Telling the Story and Telling the Story Not: U.S. Army-Media Relations During the Battle of Manila

Abstract

The battle of Manila was the longest and largest urban battle in the history of the U.S. Army. However, World War II engagement received little journalistic coverage. Despite having enormous advantages over reporters in controlling the organization of news coverage, the Army largely failed to get the type of reporting that served the institutional interests of the service. A small number of army public affairs officers, often with little training, organized support to represent distinct factions within the military that were not always in keeping with the larger interests of the service, or the nation. The rivalries and pride of journalists overseas and back home actually diverted many away from reporting, which worked to the advantage of General Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific Command.

ENDNOTES

Notes

1 For detailed, but dated reviews of this issues in the historical literature on World War II, see the historiographical essays that were published in American Journalism on the fiftieth anniversary of the war’s end: Maurine Beasley, “Women and Journalism in World War II: Discrimination and Progress,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (1995): 321–33; Louise Benjamin, “World War II American Radio is More Than Murrow,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (1995): 334–41; Margaret A. Blanchard, “Freedom of the Press in World War II,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (1995): 342–58; Patrick S. Washburn, “The Black Press: Homefront Clout Hits A Peak in World War II,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (1995): 359–66.

2 A historiography that looks at the relationship between journalists and the government breaks this sub-field down further into five small groups: influences and infringements, propaganda and censorship, mass media, war correspondents, and minorities in the media. The media-military relationship figures clearly in studies of war correspondents, but it also figures also in the propaganda and censorship group: Betty Houchin Winfield and Janice Hume, “Shh, Do Tell! World War II and Press-Government Scholarship,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (1995): 367–83. This essay is a good starting point but it is now two and a half decades old. For more recent studies: Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson, The Murrow Boys (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1996); James Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War: America’s Eyewitness to World War II (New York, NY: Free Press, 1997); Robert B. Davies, Baldwin of The Times: Hanson W. Baldwin: A Military Journalist’s Life, 1903–1991 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011); Timothy M. Gay, Assignment to Hell: The War against Nazi Germany with Correspondents Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A.J. Liebling, Homer Bigart and Hal Boyle (New York, NY: New American Library, 2012).

3 Lilya Wagner, Women War Correspondents of World War II (New York, NY: Greenwood, 1989); Nancy Caldwell Sorel, The Women Who Wrote the War (New York, NY: Arcade Publishing, 1999); Penny Colman, Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II (New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 2002); Barbara Friedman, “The Soldier Speaks: Yank Coverage of Women and Wartime Work,” American Journalism 22, no. 2 (2005): 63–82; Carolyn M. Edy, “Juggernut in Kid Gloves: Inez Callaway Robb, 1900–1979,” American Journalism 27, no. 4 (2010): 83–103.

4 Most historical coverage has focused on the African-American and the Japanese-American experiences. For recent examples, see: Caryl A. Cooper, “The Chicago Defender: Filling in the Gaps for the Office of Civilian Defense, 1941–1945,” Western Journal of Black Studies 23, no. 1 (1999): 111–8; Harry Amana, “The Art of Propaganda: Charles Alston’s World War II Editorial Cartoons for the Office of War Information and the Black Press,” American Journalism 21, no. 2 (2004): 79–111; Jinx Coleman Broussard and John Maxwell Hamilton, “Covering a Two-Front War: Three African American Correspondents During World War II,” American Journalism 22, no. 3 (2005): 33–54. On Japanese-Americans journalists, see recent work: Takeya Mizuno, “Self-Censorship by Coercion: The Federal Government and the California Japanese-Language Newspapers From Pearl Harbor to Internment,” American Journalism 17, no. 3 (2000): 31–57; Takeya Mizuno, “The Federal Government’s Decisions in Suppressing the Japanese-Language Press, 1941–42,” Journalism History 33, no. 1 (2007): 14–23; Ronald Bishop, “Little More than Minutes: How Two Wyoming Community Newspapers Covered the Construction of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp,” American Journalism 26, no. 3 (2009): 7–32.

