Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

Condition of Japanese Forces

The morale and physical condition of the Japanese Army were very low. With the juncture of the American X and XXIV Corps, the 35th Army had begun to disintegrate. Desertion became common. The wounded would not assemble with their units. The problem of the wounded became serious since there were no proper facilities for medical treatment. General Tomochika later said: “Commanders employing persuasive language frequently requested seriously wounded soldiers at the front to commit suicide; this was particularly common among personnel of the 1st Division and it was pitiful. However the majority died willingly. Only Japanese could have done a thing like this and yet I could not bear to see the sight.”[36]

Those of the slightly wounded that could not march with the able-bodied soldiers walked by themselves. They became separated from their units and some, although able to do so, refused to rejoin their outfits, giving their wounds as an excuse. In addition there were deserters who fled to the hills. The 35th Army began the policy of sending the slightly wounded back to the front lines. Many of the service units, such as the Mitsui Shipping Unit and the air corps ground crews, refused to fight since they were not trained as combat troops. “Even the artillery and antiaircraft units retreated without facing the enemy. Their excuse was that they were not trained to fight as infantry and were useless without their guns.”[37]

Doubtless, some of the unwillingness of the Japanese service troops to serve on the front lines was due to their physical condition. When the 1st Division arrived on Leyte on 1 November it brought with it enough food and ammunition for one month, and by 1 December this supply was exhausted. On 3 December an additional one-half month’s supply was brought in at Ormoc; but this was destroyed or captured by the 77th Division in its advance. Consequently after the 1st of December all Japanese troops on Leyte “were on a starvation diet and had to live off the land.”[38] The 1st and 57th Infantry Regiments were the principal sufferers. The men were forced to eat coconuts, various grasses, bamboo shoots, the heart fibers of coconut tree trunks, and whatever native fruits or vegetables they could forage. When the troops received orders to withdraw to the west coast of Leyte, “they were literally in a starved condition, ... many instances occurred in which men vomited seven to ten times a day because they could not digest some of the food due to their weakened stomachs.”[39]

The 1st Division abandoned much equipment, ammunition, and rations along the highway through the Ormoc Valley. Many of the stragglers and deserters clothed and fed themselves with the abandoned matériel. The chief of staff of the 35th Army stated that when the Americans captured army headquarters, he left the headquarters without any clothing. However, he picked up “a new uniform and sufficient food while on the road.”[40]

Withdrawal Plans

On 19 December, General Suzuki, the commander of the 35th Army on Leyte, had received word from the 14th Area Army in Manila that henceforth the 35th Army was to subsist on its own resources and what it could obtain within its operational area.[41]

On the same day, probably because of the information received from Manila, General Suzuki ordered a conference of the staff officers of the 1st and 102d Divisions. At this meeting, General Suzuki ordered the 1st Division to retreat to the northern sector of the Matagob area and the 102d Division to the southern part of the same sector. At Matagob the divisions were to reorganize for a counterattack. The order did not give any specific time for the withdrawal; each division was to take action according to the situation in its sector. On 20 December, General Suzuki moved his headquarters farther west to a point approximately three and a half miles north of Palompon.[42]

On 21 December, the 102d Division, which had about 2,000 men, began to withdraw to the vicinity of Matagob. The division, having failed to get in touch with the 35th Army, moved to the west coast near Villaba, approximately ten miles north of Palompon.[43] It made contact with the 1st Division at the end of December, and also with the 68th Infantry Brigade and the 5th Infantry Regiment, which were already in that sector.[44] The 1st Division also began to withdraw on 21 December, making the withdrawal in two columns. The southern column consisted of about six hundred men of the 49th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division Transport Regiment, and other units. On its way west, it was met on 23 December by the 68th Brigade which, unaware of the loss of the Ormoc road, was proceeding toward the highway. The brigade joined the southern column, which reached the Bagacay sector the following day. (The barrio of Bagacay is six miles northeast of Villaba.) The northern column also had about six hundred men and consisted of elements of the Division Headquarters, the 1st Infantry Regiment, the 57th Infantry Regiment, and other units. The detachment was forced to cut its way through dense jungle. On 25 December it was attacked by the Americans and further decimated. That night the northern and southern columns met at Bagacay and on the following day started towards Matagob. On the 28th, following orders from General Suzuki, they turned north and established defensive positions on the eastern slope of Mt. Canguipot, two and a half miles southeast of Villaba.[45]

As the Japanese, pursued by the forces of the X and XXIV Corps, spiritlessly retreated toward the mountains of western Leyte, Imperial General Headquarters notified the Japanese people: “Our forces are still holding the Burauen and San Pablo airfields and continue to attack the enemy positions. Our forces are fighting fiercely on the eastern mountain slopes near Ormoc and Albuera.”[46]