Veterans to mark
Leyte landings
By Karl Wilson
Agence France-Presse
PALO--Around 1,000 survivors of the epic World War II allied landings which heralded the final collapse of Japan's occupation of the Philippines will gather Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the invasion.
Largely forgotten in the annals of popular military history, the Leyte landings that began on October 20, 1944 saw around 160,000 US-led troops storm beaches along the Leyte Gulf in the eastern corner of the Philippines.
Estimates of casualties vary, but the scale of the Japanese rout was vast. Japan recorded around 47,000 casualties compared to 3,500 allies dead and 12,000 wounded.
The landings saw the triumphant return to Philippines soil by General Douglas MacArthur, who waded ashore and declared in a radio address to the nation: "People of the Philippines, I have returned!"
With those words MacArthur fulfilled a promise he made almost two-and-a-half years earlier as he retreated from the Philippines leaving General Jonathan Wainwright to surrender the country and the US Armed Forces in the Far East to the Japanese.
Wednesday will see veterans of the campaign gather for an anniversary ceremony at Red Beach, Palo, overlooking the tranquil waters of Leyte Gulf in the eastern Visayas. Filipino veterans in the United States, Australia and other countries are also holding events to commemorate the historic Leyte landings.
Gold painted statues of MacArthur and those who came ashore with him stand in a pool of water just above Red Beach, a permanent reminder of the last major invasion and sea battle of World War II.
Alberto Cinco, will be 80 in November, but he still remembers MacArthur's triumphant return.
Born and raised in Tolosa, just south of Red Beach, he sat on one of the few beaches spared from the ferocious bombardment on October 19 and 20.
Cinco had worked for Filipino guerrillas, carrying food and supplies to the men fighting the Japanese in the hills overlooking Leyte Gulf.
From the beach Cinco had a front row seat to battle.
"The dogfights between Japanese and American aircraft were incredible," he told Agence France-Presse from the garden of his home in Tolosa.
And he remembers the bodies and debris of war that washed up onto the beach as the invasion got underway.
The invasion force of the Seventh Fleet or "MacArthur's Navy," as it was affectionately known, consisted of some 700 US and allied ships that would land some troops on the white sandy beaches along the Leyte Gulf.
Ship-based aircraft numbered nearly 1,500 flying from 32 aircraft carriers, light carriers and escort carriers. In support were 12 battleships, 23 cruisers and over 100 destroyers.
Against this formidable force the Japanese threw all that was left of its once powerful navy, roughly one tenth of the surface vessels the allies had amassed.
Amelia Avarque, now 77, another Tolosa native, was 17 when the invasion began and like Cinco ran supplies for the guerillas. She recounts how a village boy pin-pointed Japanese positions using semaphore to ships in the bay.
"His daring act spared Tolosa from the savage bombardment but the nearby towns of Tanauan and Dulag were not so lucky," she said.
Avarque has vivid memories of the American GIs' arrival.
"I remember my sister who was six asking for candy when she saw her first GI. He was a young man. He smiled and told her next time.
"I think they were too busy with the war. The Japanese were still around but for us kids I guess it was more of an adventure."
She did not see MacArthur's landing or hear his address but she remembers the songs that day: "You Are My Sunshine" and "Don't Fence Me In."
Avarque, eyes locked in another time and place, begins singing. Her face comes alive as she sings without missing a beat.
How was life under the Japanese?
"It was no different. The Japanese treated the ordinary people well. They wanted us to stay in our homes. I guess that was to stop the Americans bombing civilians. Anyone who left, the Japanese would destroy their home. It was a normal life."
Cinco said he did not see MacArthur's return "but we knew he had landed."
"The guerrillas would tell us MacArthur is coming," he recalled.
He says the Japanese soldiers were good and he still has the bike one gave him just before the invasion.
Cinco did not witness the killings and rape of civilians that Japanese soldiers carried out elsewhere in the country.
"I heard about it, we all did, but I didn't see it myself."
For Francisco Advincula, 84, recovering from a stroke, October 20 is remembered with a mixture of pride and bitterness, angry that Filipino veterans have never received the benefits promised by US authorities.
As a soldier in the 77th infantry division he helped secure Red Beach ahead of MacArthur's stage-managed return.
"I was happy when he came back. I was happy that I was there at the time and part of it," he said.
As he lay on his straw mattress Francisco looked up and said: "It would be good if I got my benefits the Americans had promised (Filipino soldiers) at the start of the war. All of us veterans have been waiting for our benefits and each year our ranks get thinner.
"This has never been a celebration for me or for Filipino veterans."