5 Chris W. Allen, “Reporting World War II for the Local Audience: Jack Shelley’s Experience as a Local Radio Reporter in the European Theater,” American Journalism 17, no. 1 (2000): 35–52; Douglas R. Hartman, “Lawrence W. Youngman: War Correspondent for the Omaha World-Herald,” Nebraska History 76 (1995): 100–5; Joseph R. L. Sterne, Combat Correspondents: The Baltimore Sun in World War II (Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 2009).

6 Larry J. Frank, “The United States Navy v. the Chicago Tribune,” Historian 42, no. 2 (1980): 284–303; Dina Goren, “Communication Intelligence and the Freedom of the Press: The Chicago Tribune’s Battle of Midway Dispatch and the Breaking of the Japanese Naval Code,” Journal of Contemporary History 16, no. 4 (1981): 663–90; Richard W. Steele, “News of the ‘Good War’: World War II News Management,” Journalism Quarterly 62, no. 4 (1985): 707–83; Alf Pratte, “The Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the ‘Day of Infamy,’” American Journalism 5, no. 1 (1988): 5–13; Lance Bertelsen, “Icons on Iwo,” Journal of Popular Culture 22, no. 4 (1989): 79–95; George H. Roeder, Jr., The Censored War: American Visual Experience During World War II (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993); John Lardner, Southwest Passages: The Yanks in the Pacific (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2013) Biographical accounts include: Wilda M. Smith, The Wars of Peggy Hull: The Life and Times of a War Correspondent (El Paso, TX: Texas Western, 1991); Jim Hughes, Eugene Smith, Shadow and Substance: The Life and Work of an American Photographer (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1989).

7 The focus on the production of the news, organization of media operations, and professional norms of journalists in this article owes a lot to the work of two journalism historians: Chris Daley, “The Historiography of Journalism History: Part 1: ‘An Overview’,” American Journalism 26, no. 1 (2009): 141–47; Chris Daley, “The Historiography of Journalism History: Part 2: ‘Toward a New Theory’,” American Journalism 26, no.1 (2009): 148–55; Margaret A. Blanchard, “The Ossification of Journalism History: A Challenge for the Twenty-first Century,” Journalism History 5, no. 3 (1999): 107–12.

8 XIV Corps Officers Association newsletter, December 25, 1950, Unmarked folder, Box 2, Papers of Oscar Griswold, U.S. Military Academy Library Special Collections, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York; William J. Dunn, Pacific Microphone (College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1988), 277–80.

9 H. Ben Decherd, Jr., “Beans, Bullets and—Mail: Being a fireside chat on how to be an Aide-de-Camp with the minimum wear and tear on the Boss, the Chief of Staff, the Army Staff, and yourself, including a few household hints on how not to harass the troops…” Folder: Ben Decherds Guide for ADC, Box 1, Papers of Walter Krueger, U.S. Military Academy Library Special Collections, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.

10 Bonner F. Fellers, “‘Philippines’, 7 and 9, Folder 10, Box 8, Papers of Bonner Fellers, Record Group 44-a” (MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA).

11 MacArthur to Freeman, January 12, 1945, Folder 6, Box 6, Record Group 3 (MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA).

12 Mydans to Chickering, “February 28, 1945, Folder: War in the Pacific: Bill Chickering, Box 117, Papers of Carl and Shelly Mydans, Beinecke Library” (Yale University, New Haven, CT).

13 LeGrande Diller Oral History by D. Clayton James (May 31, 1977), p. 5, Box 5, Record Group 49 (MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA).

14 Lewis Sebring, Jr., “The MacArthur Circus” manuscript first draft, p. 154, Reel 7, Frame 185, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin; Russell Brines Oral History by D. Clayton James (June 18, 1977), p. 28, Box 5, Record Group 49, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

15 LeGrande Diller Oral History by D. Clayton James (May 31, 1977), p. 3, Box 5, Record Group 49 (MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA).

16 Dunn, Pacific Microphone, 152–4.

17 John Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II (New York, NY: Random House, 1995), 341–43; Larry J. Frank, “The United States Navy v. the Chicago Tribune,” Historian 42, no. 2 (1980): 284–303; Dina Goren, “Communication Intelligence and the Freedom of the Press: The Chicago Tribune’s Battle of Midway Dispatch and the Breaking of the Japanese Naval Code,” Journal of Contemporary History 16, no. 4 (1981): 663–90.

