As the far too weak garrison of scarcely more than ten thousand men was
insufficient to defend the extensive line of forts and barricades, the
unfinished works at Olongapo on Subig Bay were blown up with dynamite
and vacated, then the railways were abandoned, and finally only Manila
and Cavite were retained. But the repeated attacks of the natives under
the leadership of Japanese officers soon depleted the little garrison,
which was entirely cut off from outside assistance and dependent
absolutely on the supplies left in Manila itself. The only article of
which they had more than enough was coal; but you can't bake bread with
coal, and so finally, on August twenty-fourth, Manila capitulated.
Twenty-eight hundred starving soldiers surrendered their arms while the
balance lay either in the hospitals or on the field of battle. Thus the
Philippines became a Japanese possession with the loss of a single man,
Lieutenant Shirawa. All the rest had been accomplished by the Filipinos
and by the climate that was so conducive to the propagation of
mosquitoes and scorpions.
Hawaii's fate had been decided even more quickly than that of the
Philippines. The sixty thousand Japanese inhabitants of the archipelago
were more than enough to put an end to American rule. The half-finished
works at Pearl Harbor fell at the first assault, while the three
destroyers and the little gunboat were surprised by the enemy. Guam, and
Pago-Pago on Tutuila, were also captured, quite incidentally. About the
middle of May, a Japanese transport fleet returning from San Francisco
appeared at Honolulu and took forty thousand inhabitants to Seattle,
where they formed the reserve corps of the Northern Japanese Army.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account