Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila

by James M. Scott

“Illuminating.… An eloquent testament to a doomed city and its people.” ― The Wall Street Journal In early 1945, General Douglas MacArthur prepared to reclaim Manila, America’s Pearl of the Orient, which had been seized by the Japanese in 1942. Convinced the Japanese would abandon the city, he planned a victory parade down Dewey Boulevard―but the enemy had other plans. The Japanese were determined to fight to the death. The battle to liberate Manila resulted in the catastrophic destruction of the city and a rampage by Japanese forces that brutalized the civilian population, resulting in a massacre as horrific as the Rape of Nanking. Drawing from war-crimes testimony, after-action reports, and survivor interviews, Rampage recounts one of the most heartbreaking chapters of Pacific War history. 16 pages of illustrations; 10 maps

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Military History, War, Japan, American History

635 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“[Douglas] MacArthur saw in Manila an opportunity to once again seize the limelight. He understood better than anyone the power of narrative, having served as the army’s first public relations officer during World War I. MacArthur had demonstrated his media savvy back on Corregidor, where he managed, despite his ultimate defeat, to construct a public image of himself as the lone general standing up to the Japanese. He did so through carefully crafted communiques – many of them erroneous – that he personally labored over for up to two hours each day. Out of 142 issued during his time on the Rock, 109 spotlighted a single soldier: MacArthur. America loved it – and him. In a sign of his media campaign’s great success, cities across the nation had named roads, schools, and stadiums in his honor. Couples had danced ‘The MacArthur Glide,’ and women had shown off a popular new hairstyle called the General MacArthur Wave. Parents from Oregon to Arkansas had christened newborn children Douglas. Unlike Corregidor, however, Manila offered MacArthur the chance for a real victory, both on the battlefield and in newsprint and on the airwaves. So confident was the general that he would retake Manila without any trouble that his staff had begun to organize a victory parade, down to picking jeep assignments and selecting a route into the city…”
- James M. Scott, Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila

The Second World War is one of the most written-about topics in all of history. What you quickly discover as you plunge into this vast literature is that there is always another devastating tragedy waiting to be revealed. The overwhelming nature of the war’s catastrophe has meant that certain events – which deserve their own course of study – have been somewhat neglected.

The Battle – or Massacre – of Manila is one of those events.

Resulting in approximately 100,000 civilian deaths, along with tens of thousands of injuries, mutilations, and sexual assaults, knowledge of the Battle of Manila should be ubiquitous, a synonym for atrocity. Had it happened at any other time, it would be. But as it occurred during the closing stages of the world’s most destructive self-inflicted disaster, it has – outside of the Philippines, at least – been a bit forgotten, or at least under-covered. Certainly, it does not have the name-recognition of Nanking, Dresden, or Hiroshima.

In Rampage, James S. Scott’s clear objective is to change that. This is a people’s history of concentrated carnage and cruelty, a monthlong siege that razed a once-beautiful city, crushing its citizens in a vise comprised of relentless American artillery on one side, and a brutal and suicidal Japanese contingent on the other.

***

The subtitle of Rampage namechecks American General Douglas MacArthur and Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the leaders of the opposing forces. Interestingly, though, their presence in the book is only intermittent.

In the first part of Rampage, Scott briefly sets the context, beginning with MacArthur’s failure to hold the Philippines, his escape from Corregidor, and his brazenly self-serving promise: “I shall return.” He also covers the rise and fall of Yamashita, who conducted the masterful campaign that climaxed with the surrender of Singapore, which Winston Churchill himself dubbed the greatest defeat ever suffered by the British Empire. Japanese politics then sidelined Yamashita, until he was called upon to lead the Imperial forces in their last stand on the Philippines.

After their introduction, MacArthur and Yamashita both disappear for long stretches. The reason, I should add, is that this is decidedly not a military history, despite the implications of the subtitle. Scott spends very little time discussing the strategic implications of MacArthur’s decision to retake Manila, much less the larger decisions behind the controversial decision to invade the Philippines at all, given that the campaign in the Central Pacific was proving decisive.