18 Dunn, Pacific Microphone, 289–91; B. C. Wright, The 1st Cavalry Division in World War II (Tokyo: Toppan Printing Company, 1947), 127–30; John Kennedy Ohl, Minuteman: The Military Career of General Robert S. Beightler (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001), 168–71; Homer Bigart, “Two Divisions Stage Race for Gates of Manila: Troops of 37th Urged ‘Not to Let Feather Merchants (1st Cavalry) Beat Us In’,” New York Herald Tribune, February 4, 1945; Frank Kelly, “1st Cavalry Won Neck and Neck Race for Manila: 37th Infantry Also Got Full Speed Signal in Final 80-Mile Running Fight,” New York Herald Tribune, February 6, 1945.

19 Robert Ross Smith, United States Army in World War II: The War in the Pacific: Triumph in the Philippines (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1963), 240.

20 “Yanks Roll Unchecked 18 Miles From Manila” and Howard M. Norton, “Japs Lost Luzon On Leyte, Is View,” Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), February 3, 1945. Henry W. Harris in his columns on strategy agreed with this view. Harris, though, admitted that there was still plenty of fighting to go on Luzon; Henry W. Harris, “The Strategic Slant: Manila,” Boston Daily Globe, February 6, 1945. Communique 1035, February 5, 1945, Folder 3, Box 48, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA; “Most of Manila Appears Intact,” Evening Bulletin (Providence, Rhode Island), February 5, 1945; Claudia Luther, “Carl Mydans, 97; Noted Life Magazine War Photographer,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2004.

21 “U.S. Forces Capture Half of Manila, Big Prison Camp in Surprise Thrust,” Washington Post, February 5, 1945 “Yanks Drive to Mop Up Manila,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 5, 1945; “Americans in Manila, Seize Prison Camp,” New York Times, February 5, 1945; “Pocket Japs Below Manila Yanks Mop Up Northern Half Of Blazing City,” New York World-Telegram, February 5, 1945; “U.S. Flag Over Manila: 3000 More Americans Are Liberated,” Boston Daily Globe, February 5, 1945; “Eyewitness: How Yanks Slogged Way Into Manila,” Christian Science Monitor, February 5, 1945; “U.S. Army In Manila! Free 3,000 Internees After Battle for Prison,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 5, 1945; “Manila Captives HAIL YANKS,” Chicago Daily News, February 5, 1945; “Manila Prison Terror Told,” Chicago Herald American, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Mop Up Japs in Manila; Tank Smashes Prison Gates,” Oakland Tribune, February 5, 1945; “U.S. Troops Reach Heart of Manila,” Arizona Republic, February 5, 1945; “U.S. First Cavalry Reaches Heart of Manila,” Austin American, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Hold Half Of Manila, Closing In On Rest 3700 Internees Freed From Jap Prison Camp,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 5, 1945; “North Half of Manila in American Hands,” Milwaukee Journal, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Drive Into Manila,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 1945; “MacArthur’s Troops Drive To Heart Of Manila; Release 3,000 Internees 37th Division Presses For Knockout; Bridge Blast Delays General,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 5, 1945; “Manila Taken By Yanks; 3,000 Captives Released,” Nashville Tennessean, February 5, 1945; “Americans Drive Into Manila, Capture Capitol And Airfield,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 5, 1945; “U.S. Flag Over Manila; Sky Troops Clinch Fall,” Detroit News, February 5, 1945.

22 “Yanks Mopping Up Manila,” Brooklyn Eagle, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Free 65 Japs to Save 213 Internee Hostages at Santo Tomas,” Seattle Daily Times, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Liberate Half Manila And Smash On To Finish Job: Northern Part of City Is Swiftly Occupied,” Denver Post, February 5, 1945; “Manila Liberated! Take Jap Prison Camp,” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 5, 1945; “Americans Free Half of Manila,” The Sun (New York, NY), February 5, 1945; “3,700 Internees Liberated As Yanks Raise Flag Over Manila Our Flag Flies Again in Manila; Our Hero Dead of Bataan Are Redeemed,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 5, 1945; The Milwaukee Sentinel actually had two headlines and one news story above its masthead in its February 6, 1945 issue: “Manila Ours, Declares MacArthur, ‘On to Tokyo’” and “Trap Last Japs In Manila Wisconsin Nurses Freed.”

