Filipino Opposition to the Japanese

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THE FIRST IMPORTANT achievement of the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines was the approval of the National Defense Act in 1935. The general aim of the law, however, was not a preparation for the immediate military defense of the Philippines. Its aim was the training of citizens, little by little, to form a substantial reserve by 1946. It was largely modeled after the Swiss system of citizen training. Young men over 21 would be called for a training period of 5V2 months, allowing two training periods a year. It was estimated that 40,000 men would be trained each year, so that by 1946, the Philippines would have 400,000 soldiers in the reserve. The program was to be carried out as cheaply as possible. There were to be no immediate expensive preparations, no purchases of airplanes and artillery, except what were necessary for training purposes. During the meetings of the appropriations committee of the National Assembly, whenever the question of military purchases was put before General MacArthur or members of his staff, the answer was that the defense of the Philippines was the responsibility of the United States, that the chief aim of the defense measures before the Commonwealth Government was the training of a citizen army for 1946; and that, this being so, money should not be squandered on material which would be obsolete by 1946. General MacArthur, it must be remembered, was then speaking as the Military Advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth, and not as a member of the United States Army. The Tydings-McDuffie Act specifically provided that all the armed forces of the Philippines would be ultimately under the President of the United States. At the outbreak of the emergency, President Roosevelt incorporated the Philippine Army and General MacArthur into the United States Army. Retired Major-General MacArthur became Lieutenant-General (later full General), commanding officer of the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East). The work of General MacArthur in the Philippines, prior to his appointment as USAFFE chief, then, was the training of a citizen army for 1946 and therefore the main force, by numbers, on which the Filipinos and Americans on