Furthermore, the tactical aspect of the battle is also given only broadly, often vaguely. If you want any idea of how American troops actually accomplished the capture of Manila, this really isn’t that helpful. To be sure, there are some vignettes among American troops (though almost nothing from the Japanese perspective), but these are used to illustrate the difficulty of the siege, rather than a methodical attempt to describe the flow of the battle. Since the maps in Rampage are defiantly useless, I found myself having to pull battle maps off the internet, just to get my bearings.

***

Instead of narrating a battle, Scott’s true intention is to document a slaughter. From starving prisoners awaiting liberation in the University of Santo Tomas, to refugees desperately seeking shelter in the German Club, to ordinary Filipino families striving to escape the Walled City, Scott puts you on the ground with people trying to do one thing, and one thing only: survive.

For better and for worse, Scott does an exceptional job of capturing the fear, disorientation, desperation, and horror faced by Manila’s denizens. Having combed reports, diaries, and especially war crimes trial transcripts, he is able to recreate lengthy scenes, complete with dialogue. These sections are undoubtedly effective and skillfully drawn, utilizing well-chosen first-person testimonies and interweaving them into his prose.

A lot of Rampage comes directly from the mouths of those who survived, and Scott deserves credit for finding reminiscences that are vivid, poignant, and meaningful. Witnesses are not wordsmiths, and people in traumatic circumstances often fall back on cliches (“all hell broke loose”) in order to describe something beyond their abilities with words. However understandable, simply repeating those well-trod formulas – as many authors do – is not very useful. Scott avoids this by carefully selecting his anecdotes for maximum impact.

It should be noted that some of Rampage is incredibly, stomach-turningly graphic. There are decapitations, bayonetings, and numerous sexual assaults, including gang rapes. Some of these are extremely detailed. Moreover, the bulk of this book’s length is devoted to variations on this theme. Many survivors observed that after a while, even the most horrendous sights became tedious. The same is true with these retellings. There is a diminishing marginal utility to the repetition of theft, assault, and murder.

***

Scott is an excellent researcher and writer, and his earlier book on the Dolittle Raid – Target Tokyo – is history at its most robust. Rampage falls well short of that mark. It is not simply that Scott is mono-focused on depravations – there is value in refusing to look away – but that he fails to engage in many of the debates swirling around the Battle of Manila, such as MacArthur’s decision to lay siege in the first place. Also raised – but not discussed – is the question of who caused most of the damage: the Americans or the Japanese?

In the last section of Rampage, MacArthur and Yamashita reappear for the closing act, in which MacArthur constituted a military tribunal to prosecute Yamashita. Scott’s handling of this material is quite balanced, especially given the mayhem that came before. He describes the vagueness of the charges, the ridiculous timelines for defense counsel to prepare, and the impossibly-heated atmosphere. On the other hand, Scott notes that Yamashita had been accused of abetting war crimes before, specifically the Sook Ching Massacre in Singapore, which could be tied directly to his headquarters. Yamashita also could have quit, bowing to the inevitable. But he didn’t, and he paid for that, along with many others who never had the chance.

***

Even in death, MacArthur – and his ego – tend to suck the air out of the room. In his life, it was always about him, and in his afterlife, there is a tendency to fall into that same trap. Thus, one virtue of leaving him and Yamashita mostly on the sidelines is that the Filipino experience is centered, as it should be.

Just as important, Scott does not seek a silver lining or try to add a positive gloss. There is no redeeming aspect to the Battle of Manila. Japan was going to lose the war, America was going to win, and 100,000 innocent civilians did not need to perish, often in grotesque ways. Rampage makes for a gloomy, depressing read, but one that is honest as well. Far past the time when Manila could have been saved, all that is left is to remember.

[happy · Rating 5 out of 5]

With this release, Mr. Scott has delivered a superb look at one of the most brutal and destructive battles in the Pacific Theater in World War II – the American “liberation” of Manila in February of 1945. In telling the story of the liberation, the author also gives some insight to the commanders, MacArthur (MacA) and Yamashita. He tells of just why MacA so loved the Philippines and considered them, esp Manila, his home. He covers the Japanese invasion in 1942, the reasons MacA declared it an open city and briefly his flight from Corregidor and the Islands.

He then looks at just what the European/American Civilian internee’s went through during the nearly 3 yrs of captivity. While at least originally it wasn’t anywhere near as harsh as the military survivors of Bataan and Corregidor, it was not an easy life either. Mr. Scott specifically looks at life in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp that was set up on the Campus of the College of Santo Tomas.