23 “Yank Tanks Mass To Storm Manila,” San Francisco Examiner, February 5, 1945; “MacArthur Liberates Internees at Manila,” Kokomo Tribune, February 5, 1945.

24 “M’Arthur’s Men In Heart of Manila,” Daily News (New York, NY), February 5, 1945.

25 William C. Chase, Front Line General: The Commands of Wm. C. Chase: An Autobiography (Houston, TX: Pacesetter Press, 1975), 94; Walter Simmons, “M’Arthur’s Censors Help To Speed News Of Fall of Manila,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 8, 1945.

26 Russell Brines, “Church Bells Hail Arrival of Yanks in Manila Suburbs,” San Francisco Examiner, February 5, 1945.

27 “Battle of the Pacific: Victory! Mabuhay!” Time (February 12, 1945), 19.

28 There was no Manila headline in the Wall Street Journal, February 5, 1945 or the Evening Sun (Baltimore, MD), February 5, 1945.

29 “Asia’s Torch of Freedom at Manila,” Chicago Sun, February 6, 1945; “Manila,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 6, 1945; “The Liberation of Manila,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), February 5, 1945; “The Liberation of Manila,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 5, 1945; “Back in Manila!” St. Louis Times and Star, February 5, 1945; “Dawn Over Manila,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 5, 1945; “Old Glory Over Manila Again,” Indianapolis Star, February 5, 1945; “Manila Is Ours!,” Detroit News, February 5, 1945; “Stars and Stripes Over Manila,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 5, 1945; “Capture of Manila,” Toledo Blade, February 6, 1945; “Manila,” Miami Daily News, February 5, 1945; “MacArthur Returns To Manila,” Sun (Baltimore, MD, February 5, 1945; “Back in Manila,” Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia, PA), February 5, 1945; “Manila,” New York Post, February 5, 1945; “Manila Liberated,” Providence Journal, February 5, 1945; “Back to Manila,” The Evening Star (Washington, DC), February 5, 1945; “Victory At Manila,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, February 6, 1945; “‘Man the Battle Stations!’,” San Francisco Examiner, February 6, 1945; “Our Manila Victor Is A Catastrophe To Japanese,” Fresno Bee, February 6, 1945; “Back in Manila,” Albuquerque Journal, February 6, 1945; “What is Japanese New Philippine Strategy?,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, February 6, 1945; “Manila,” Detroit Free Press, February 6, 1945; “Manila: Epic of Faith and Courage,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 6, 1945; “Manila Freed Lifts American Hearts,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), February 6, 1945; “Christmas in Manila,” Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, AL), February 6, 1945; “They’re Laughing Today in Manila,” Atlanta Constitution, February 6, 1945.

30 “Manila Regained,” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), February 5, 1945; “He Kept His Promise,” Los Angeles Times, February 5, 1945; “Brilliant Campaign,” Washington Post, February 6, 1945; Lewis B. Sebring, Jr., “Manila Entry Ends Chief Phase of Campaign in the Philippines,” New York Herald Tribune, February 5, 1945.

31 “We Enter Manila,” Hartford Courant, February 5, 1945; “Teamwork Frees Manila,” Chicago Daily News, February 5, 1945; “A Majestic Saga of Men, Of Ships and of Planes,” Seattle Daily Times, February 5, 1945; “We Return to Manila,” Milwaukee Journal, February 5, 1945; “Americans Back in Manila,” Dayton Herald (Dayton, OH), February 6, 1945; “They Did Return,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 6, 1945; “Mistress of the Seas,” Nashville Tennessean, February 6, 1945.

32 “Intercepted Letters,” Akron Beacon Journal, February 5, 1945; “The Manila Victory,” El Paso Times, February 6, 1945; “The 1st U.S. Cavalry Division,” Honolulu Advertiser, February 7, 1945.

