TODAY IN THE PAST

Today, October 18, 1944, US Carrier Task Force launches a two-day attack on Northern and Central Philippines.

In March 1943 Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, former Japanese ambassador to the US, after visiting Corregidor, proudly told the Manila newspaperman: "The Americans will not be able to return - not in 100 years."

By August 1944, the tide of war was decided by turned in favor of the United States.

On August 9, 1944, the American carrier planes bombed the Japanese military objectives in Davao. This was the first American air attack since the fall of the Philippines.

On September 21, 1944, while the Japanese were having their morning air-raid drill in Manila, the American planes suddenly swapped down and bombed the Japanese vessels in the bay and the airstrips around the city.

The surprise raid in Manila created pandemonium among the Japanese but made the Filipinos jubilant. The planes returned the following day and blasted more Japanese ships and military objectives.

The first three weeks of October, 1944, saw the Americans intensifying their air attacks on the Philippines and Formosa. These attacks preluded catastrophe for the Japanese.

On October 20, 1944, an American force of 174,000 troops, ferried by an armada of 700 warships, landed at Leyte. The Japanese were caught off guard for they thought that the American invasion would start in southern Mindanao.

After the first wave of assault troops had made a beachhead, General MacArthur waded ashore, at "Red Beach" near Palo, accompanied by Vice-President Osmeña, General Carlos P. Romulo, and General Basilio Valdez. He announced to the Filipino people: "I have returned."