An American Affair?
The commemoration of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's landing in
The persons in charge of the celebration
have rejected the criticism. They note the return of our government-in-exile;
they remind us that Filipino guerillas played a major role in securing the
beaches for the landing; they
also point to the significance of the Battle of Leyte
Gulf.
While these arguments may refute the contention
that
We surmise that the major reason is the failure
of our own leaders to define the
Even today, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary
of that event, we think of General MacArthur
as the hero; we regard the landing as his fulfillment of the promise, ``I
shall return.”
This is not surprising. After all, the bulk
of what we know about the landing at
This is not to accuse American historians
of an anti-Filipino bias. If at all, we would simply observe that they had
an institutional bias.
For instance, Samuel Eliot Morison, who wrote
a 14-volume history of US naval operations in World War II, describes the
Battle of Leyte Gulf in detail, but he says
little about the US Army's difficulties in beating the Japanese on land.
We can expect Mr. Morison to tell us even
less about the guerilla warfare the Filipinos conducted before the landing
and what they did afterwards in support of the American troops. We should
not expect him to tell us anything about what went on in the minds of persons
like President Osmeña, Brig. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, or Lt. Col. Ruperto
Kangleon.
Our own Filipino historians should be the
ones to tell us these things and explain them to us. But they do not. Because
they have not, many of us are not even aware of the role that Filipinos played
in the
The landing at
And if Japanese can be
bamboozled into attending, so much the better money-wise. Our tourism
people will plan the celebration in such a way that the Japanese won't be
offended.
If the people of