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he war against Japan in Leyte officially
started when the US Army Forces Far East (USAFFE) surrendered in Bataan and
Corregidor. To many Leyteños, surrender by the USAFFE was forthcoming. Bataan
and Corregidor were desperate measures a beleaguered army had to resort to in
the face of a superior and determined enemy. It was only a matter of time
before the combined US and Filipino troops would give up. That is why
preparations for the eventual takeover of the Japanese of the island province
had been an ongoing concern since the Japanese landed in Luzon.
But weeks before the arrival of the
Japanese occupation force, Leyte’s officials seemed determined to defend their
towns and provincial capital of Tacloban. The decision to resist the Japanese
invaders came up in a conference with Vice-President Sergio Osmeña in Cebu in
March 1942, the results of which were relayed to a meeting of municipal mayors
who were unanimously for armed resistance. The details of such a plan would
however remain vague and undefined. [i]
They agreed to place the safety of the
civilian population in the hands of the Leyte Area Command under Col. Theodore
M. Cornell and it was up to the latter to set up their defenses. Cornell at
that time had 98 officers and 1,968 men who barely had enough combat training.
Like their Luzon counterparts, the Leyte USAFFE troops were poorly equipped for
battle, and sorely lacking in arms, ammunitions and logistical supplies. In the
face of a more experienced and better equipped enemy, Cornell’s troops would
have to think hard before deciding to fight it out.
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[i] Elmer N. Lear, “The Japanese Occupation of the Philippines –
Leyte,” 1941-45, Data Paper No. 42,
Southeast Asia Program, Department of Far Eastern Studies, Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, June, 1961, P. 12,
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