THE MOPED ARMY

Military strategists back in the States had long considered that it would be impossible to defend an archipelago five thousand miles from Pearl Harbor. In spite of the failure to warn American citizens, the plan had been to try to save only a foothold near Manila on the heavily fortified Bataan Peninsula and adjacent Corregidor (Liddell Hart pp 210-211). What MacArthur did not know, during that summer of 1941, was that decisions were even then in the making in Washington to concentrate United States military resources to the defense of Europe when war came and to sacrifice the American position in the Western Pacific. MacArthur placed order after order for reinforcements of every kind. However, very little of what he asked for actually arrived, and ships on the way were diverted to other ports (Whitney, pp. 7-10).

Events moved rapidly from October to December with additional practice blackouts and continuous talk of war. November 21 Manila had its first dusk-to-dawn blackout drill. Jeanette spent the night of December 6 at Baguio where she watched Brent School play the American School in basketball. The American School won twenty-one to nineteen. December 7 she wrote, Here I am [back from Baguio and] in Manila again. I brought down four big baskets of strawberries and some everlasting flowers. I saw Herolds, Tysons, and Pattersons in Baguio. Also Burnetts. The return Brent [School] game is next weekend.

December 7 in Hawaii was December 8 in Manila. That day, about noon, approximately ten hours after the attack at Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes struck Clark Field north of Manila, destroying seventeen of the all-important B-17s on the ground. December 10 the bombers launched a massive daylight raid on the strategic naval base at Cavite and landed troops at Aparri and Vigan along the northern coast of Luzon. Cavite burned throughout the night, lighting the sky over Manila Bay with a tragic red glow. December 17, ten undamaged B-17 bombers were withdrawn from the Philippines to protect Australia. A huge Japanese force of nearly eighty thousand troops landed at Lingayen Gulf in north Luzon December 22. The next day, MacArthur began shifting the remainder of his forces to the Bataan Peninsula, ordering General Wainwright to delay the Japanese advance from the north as long as possible. There were four air raids Christmas Eve. Manila was declared an open city. Word was out that the Japanese would enter Manila on the first or second of the new year.

Fear gripped the West household and the homes of friends nearby. Concerns not anticipated, or at least not verbalized, began to surface. Jane merged the tales of Apache attacks that she had been told as a child in Oklahoma with the rumors that she had heard about Nanking, and she poured Guss entire hoard of treasured bourbon down the sink in the bathroom. Gus seemed helpless to stop her. The Wests brought their beds down to the living room from upstairs.

American families began huddling together at night for safety. Liz and her parents and the five Montesas stayed with the Wests on January first. New topics were whispered out of earshot of the children. Would they be allowed to remain in their homes? Would they be made to leave, be taken somewhere? Private fears, previously unspoken, now begged to be asked. Would husbands be harmed or killed? Would there be looting and rape?

And then the khaki uniforms came. They moved in along the boulevards on foot, bike, and motorcycle before dawn January 2. Some say the popping of the moped-like motorbikes of the officers put a comical face on the invasion. No one laughed. Cars were commandeered. Guttural voices issued orders few could understand. They entered the city as conquerors, restrained, self-assured, and disciplined. Manila fell to Nippon like a ripe plum, without a fight.

January 5, at ten oclock, four Japanese came to the house to take Guss Chevy. One spoke English. Jane and Jeanette were ordered to prepare supplies for three days and to wait for a truck at noon at Taft Avenue. Gus, because he was sixty-four, would be permitted to stay on at the house. He was not told for how long. Jane and Jeanette made their way down the front steps from the old screened porch to the drive, each with a heavy folding canvas cot and a battered suitcase filled with clothes and food. Gus hugged Jeanette, and she watched with growing sadness and insecurity as her parents parted.

At Taft Avenue, six long blocks away, they were ordered into a commandeered car and squeezed in with a load of silent, frightened passengers. The car took them to Rizal Stadium. There they were herded to join hundreds of fellow Americans and other nationals. Their Japanese captors seemed confused. They gestured, pantomimed, grouped, and regrouped them. Finally, they loaded their days catch on trucks and transported them to the campus of the University of Santo Toms. This ancient Catholic institution, established by the Dominican Order in A.D. 1611, with fifty-seven acres of grounds, would serve as the prison home for thousands for many months to come.