Starting at about page 150, the American invasion of Luzon and the subsequent drive to Manila is recounted. MacA’s pressure on his units to get there yesterday is well done. The 6th Army’s slow advance greatly frustrated MacA. The author states the Gen Kruger, the 6th Army CDR did not know what was in front of him, and wouldn’t let MacA bully him into going faster. The author gives two reasons for MacA’s desire to hurry. The first was the fate of the Internee’s. After the raid to liberate POW at Cabanatuan, he didn’t want the internee’s to suffer any longer than they had too. The second reason was his belief or gut instinct, that with the defeat of the Japanese forces on Leyte, all of the Japanese forces in the Philippines had been defeated. He also believed that Yamashita would follow his example and declare Manila an Open City and not try to defend it. He was wrong. While Yamashita did order his troops to abandon the City, the local commander – Adm Iwabuchi chose to ignore those orders and with appox 18K men, decided to defend the city. They fortified every major building south of the Pasig River that divides Manila.

At the urging of MacA, the 1st Cav Div, set up a special task force to liberate both the Santo Tomas and Bilibal camps which were located north of the river. This was accomplished fairly easily. Mr Scott’s telling of the relief of the internee’s at Santo Tomas is quite touching. He tells the experience from both the internees and the liberators perspective.

Once the city north of the Pasig was liberated the horror really began. When MacA’s troops first attempted to cross the river, MacA forbade the use of both indirect fires and Close Air Support (CAS), fearing the damage it would cause both to the city and its population. When the first attempts to cross the river were stopped cold, at his division and corps cdrs insistence, MacA relented on the indirect fires (Artillery), but never permitted CAS, much to the frustration of his division commanders.

The next part of the narrative is very difficult to read. There are about 200 pages of just what the Japanese did to the civilian population of Manila. If one has ever read Iris Chang’s “The Rape of Nanjing” one can guess what is coming next

WARNING SOME OF THE SPOILER IS PRETTY GRAPHIC

This is includes graphic tales of beheadings, burning people alive, bayoneting of adults, children and babies, shootings, mass rape of any female no matter what age, rapes of dead women/girls etc. In one particular nauseating instance, a Japanese soldier attempts to rape a young girl, when he can’t penetrate her, he takes out his bayonet and slices open her vagina and then completes the act. In another instance, the Japanese essentially set up a beheading assembly line. One after another, victims are lead into a room, bent over a stool and beheaded. This kind of stuff goes on and on for about 200 pages. It was as bad as or worse than anything the German forces committed on the Eastern front or the Russians in Germany. Some pretty graphic pictures are included, including a survivor of an attempted beheading. He is shown for the side with a large notch at the base of his head and top of his neck. I almost became numb reading it, which was also the reaction of many observers at Yamashita's trial as they listened to the testimony of the victims.


The southern portion of Manila was so well defended and fortified, the American’s use of Arty practically leveled every building south of the river. What the Americans didn’t destroy, the Japanese burned down. Even with all of the destruction, the vast majority of the surviving residents welcomed the US Forces with open arms. The main complaint seemed to be “What took you so long?”

The last 50 pgs or so tells the story of Yamashita’s war crimes trial in Manila after the end of the war. The city was so devastated that there were problems finding and adequate venue. While Mr. Scott doesn’t seem to feel that MacA dictated a guilty verdict, the rules of evidence were so loose and the charges so broad, that it invited a guilty verdict. The trial was set up as a military Courts Martial. The court consisted of 2 Major Generals and 3 Brigadier Generals, all combat commanders and none of them lawyers. The author also looks at Yamashita’s defense team, none of whom wanted that assignment. To man they did the best possible job of defending the Japanese Commander. On the eve of the verdict, many of the observers thought that they had won an acquittal. As to the outcome of the Trial, Mr. Scott asserts that even if Yamashita has been found “Not Guilty” in Manila, the British and Australian Gov’ts wanted to try him for the actions of his troops in Malaysia and Singapore at the beginning of the war and he would most probably been found guilty.

About the only problem I had is that author does not make clear that by this time the 1st Cav was organized as a standard Infantry Division (it did not have horses or any extra transport for that matter) and occasionally identifies the 155 mm howitzer as a “Long Tom”. The “Long Tom” was a different weapon – a 155 mm gun which has a much longer barrel and fires with a much flatter trajectory than the howitzer.