33 “A Humiliating Delay,” Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), February 6, 1945.

34 “The Capture of Manila,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 5, 1945; “One Great Day Points To Another,” Tampa Daily Times, February 5, 1945; “Manila and After,” Cleveland Press, February 5, 1945; “Manila and After,” Akron Beacon Journal, February 5, 1945; “Manila And After,” Pittsburgh Press, February 5, 1945. For the assessment of several columnists—most of whom were syndicated—see: David Lawrence, “Clue to Jap Thinking Seen in Manila’s Fall,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), February 5, 1945; George F. Eliot, “Jap’s Weakness on Luzon Analyzed,” Cleveland Press, February 5, 1945; Baret Nover, “Manila Redeemed: MacArthur Wins A Great Prize,” Washington Post, February 6, 1945; Henry W. Harris, “The Strategic Slant: Manila,” Boston Daily Globe, February 6, 1945; Paul C. Raborg, “Japs Show No Defense Plan,” Toledo Blade, February 7, 1945; Henry W. Harris, “The Strategic Slant: Iwo and Manila,” Boston Daily Globe, February 20, 1945.

35 Russell Brines Oral History by D. Clayton James (June 18, 1977), p. 29-30, Box 5, Record Group 49, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

36 Paul Chwialkowski, In Caesar’s Shadow: The Life of General Robert Eichelberger (Westport: CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), 114. Press coverage and the recognition that it brought was a bone of contention between MacArthur and Eichelberger before and after Manila. For other examples, see pages 74 and 160–1.

37 Underlining in the original: January 26, 1945 and January 30, 1945 entry, Diary of Oscar W. Griswold, Box 1, Papers of Oscar W. Griswold, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

38 “Yanks Occupy Manila,” San Antonio Express, February 5, 1945; “Americans Hold Half of Manila,” San Antonio Light, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Hold Half of Manila,” San Antonio Evening News, February 5, 1945; “U.S. Holds All Manila,” San Antonio Express, February 6, 1945; For another comparisons look at: “Americans Capture Manila,” Tampa Morning Tribune, February 5, 1945; “Yanks Free Half Of Manila,” Tampa Daily Times, February 5, 1945. The same situation took place in Minnesota: “Americans Enter Manila: 3,000 Freed from Jap Internment Camp,” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, February 5, 1945 and “Yanks Widen Manila Hold; Japs Trapped,” Minneapolis Star-Journal, February 5, 1945. The bold, upper case headline: “Yanks in Manila!” Indianapolis Star, February 5, 1945 took up a third of the front page, while “Yanks Mop Up in Manila,” Indianapolis News, February 5, 1945 was a bold headline that was roughly equal to the paper’s masthead. For the accounts in the Providence papers, see: “Americans in Heart of Manila, Free 3000 In Internment Camp: U.S. Troops Secure North Half of City Push For Knockout,” Providence Journal, February 5, 1945 versus “U.S. Units Win Half Of Manila; Free 3700 Starving Captives,” Evening Bulletin, February 5, 1945, which was followed the next day by “All Manila Liberated,” Evening Bulletin, February 6, 1945.

39 Marshall to Eisenhower, March 6, 1945, Larry J. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens, eds. The Papers of George C. Marshall: “The Finest Solider,” January 1, 1945—January 7, 1947. Vol. 5 (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 76–78.

40 William T. James, Jr., “From Siege to Surgical: The Evolution of Urban Combat From World War II to the Present and its Effect on Current Doctrine” (Masters of military art and science thesis, U.S. Army Command & General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1998), 112.

