ABSTRACT
The failure of the American military on Oahu to anticipate the Japanese attack is perhaps understandable. No such excuse can be proffered to explain the negligence of US Army command in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur has less excuse than any of the other American commanders on Pearl Harbor day. MacArthur did his best to prepare the Filipinos to meet the Japanese on the beachheads. “War Plan Orange” called for a retreat from Manila and central Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula and the island of Cortack, and some even believed that Germans had piloted some of the attacking aircraft at Pearl as well as the Philippines. Complacency was the order of the day in Singapore, despite the fact that its fortifications were seaward only, and useless if the Japanese penetrated the Malay Peninsula and attacked the city from the rear.