Even with the minor errors, I think this is a 5 star and very, very good telling of an almost forgotten battle of the Second World War.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southern Nanking

This is the story of the Philippines and the Battle of Manila during in the Second World War. General Douglas MacArthur was de facto ruler of the archipelago country before the war, having been recalled to the army by Franklin D Roosevelt following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 07/12/1941. However, on 11/03/1942 he was forced to withdraw from the Philippines following the huge sweeping success of the Japanese Empire. What followed was nearly three years of oppression occupation before MacArthur set foot on Filipino soil again. After island hopping and repeat massacres following by brutal fighting, liberation followed. James M Scott, here tells the tale of the final and greatest hurdle; the 29 day battle for Manila. The capital city, MacArthur’s adopted homeland, dubbed the Pearl of the Orient.

The Battle of Manila is another tragic tale within WWII. The innocents civilians caught up in a war they had no influence or control over were at first starved and treated as subhumans before American forces began to take the islands back. When the fighting began, the Japanese unlocked another level to this criminal regime. They systematically raped, mutilated, murdered and pillaged the city and its inhabitants. No one was safe, children, German allies, Red Cross workers, doctors, nuns and priests. But this is not the full story, American bombing of the capital wrecked equal devastation, killing just as many Filipinos.

MacArthur showed hubris when retaking the islands. He had a long history connected with them. His father General Arthur MacArthur was a national hero there, due to being involved in the liberation of the country from Spanish Rule in 1898. He loved the Philippines and spent much of his life there, living on the top floor of the luxury Manila Hotel, rising to the top and even became a Field Marshal of the Filipino Army. His beloved mother died in the Philippines in 1935, he son, Arthur was raised there and even met his second wife on route to the islands. Everything about the Islands was personal to MacArthur who felt that retaking the island was like a home coming of a famous son. As a result, the reconquest of Manila was lobbed by MacArthur to FDR. He wanted the Philippines back, even though US military plans focused on taking Formosa (Taiwan) and then use it as a spring board to attack the Japanese home islands.

The Japanese forces were under General Tomoyuki Yamashita, who famously took the British fortress of Singapore with a vastly smaller force. Anointed the Tiger of Malaya, he landed in the Philippines 11 days before MacArthur. The bulk of American forces landed at Lingayen Gulf on 09/01/1945 under kamikaze attacks. Manila was only 100 miles away. It took a further 29 days to liberate the city. In that time unimaginable horrors and suffering occurred. Gang rape, infants being bayoneted to death, people burnt alive, men beheaded by swords, women’s genitalia was sliced off. The German Club became a slaughter house as people were systematically murdered in all different horrific ways. Fighting between Americans and Japanese resembled Stalingrad, slow, house to house and room to room fighting. As they reached the walled city, the desperate Japanese used women and children as human shields. By 03/03/1945 it was all over, US forces with 1,010 casualties and the Japanese with 16,665. However over 100,000 civilians had also been killed.

After this we learn of Yamashita’s trial and MacArthur’s written verdict. Essentially he had to take the blame, even if critics of the decision also has valid points to make. Ultimately he allowed it to happen. Scott concludes that this was not isolated barbarity but part of a wider broken ideology of Imperial Japan from the Rape of Nanking, to the murder of 250,000 Chinese in the aftermath of the Jimmy Doolittle raid to the atrocities committed to British and Australian POWs in Malaya. Overall I really enjoyed this book, Scott has a pacy and punchy style. He tells the story in an exiting and horrifying way. You have to face this reality in order to get to the truth even if passages are hard to stomach. On criticism for me is that I would have like more on the fighting and military side, rather than the heavy focus on the atrocities, which are of course very important to write.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

In January of 1945, American forces were preparing for the invasion of the island of Luzon in the Philippines, with the ultimate goals of defeating the Japanese in the Philippines and freeing the capital city of Manila. General MacArthur was fairly obsessed with Manila and the Philippines as it held a very special place in his heart and in his family's history. Opposing him was General Yamashita, known as "The Tiger of Malaya" for his earlier campaign against the British in Malaya and Singapore. Yamashita was faced with a plethora of handicaps as he tried to defend the Philippines: poor troops, lack of supplies, poor communications, lack of air cover, a hostile local populace and the ever-present inter-service rivalry with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Thus, he decided to fall back into the mountains of Luzon and fight a delaying action while leaving Manila open, something MacArthur had done a few years earlier. However, Japanese naval troops and some army units had other plans and decided to make Manila a battleground in which every building, street and neighborhood would be defended to the death. The result was the near total devastation of Manila and a campaign of slaughter, rape, barbarism and inhumanity which was probably second only to the Rape of Nanking in 1937.