41 LeGrande Diller Oral History by D. Clayton James (May 31, 1977), p. 39-40, Box 5, Record Group 49, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA; Paul P. Rogers, The Bitter Years: MacArthur and Sutherland (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1990), 263; Diller Memo for Paul P. Rogers, no date, Folder 4, Box 1, Papers of Paul P. Rogers, Record Group 46, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

42 LeGrande Diller Oral History by D. Clayton James (May 31, 1977), p. 40, Box 5, Record Group 49, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

43 Diller used “clearing” in Communique 1035, February 6, 1945, “mopping up” in Communique 1036, February 7, 1945, and “mopping up” and “cleared in Communique 1037, February 8, 1945, “cleared” and “clearing” in Communique 1038, February 9, 1945, “clearing” and “systematically sweeping” in Communique 1040, February 11, 1945, “cleared” and “stubborn resistance” in Communique 1041, February 12, 1945, “progressive reduction” in Communique 1046, February 17, 1945, “systematic destruction” in Communique 1048, February 19, 1945, “steady reduction” in Communique 1049, February 20, 1945, Folder 3, Box 48, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA. The influence of these press releases can be seen in media accounts. “Clearing” is the verb Lindesay Parrott used to describe infantry action in Manila: Lindesay Parrott, “Manila Enemy Line Breached by 37th: Division Crosses Pasig River to Join 11th Airborne in Clearing City of Japanese,” New York Times, February 9, 1945. He used the phrase “stubborn resistance” two days later: Lindesay Parrott, “1st Cavalry Joins in Manila Battle: Crosses Pasig River in Move to Flank Japanese in South Side as 37th Plows Ahead,” New York Times, February 11, 1945. Communique 1045, February 16, 1945 uses “turning point” to suggest the battle was nearing a conclusion. This phrase appeared in an Associate Press account of the battle: “Manila Mop-Up Nears End,” Atlanta Constitution, February 16, 1945 and “Seized Papers Bare Jap Plan To Hold Manila” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 16, 1945 and “Jap ‘Master Plan’ Found in Manila; Foiled by MacArthur,” Boston Daily Globe, February 16, 1945 and “U.S. Smashes Jap Effort to Turn Tie at Manila,” Los Angeles Times, February 16, 1945; and “Task Force Blasts Heart Of Japan,” Washington Post, February 16, 1945; Eichelberger to Eichelberger, February 18, 1945, Jay Luvaas, ed., Dear Miss Em: General Eichelberger’s War in the Pacific (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 1972), 218.

44 Press Release, February 7, 1945, Folder 4, Box 49, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

45 Trevor Jensen, “Walter Simmons, 1908–2006: Editor and War Reporter,” Chicago Tribune, December 1, 2006; VA; Dunn, Pacific Microphone, 289; Carolyn Coggins, “What Goes On Backstage in the Literary Pageant,” Atlanta Constitution, February 18, 1945; “Gene Sherman, Former Times Writer and Pulitzer Prize Winner, Dies,” Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1969; Richard Severo, “Homer Bigart, Acclaimed Reporter, Dies,” New York Times, April 17, 1991; Claudia Luther, “Carl Mydans, 97; Noted Life Magazine War Photographer,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2004.

46 Russell Brines Oral History by D. Clayton James (June 18, 1977), p. 28, Box 5, Record Group 49, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk; Julius Stephen Gassner Army Service Experiences Questionnaire, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, PA.

47 Henry W. Harris, “The Strategic Slant,” Boston Daily Globe, February 7, 1945.

48 Dunn, Pacific Microphone, 315.

49 William J. Dunn, telecast transcript, February 7, 1945, and William J. Dunn, telecast transcript, February 12, 1945, Folder: 13, Box: 3, Papers of William J. Dunn, Record Group 52, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA; Dunn, Pacific Microphone, 311.

50 Gene Sherman, “‘Times’ Man Tells of Japs’ Brutality,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1945; “Americans Strike East From Manila,” New York Times, February 26, 1945; Russell Brines, “Its Heart Ripped Out, Manila Fights for Life,” Washington Post, March 11, 1945.

51 Beightler to Fillman, February 22, 1945, Folder: 3, Box 1, Papers of Robert S. Beightler, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH.

