Blood Brothers | Page 7

the Regular Army by
51 %, the National Guard by 35% and the Reserves by 33% in order to
balance his budget. It seems he was rather naive, 'or possibly just the
politician worrying about reelection.

Gen. MacArthur, who was Chief of Staff of the Army at the time, told
Roosevelt, "Mr. President, when the next war is lost, it will be
Roosevelt's War, not MacArthur's." Fortunately, MacArthur was able to
save the Army from the cuts.
In Sept, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. In
July, 1941, Roosevelt told Gen. Marshall to draw up war plans. With
his assistants, Gen. Wedemeyer and Gen. Gerow; they concluded that
Hitler was the enemy to be stopped Japan and Italy could come later.
It was Roosevelt who said, "In politics, nothing happens by accident!
You can bet it was planned!"
In July, 1941, Roosevelt again placed sanctions against Japan to keep U.
S. oil, scrap iron and raw materials from reaching her shores. He issued
several executive directives which made war between the U.S. and
Japan inevitable. He froze all assets in the U.S. He closed the Panama
Canal to Japanese shipping.
In August, 1941, Roosevelt placed an embargo on all goods except
food. During the same month the United States cracked the Japanese
code, after which he knew what Tokyo was thinking,
Japan reported that "Roosevelt's decisions had created a situation so
horribly strained that we cannot endure it much longer."
Tojo immediately called another million reservists to the colors.
John Costello, a British historian, said that Roosevelt received a
positive war warning on Nov. 26, and possibly as early as Nov. 6th that
war would break out on Dee. 7th. He stated, "Roosevelt was not only
expecting war, but knew exactly when it would break out." Even with
the Japanese Fleet approaching Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt issued explicit
orders to the military: "Do not initiate hostilities against Japanese under
any circumstances!" It now seems that Roosevelt not only expected the
"Day of Infamy," but needed it to get the support of the American
people, to get them sufficiently aroused to fight a war. He also wanted
to be sure that Japan would be branded "the aggressor."

That night the radio announced that the "Japanese have marched from
Aparri (on the north coast of Luzon) to Tuguegarao and have activated
the airfield." Now we could expect more frequent bombing.
"Tokyo Rose" was urging us to surrender, or, "Experience a certain
death!" She continued: "All American aid is going to Europe! America
is giving Lend-lease aid to Britain and to Russia, but there is none for
the Philippines." She was right!
December 12, '41: Dr. Allen and I had a Filipino soldier's wife on the
operating table at 0800 hours ready for a sterilization operation. She
was thirty-four years old and had seventeen children. During her last
pregnancy, which she had delivered ten days before, she became
greatly swollen with edema (severe kidney disease). Another pregnancy
would probably kill her.
Bomb began to fall. I shouted, "Everybody downstairs-under the
hospital!" After the" All Clear," we returned to the operating room to
find our patient had retrieved her clothing and departed for safer areas.
Again the wounded were coming in. This time we were ready
for them. The operating room was all set up and ready to go.
Radio from USAFFE: Capt. Eugene C Jacobs, M.C, promoted to
Major.
Heard that a strong Japanese force had landed at Legaspi accompanied
by a large naval escort.
During the next ten days, while we treated our sick and wounded, and
buried our dead, nearly one-hundred various sized Japanese ships were
quietly assembling in the Lingayen Gulf, only twenty-five miles from
Baguio. We had neither airpower nor naval forces to deter them. The
Army Air Corps had been about
75% destroyed, and Admiral Hart would not risk his small Asiatic Fleet
in battle; he took off for Australia.

At dawn on the morning of Dec. 22, '41, some 60,000 veteran
Nipponese troops of Lt. Gen. Masahatu Homma's crack 14th Army
from China swarmed ashore between Vigan and Dagupun, twenty-five
to fifty miles from Baguio.
Maj. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright had four divisions (11th, 21st, 31st,
and 1 10th) of the Philippine Army on the beaches to prevent a landing.
When the cruisers and destroyers opened fire with their big guns, there
was great confusion on the beaches; many recent recruits buried their
rifles in the sand, and took off for the mountains. "This was not their
kind of war!"
Soon thousands of Japanese veterans, on bicycles, were pedaling south
on the highway bordering the South China Sea. Our Scouts picked off
hundreds of Japs as they rode by, but in a few hours were completely
out of ammunition. The Japs and their bicycles kept right on coming.
Sporadic