Author James Scott has written a fantastic book about the city of Manila, MacArthur's ties to it, and the horrible fighting which ensued for its liberation. The story focuses a fair amount in the beginning on the liberation of Santo Tomas University, a place where several thousand civilians were held captive by the Japanese. Forced to live in squalid conditions with little to no food, the internees were practically walking skeletons when American forces finally liberated them. Their stories, which cover pre- and post-liberation, are merely the beginning of the nightmare which befell Manila. What follows is a long list of atrocities committed by the Japanese as they retreated into other parts of the city--I'd say about 60-65% of the narration covers this, with the remainder covering the actual combat between American and Japanese forces. Reading what the Japanese did is horrifying and tough to get through in many spots, but helps set the stage for the final part of the book.

The final part of the book covers Yamashita's surrender to the Americans and his subsequent trial in Manila. Charged with not controlling his troops as they murdered, raped, pillaged and plundered their way through Manila, Yamashita was eventually found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Personally, I feel the trial and verdict were a bit of a travesty but inevitable given the circumstances.

Overall, a really good book which reads easy, aside from the repeated scenes of horror. I found it to be well-written and fair attempt at a balanced story of the Battle of Manila.

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most iconic statements in American military history was uttered by General Douglas MacArthur as he fled the Philippine Island of Corregidor on March 11, 1942 and reached Australia. Upon his arrival, MacArthur remarked that “I came through and I shall return,” a promise he would keep in February 1945, a promise that was kept because of MacArthur’s enormous ego and refusal to accept existing American intelligence estimates concerning Japanese capabilities, particularly as it effected Manila. The result was the brutal slaughter; rape, and murderous behavior reigned upon civilian and POWs by Japanese marines, while MacArthur was planning his victory parade. What the Japanese engaged in was a rampage against anything or person that opposed them. Japanese behavior, policies, their rationale, and results of their barbarity are the subject of James M. Scott’s new book, MacARTHUR, YAMASHITA AND THE BATTLE OF MANILA.

Scott’s approach to his topic is a careful and insightful presentation of events that rely on numerous interviews of survivors of the Japanese rampage, immersion into trial transcripts, official military reports, individual diaries, to create and an exacting reportage of what transpired. Two decades ago I read THE RAPE OF NANKING by Iris Chang, and I thought I had been exposed to the depths of humanity in her description of Japanese behavior, but Scott reinforces Chang’s descriptions and takes them to a new level of inhumanity and disgust.

Scott begins his narrative by focusing on the role the Philippines played in MacArthur’s family from 1898 onward as his father became military governor and oversaw “stitching the nation back together again” after years of bloody guerilla warfare. MacArthur himself would experience four assignments in the Philippines and would develop many important relationships, and to his credit he was unaffected by the racial bias of the day and considered the Philippines as his home.
Scott does a nice job developing MacArthur’s relationship with his mother, Pinky who smothered her son with attention and her opinions throughout her life, and his oversized ego stems from his socialization at the feet of his mother. By 1935 he became the father of the Filipino army and helped to westernize the area. This would be shattered on December 7, 1941 as he had a front row seat as 43,000 Japanese troops came ashore forcing MacArthur to flee under the cover of darkness. Scott does a similar job conveying the upbringing and education of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the victor over the British at the Battle of Singapore, in addition to the challenges he faced in dealing with the internal politics that existed within the Japanese military hierarchy. In comparing the two Scott points out that both men had similar difficulties. MacArthur was destined to fight in a Pacific backwater, while others earned glory in Europe, while Yamashita had been exiled to military oblivion in Manchuria because of the hatred and jealousy of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

In part, RAMPAGE concentrates on the background and clash between MacArthur and Yamashita, a battle over the last major roadblock that stood between American forces and the Japanese homeland. Yamashita’s goal was to devastate the Philippines, and bog down MacArthur’s forces to allow Japan to dig shelters and prepare for the eventual American invasion. Yamashita was a realist and was cognizant of the fact that his task was somewhat hopeless, but he would do his best, and accepted that the result would be his own death.