52 Earl M. Hoff, “A Free Press for Manila” manuscript, 6–7, Folder: Flashbacks From My War Files on the Philippines, Box 117. Mydans discusses the lack of commercial reward in February 13, 1945 entry, Diary of Carl Mydans, Folder Notebook 10, Box 179, Papers of Carl and Shelly Mydans, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

53 Calhoun to Mydans, February 3, 1945 in February 7, 1945 entry, Diary of Carl Mydans, Folder Notebook 10, Box 179, Papers of Carl and Shelly Mydans, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

54 Bessie Hackett Wilson, Memories of the Philippines (Fullerton, CA: Pacific Rim Books, 1989), 17; Mydans to Elson, May 25, 1970, Folder: Flashbacks From My War Files on the Philippines, Box 117, and February 21, 1945 entry, Diary of Carl Mydans, Folder Notebook 10, Box 179, Papers of Carl and Shelly Mydans, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

55 Earl M. Hoff, “A Free Press for Manila” manuscript, 9–13, Folder: Flashbacks From My War Files on the Philippines, Box 117, Papers of Carl and Shelly Mydans, Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

56 Communique 1055, February 25, 1945, Folder 3, Box 48, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA.

57 Frank Kelly, “Manila Battle Over as Infantry Kills Last of Foe in Intramuros,” New York Herald Tribune, February 25, 1945; “Manila Foe Annihilated,” Sun (Baltimore, MD), February 25, 1945; Robert Ross Smith, United States Army in World War II: The War In the Pacific: Triumph in the Philippines (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1963), 301–8. The article on the fall of the treasury building in the Boston Daily Globe was 142 words long in nine sentences: Frank Kelly, “Jap Resistance Ends in Manila; Rebuilding City to Take Years,” Boston Daily Globe, March 5, 1945.

58 Communique 1055, February 25, 1945, Folder 3, Box 48, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA. “Manila Foe Annihilated,” Sun (Baltimore, MD), February 25, 1945.

59 Communique 1059, March 1, 1945, Folder 3, Box 48, Record Group 4, MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA; George E. Jones, “First U.S. Freighter Enters Manila Harbor Amid Sniping: First Supply Ship in Manila Harbor: Hungry Mouths and Eager Hands in Manila,” New York Times, March 1, 1945; Homer Bigart, “PT Boats Enter Manila Harbor Unchallenged,” New York Herald Tribune, February 21, 1945.

60 Frank Kelly, “Manila Harbor Being Cleared—Even of ’98 Hulks: Sullivan, Who Raised the Normandie, Finds Manila Worst of All His War Jobs,” New York Herald Tribune, March 15, 1945; “Manila Faces 15-Year Period of Rebuilding,” New York Herald Tribune, March 7, 1945.

61 Folder: 15 Jan–29 Mar 1945, Box 13, Time Magazine Correspondent Dispatches: First Series, 1942–1945 Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Eichelberger to Swing, June 22, 1945, Folder: Correspondence with Eichelberger, Box 1, Papers of Joseph M. Swing, U.S. Military Academy Library Special Collections, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, NY.

62 Beightler to Kirk, February 21, 1945, Folder: 3, Box 1, Papers of Robert S. Beightler, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH.

63 Terry Wadsworth Warne, Terry (Denver, CO: Outskirts Press, 2013), 140–1; “Parents See Son’s Picture In Movies,” Amherst News-Times (Amherst, Oo), October 11, 1945; Marie Grimes and Hat Diller, eds. Philippine Postscripts (March 1945) and (April 1945), Folder G, Box 2, Papers of Edmund J. Lilly, Jr., Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

64 March 3, 1945 entry, Diary of Oscar W. Griswold, Box 1, Papers of Oscar W. Griswold, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Charles Arthur Henne Army Service Experiences Questionnaire, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania; February 12, 1945 diary entry in Terresa R. Cates, The Drainpipe Diary (New York: Vantage Press, 1957), 253.

65 Luvaas, ed., “Eichelberger to Eichelberger,” Dear Miss Em, February 21, 1945, 225.

66 Gordon Walker, “Now the Story of Manila Can Be Told: Battle of Manila an Epic of American Heroism,” Christian Science Monitor, March 28, 1945; Royal Arch Gunnison, “The Burning of Manila,” Collier’s, April 7, 1945, 21, 40, 44; Royal Arch Gunnison, “Jap Shelling Of Civilians At Santo Tomas Described,” Sun (Baltimore, MD), March 7, 1945.

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Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes is an Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of several books, including Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War (Cambridge University Press, 2011).