making his declaration of war speech to the United States Congress, Japanese planes were swooping out of the skies off the Malayan coast to sink two of Great Britain's mightiest battle wagons, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse. In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, In my whole experience, I do not remember any naval blow so heavy or so painful as the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse. Fortunately, neither ship blew up. Therefore, 2,000 of the 3,000 officers and men aboard were saved. The heroism by the British crews was of almost unbelievable magnitude, said one American correspondent who observed the sinkings in behavior of the British seamen. Believe me, I shall never take my hat off for anything less than a British seamen. Two weeks later, as Christmas 1941 neared, Prime Minister Churchill came to the United States for a war council with President Roosevelt. He was invited to speak to Congress. They have certainly embarked upon a very considerable undertaking. After the outrages they have committed upon us at Pearl Harbor, in the Pacific Islands, in the Philippines, in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, they must now know that the states for which they have decided to play are mortal. There was much defeat before victory. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese began their air attack against the Philippine Islands. The Philippine Islands, composed of 7,083 islands and islands, the gateway for Japan's trade routes to the rich oil deposits of the Dutch East Indies. The Philippine Islands, annexed to the United States after the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Philippine Islands, by treaty with the United States, to be given their independence in the year 1944. The Philippine Islands, to become one of the most tragic defeats in United States history. The Philippine Islands, to become one of the great American victories of the war. Within three weeks after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion forces completed a massive landing on the north and south shores of the island of Luzon, the largest island of the Philippine group. Under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, Philippine and American troops courageously met the invaders, but they could not meet the massive frontal attack. MacArthur commanded but 60,000 native troops, 11,000 Filipino scouts, and 19,000 American fighting men. The MacArthur forces retreated to the Bataan Peninsula, which juts out into Manila Bay. On January 2nd, the Japanese, wildly shouting choruses of Banzai, entered the capital city of Manila. From Bataan, the American and Filipino forces would continue the fight. The American and Filipino troops were in terrible agony. Exhausted, half-starved, they slogged back to Bataan. The Japanese were merciless and relentless. The defenders were under 24-hour attack. Finally, General Masahuru Homa, commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces, wrote to General MacArthur, said the letter, Your prestige and honor have been upheld. However, in order to avoid needless bloodshed and save your troops from further destruction, it is advised that you surrender. The troops responded with increased fervor. They would not surrender. Now disease and sickness became another enemy of the defending troops of Bataan. The defeat was just a matter of time. On February 22nd, 1942, President Roosevelt ordered General MacArthur flown to Australia to take command of allied forces in the Pacific area. On March 12th, MacArthur, in one of the great moments of the war, escaped Japanese naval blockades and with a party of 21 made his way from the Philippine Islands. Said MacArthur upon his arrival in Australia, the President has ordered me to proceed from Corregidor to Australia to organize an offensive against Japan, a primary purpose of which is the relief of the Philippine Islands. I came through and I shall return. General Jonathan Wainwright was given command of United States forces in the Philippines. On April 9th, United States forces on Bataan surrendered. The War Department reported that the remaining forces under General Wainwright had retreated to the little island of Corregidor in the middle of Manila Bay. Now on April 10th came more misery for the captured defenders of Bataan. There began what history has called the Marches of Death, or the Bataan Death Marches. Thousands of Filipinos of all ranks were marched under a pitiless sun to the confinement camps as much as 100 miles away. Here is a survivor of the Bataan Death March. We started the Death March in groups of 100, about 3 or 4,000 of us in the line, marching by fours, about three Jap guards to 100 of us, didn't see any officers. Most of those superior privates are there, men with two or three stars in their uniform. We'd slap our soldiers across the face, beat them up. I saw one of our men carrying a new pair of shoes. He sat down to take off his old shoes. The Japs came up and took away both pairs. That lieutenant walked seven days in the Death March, and when we arrived at the end of the journey, he didn't have feet, just a mass of infected busters. I saw a Jap truck pass and watched the Jap poke his rifle butt out and knock one of our officers into the ditch. I saw a tank deviate its course to hit a marching American prisoner and literally crush him into that road of death. Nothing to eat all day, nothing to drink. Some of the men drank from water buffalo wallows. They were so thirsty. I thought what most of us thought. Why in hell did I surrender? We thought it would be a blessing if we were shot. I saw an enlisted man go insane from his sonar malaria. The last I saw the Japs were hitting him with those rifle butts. A well-trained pig wouldn't stand it. I saw dead Americans and Filipinos in the ditches at the side of the road, five behind the line. They'd been killed after surrender. Our doctors, half-dead themselves, tried to take care of the dying. The only way he could tell a live American from a dead one was to see whether his heart was beating. Now all was tragedy on Corregidor. The remnants of the fighting force lived like moles in the underground tunnels of Corregidor. Corregidor of Fort and Island at the entrance to Manila Bay. Corregidor pounded by tons of shells and bombs in never-ending volleys. Corregidor doomed to destruction. Corregidor one of the great military performances in American history. Corregidor to finally surrender on May 6, 1942. To the microphone came the gaunt, haggard General Jonathan Wainwright. This is Lieutenant General Wainwright. Subject, surrender. It became apparent that the garrison of those forces would be eventually destroyed by aerial and artillery bombardment and by infantry supported by tanks which have overwhelmed Corregidor. After landing General Herman with no agreement between us, I decided to accept in the name of humanity, here's to both of you therefore be guided accordingly and will, I think will, surrender all troops on the way to the proper Japanese artillery. This decision on my part it was realized was forced upon me by means entirely be known by confidants. So the Philippine Islands had fallen and with them went the knowledge that the war would be long and hard and costly. And with their fall went the remembrance of the courage of the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. And with their fall came the remembrance of the words of MacArthur that he shall return. On October 21, 1944, American forces under the command of General MacArthur returned to the Philippines just two and a half years after the tragic defeat. On January 9, 1945, the island of Luzon was invaded and on February 3, Manila, the capital city of the Philippine Islands was recaptured. In the dramatic flag raising ceremony, General Douglas MacArthur spoke. It might be appropriate to mention that many of the men who left Corregidor with General MacArthur are present here today. More than three years have you left. Here is the fairness struggle and sacrifice. Since I withdrew all forcing and filation from this beautiful city, I now solemnly declare, Mr. President, the whole powers and responsibilities under the Constitution restored to the common wealth, whose seat is here reestablished as provided by law. Your country, Luzon, is again at liberty to pursue its destiny to an honored position in the family of free nation. The Philippine Islands had been avenged. The Marches of Death had been avenged. Corregidor and Bataan had been avenged. At war's end, the Philippine Islands would receive their independence, promised them by treaty with the United States in the year 1934 to become effective ten years later. The timetable was one year late, a year no Filipino would hold the United States accountable for. The Philippine Islands were free, independent, and a sovereign nation among the family of nations. The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company has brought you the Philippine Islands, their death, their life, the most dramatic and tragic period of World War II. This program was written, produced, and directed by Bud Greenspan. My name is David Perry.