Aside from MacArthur and Yamashita, Scott develops the role of Japanese Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi whose job was to do everything in his power to stop MacArthur’s forces, including the destruction of Manila. Eventually Yamashita would withdraw his forces from the city, but Iwabuschi had no plans to leave, and instructed his troops to fortify the city and fight to the last man. Scott presents an accurate description of the fighting in the Philippines as he leads up to what transpired in Manila.

Scott’s focus is on the suffering of the men, women, and children that were occupied and imprisoned by the Japanese. The emotions of people run the gamut from joy upon being liberated by US soldiers at Santo Tomas, to other sites were the inmates were not as lucky. Scott bases his narrative on interviews of survivors who were victimized by the brutality heaped on them by Japanese soldiers and how they suffered. Hague and Geneva Conventions meant little to the Japanese military hierarchy and their soldiers carried out the most outrageous behavior that can be imagined. Scott devotes what seems like more than half the narrative to descriptions of Japanese behavior which was mind boggling; severing of heads, slicing off body parts, dousing individuals with gasoline and setting them on fire, direct shootings, rape, and other forms of torture that are described in detail. Family histories are presented in addition to their plight at the hands of the Japanese that numbered in the thousands. At times the descriptions become overwhelming for the reader, particularly the minutia presented in the chapters dealing with the rape of women and teenagers by Japanese marines; and what survivors found once they were liberated from Japanese imprisonment.

The question must be raised whether some of what the Japanese perpetrated could have been offset, at least, in part with a different strategy. President Roosevelt and his advisers wanted to focus on Formosa as a stepping stone to Japan, but MacArthur insisted on a Filipino centric approach. MacArthur badgered Roosevelt until he gave in, allowing MacArthur to assuage his ego by returning to the site of his greatest defeat. Once plans were made for the retaking of the Philippines, MacArthur refused to believe his own intelligence concerning the level of Japanese forces and their plans to level Manila, and the lies that were told to the press, i.e.; that Manila was liberated at a time it was being destroyed by the Japanese, and civilians were being slaughtered. At times plans were made for parades to make MacArthur look like the conquering hero in American newsreels, at a time when death and destruction reigned on Manila and other areas. When the general finally sloshed ashore at Lingayen Gulf, he was convinced that the battle for the Philippines had already been won on Leyte, one of many errors in judgement that had grave consequences. As Scott correctly points out, liberating Manila was an obsession and “would serve as the redemptive final chapter to his earlier story of defeat.”

In his description of the 29 days of Japanese rape, pillage, and mutilation, Scott relies on the commentary of reporters like Frank Hewlett and Life magazine reporter Carl Mydans to describe the agony of liberation and recapture. The diaries of people like Tressa Roka, an army nurse, poet and teacher; Robert Kentner, Robert Wygle, and CBS reporter Bill Dunn, among others presents a window into what prisoners experienced. Further, the reaction of American soldiers to the condition of prisoners who had been unmercifully starved to half their body weight, suffered from unescapable malnutrition, along with other medical conditions is heart rendering. The descriptions are appalling as Japanese shelling and shrapnel tore apart people’s bodies and as they conducted a block to block destruction of the city it would erase four centuries of history almost in one afternoon!

For US forces the recapture of Manila was a street by street affair. MacArthur had forbidden the use of aerial bombing to retake the city and would reluctantly allow the use of artillery as he sought to preserve as much of the city and save as many inhabitants as possible. Despite MacArthur’s desires US forces would resort to massive artillery and bombing of parts of the city where Japanese forces refused to surrender resulting in civilian casualties and contributing to the destruction of the city. By March 3, 1945, the last of the Japanese forces in Manila were killed or surrendered. The Battle of Manila was over. U.S. forces suffered 1,010 killed and 5,565 wounded retaking the capital. Japan lost 16,665 soldiers killed. More than 100,000 civilians lost their lives to Japanese butchery and the inevitable collateral damage of war. (422)

