World War II

Soon after the outbreak of the war in December, 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and MacArthur withdrew his outnumbered troops to the Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor. There they mounted a gallant but futile defense. Shortly before their surrender, MacArthur, under orders from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, left Bataan, on March 11, 1942. Upon arriving in Australia, MacArthur proclaimed, “I shall return,” a phrase that became a rallying cry for the Allies.

MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroic conduct in the defense of the Philippines and was made supreme commander of all Allied land, sea, and air forces in the Southwest Pacific. He devised an “island-hopping” strategy that bypassed Japanese strongholds, minimized American casualties, and succeeded in hastening Japan's defeat. MacArthur returned to the Philippines at the head of an invasion force in October, 1944. In December he became the Army's first five-star general. On September 2, 1945, MacArthur received the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.