7 December 1941

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on the United States. It was 7 December in Pearl Harbor. Across the international date line in the Philippines it was 8 December.


U.S.S. Arizona.


Everyone who is sentient and not historically amnesiac remembers Pearl Harbor, the ultimate example of arrogance, unpreparedness, sloth and stupidity in the face of an obvious and imminent enemy threat.

Fewer remember the attack later in the day at Clark Field in Manila, which destroyed the American Army Air Corps in the Philippines as, hours after new of the Pearl Harbor attack was known to the commander in the Philippines Douglas MacArthur, our planes -- nice new B17s and P40s -- were lined up on the tarmac, awaiting the orders of a commander paralyzed by indecision. It was not the first deadly mistake that Douglas MacArthur made in the defense of the Philippines. Most of those were made before the war, as the vainglorious prima donna fussed more about the pomp and circumstance of being "Field Marshal of the Philippine Armed Forces" than he did about the practicalities attendant to his position and responsibility. His most able Chief of Staff, a Major named Dwight Eisenhower, had shouting matches with the man who would later be dubbed "Dugout Doug" by his doomed troops. Eisenhower finally left the Philippines in frustration at MacArthur's unwillingness to deal with the Philippine army's unpreparedness.


Japanese print of the air attack on Clark Field.

But the final, fatal, mistake of MacArthur was the indecision that led to the massacre of aviation assets at Clark Field.


12: 20 PM 8 December 1941, Clark Field, Philippine Islands, about 50 miles north of Manila.

History has left us very few photographic images of the attack on Clark Field. Nothing like the instantly recognizable icons from Pearl Harbor. But when this date rolls around, I always think of Clark Field rather than Pearl Harbor as the ultimate cautionary tale. For Admiral Kimmell and General Short, commanders in Hawaii, at least had one excuse -- hostilities had not yet commenced. They were snookered, they were unprepared, but the war was not yet on. MacArthur had no such excuse. He dithered -- indeed, he had dithered for years -- and thereby lost the one long chance the Philippines had to successfully resist Japanese invasion. And so, the Americans and Filipinos were condemned to a forlorn hope, all because of catastrophic failure of command.


Over Clark Field, too little, too late.

Long-time readers will recall my essay on one of the personal stories that flowed from MacArthur's indecision: "Only those who are willing to die are fit to live." -- Remembering Captain Joe Barker on Memorial Day.

As I wrote then:

"Only those who are willing to die are fit to live." -- Captain Joseph Rhett Barker II, Bilibid Prison, Manila, Philippines, a few days before his execution by the Japanese, 8 October 1943.

The quote above is sometimes attributed to General Douglas MacArthur. He said it, no doubt. You can find several times that he said it, after the war. But he stole it from Joe Barker, a young officer who was stuck with the consequences of Macarthur's poor generalship of the Philippine campaign and, though he paid for it with his life, wrote as bright a chapter in American heroism as anyone ever has or ever could.

"The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Joseph R. Barker, II (0-021155), Captain (Cavalry), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy (assigned to the 26th Cavalry Regiment, Philippine Scouts), while serving with the Philippine Guerilla Forces, East Central Luzon Guerrilla Area, in action against enemy forces from May 1942 to November 1943, in the Philippine Islands. Captain Barker's intrepid actions, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty at the cost of his life, exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army. Headquarters, U.S. Forces-Pacific, General Orders No. 263 (1946). Home Town: Jefferson County, Alabama. Personal Awards: Distinguished Service Cross (WWII), Silver Star (WWII), Legion of Merit, Purple Heart."

So reads the synopsis of Joe Barker's Distinguished Service Cross citation. It doesn't begin to cover the truth of the sacrifice and fidelity to duty exhibited by the story of this boy from Birmingham, Alabama, who is almost entirely forgotten by fickle history. It is fitting on this Memorial Day, more than sixty-five years after he was beheaded by the Japanese and dumped in an unmarked grave, that we remember Joe Barker.

Bataan Death March. Dugout Doug didn't stick around for this little denouement of all of his bad decisions.

The ultimate cruel irony was that Dugout Doug, the man whose fatal, multiple, indecisions led to Joe Barker's death -- nand the deaths of hundreds of thousands of other Americans and Filipinos -- would steal the very words of the young soldier that he doomed.

So it is that I remember this day, seventy years ago -- As a reminder not to ignore the obvious threats of apparent enemies whose forces are already on the march, yes. But, also, as a warning about the responsibilities of command and the duty to ACT in the face of an attack already made elsewhere.

That is what I remember this day.

And I remember Joe Barker, and all the other Joe Barkers', condemned by one man's vanity and indecision.