Following the war General Yamashita was tried and convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging, even though he had not directly ordered the atrocities that the troops under his command committed. Scott describes Yamashita’s trial and fairly presents the evidence and arguments of both the prosecution and the defense. The U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the case and let the sentence stand. Yamashita’s claim that he was unaware of what was transpiring in Manila is belied by the fact that his headquarters was in wireless contact with Admiral Iwabuchi throughout the period of atrocities. What transpired in Manila was part of a pattern of Japanese atrocities begun in Manchuria against the Chinese in the 1930s, that continued in all areas that they occupied or engaged with civilian areas, POWs, or in general battlefield behavior throughout the war in the Pacific.

The author reminds us once again that man’s depravity takes exception to the idea of human progress. Scott’s description of Japanese behavior in the Philippines, and Manila in particular reflects a warlike society that committed, along with the Nazi Holocaust crimes against humanity, actions that could hardly have been imagined before the 1930s. We know of other examples of atrocities throughout history, but never on the scale of WWII, especially with the application of advanced technology integrated into the war machine to reduce the civilian population of one’s enemies.

Scott’s narrative description of the 29 days that brought about the destruction of Manila and the death of over 100,000 people is gripping and scary as the reader is carried off into a world where death and sadism seems to be the norm. War leads to this type of behavior, and one can only wish mankind never experiences this again-but I doubt it.

[Hadrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may never be possible to determine the complete human toll of the Battle of Manila.
-War Department Release, April 17, 1945

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

I read this expecting a straightforward military narrative about the 1945 Battle of Manila and its
situation in the Philippines Campaign of 1944-1945. While there is some description of the US Army's return, what I had instead found was a harrowing story of the fighting within the city itself, and the violence inflicted upon civilians and the city itself is a depiction of hell.

MacArthur comes across as sincere in his wish to recover the Philippines, though at times tactically mistaken. Yamashita Tomoyuki, his opponent, the victor of Singapore, was exiled to Manchuria for being too popular and thus sent to Manila in the dying years of the war in a campaign he could not hope to win. His large garrison was well-positioned but nearly out of supplies.

The battle went on for almost a month, and the human loss was titanic. Many died - perhaps a tenth of the city in total - to artillery bombardments and fanatical Japanese troops. Scott writes with intensity about the terror of it all. Manila's loss will rank among one of the most terrible acts of destruction in that war, along with, say, Warsaw and Chongqing.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less a traditional military history of the Battle of Manila and more of a record of the horrific suffering of the civilian population during the battle where an estimated 100,000 people died, many as the result of Japanese atrocities. Be forewarned this a grim and depressing read. The last section of the book covers the war crimes trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita and the thorny issue of command accountability. Yamashita was the overall commander of Japan's dispersed Philippine forces in the final year of the war (including those that fought in Manila) but as prosecution conceded he neither ordered nor committed any of the crimes in question, rather he was charged with having failed to control his troops. Readers interested in a more detailed examination and legal analysis of Yamashita's trial and its impact on both the idea of military command responsibility and the concept of international human rights may want to consider Yamashita's Ghost: War Crimes, Macarthur's Justice, and Command Accountability by Allan A. Ryan, which I highly recommend.

[Gary K Bibliophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few quotes from the book that stood out to me...
“ To American reporters, many were nameless faces. But to Filipino journalist Felipe Buencamino, the refugees were friends, colleagues, and prominent Manila citizens and socialites. Amid the ash-covered streets, he encountered doctors, lawyers, judges, and bankers. ”

“ The Western mind cannot grasp the realities of this awful crime. One must grope into the shadows of history to find a parallel. Genghis Khan, the Mongol Horde blazing a trail of utter destruction. ” —GENERAL HEADQUARTERS

“ What the Japanese did not steal, the fire devoured. What the fire did not devour, the bombs pulverized. ” —JUAN LABRADOR, DIARY ENTRY, MARCH 17, 1945"

Journalist Joan Orendain summarized it best: “ War, the ultimate leveler, made us all poor. ”

“ We became a race of spies, thieves, saboteurs, informers and looters, callous and miserly. ” (The Filipino people during occupation)

Over the years I have watched a lot of movies, shows, read books, watched documentaries about WWII. Admittedly the bulk of these were focused on the battle for Europe. I didn't know that much about the Pacific theater. Obviously there was the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the battle of Midway, the twin nuclear bombs... Other than that I was very short on details. I knew of MacArthur and his famous “I shall return” declaration. If you asked “where was it that he was declaring to return to?” I really would have had to guess.

Rampage has a fairly narrow focus... I have other books on my TBR list that cover the wider conflict (this is one that is highly recommended... The Rising Sun). Rampage does a little bit of background on the two main military leaders...

Gen. MacArthur for the U.S. and Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita for the Japanese. For MacArthur I didn't realize his family's history with the military. His father, Arthur MacArthur Jr. fought in the Civil War and won a Medal of Honor. Douglas served with distinction in WWI. There was also a connection between father and son with respect to the Philippines. Arthur was a key player in the Battle of Manila in 1899 and was shortly after appointed by president William McKinley to the position of Military Governor of the Philippines in May 1900. I didn't really know anything about the Philippine-American war so this was all new to me. It sounds like that conflict was pretty brutal all by itself and that the Americans weren't very nice to the Filipino people – treating them as an inferior race.

Douglas MacArthur also had a strong relationship with the Philippines, making it his home for some time. Shortly before the U.S. entered WWII MacArthur was brought back into active duty in July of 1941 and was named the commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. By Feb 1942 things had gotten very bad for the U.S. troops in the Philippines. On March 12 ,1942 he left the Philippines and stated his famous quote “I came through and I shall return” (although Rampage shortens this to just “I shall return”). MacArthur leaves Manila along with his family and much of his staff and relocates to Australia to oversee the U.S. troops.

It also had some background on Yamashita – known as the 'Tiger of Malaya'. His strategy for the Battle of Singapore by bringing in troops on bicycles was fascinating. (Dubbed the Bicycle Blitzkreig). Winston Churchill said at the time that the British capitulation there amounted to the “worst disaster” in British military history. Hideki Tojo – the Japanese War minister felt threatened by Yamashita 's success and sent him to China (it seemed like to get him out of the way). By 1944, Tojo was out of the picture and things were not going well for the Japanese. Yamashita was sent along with his army to the Phillippines to defend it from MacArthur's troops.

After the backstories Rampage jumps basically to right before the focus of the story which is about the Battle of Manila. It skips all the events after MacArthur made his declaration and and picks up right before the U.S. troops landed on the island of Leyte in Oct of 1944. Upon learning of the invasion, Muto (Yamashita's chief of staff) asked a single question that best captured how ill-prepared the Japanese were to fight. “Where is Leyte?”

Shortly after this the bulk of the American troops converged on the Luzon province north of Manila. This was anticipated by Yamashita, but was earlier than he expected and took him off guard. The Battle of Manila was about to begin.

Although the book skipped a lot of military events between when MacArthur left and his return... it did cover the fate of many of the people left behind that would wind up in internment camps. This included Americans, Chinese, Filipino, German, Spaniards, and Russians. One such internment camp was the former University of Santo Tomas. MacArthur was very concerned that the fate of the internees would be the same as the POW camp at Palawan where many were slaughtered as the U.S. forces approached.

The stories of the survivors in Santo Tomas were horrifying. Dwindling rations over time to bare sustenance leading to mass deaths by starvation. Anyone looking up at the sky when U.S. troops flew overhead had to stare into the sun for hours at a time. Terrible... but the horrors don't stop there.

As the U.S. advanced and the Japanese felt defeat was coming the atrocities got worse. People (mostly civilians) were rounded up – under the guise of possibly colluding with the Philippine underground forces – and executed in large numbers. People were shot, bayoneted, stabbed or decapitated with swords – all kinds of horrible things. This started with the males over 11 and eventually in some areas included women, small children and infants as well. Rather than allow the U.S. to take Manila back the Japanese troops started systematically burning down the city block by block. People were massacred at churches, hospitals, and at Red Cross facilities. It was just horrible.

When the U.S. troops first advanced into the city initially there was little resistance and MacArthur – who was pretty full of himself declared the city liberated way before there was any hope of doing so. The American press picked up on this and it was felt that all that was left to do was some simple cleanup operations... MacArthur had to be confronted by his generals to tell him there was not going to be a victory parade in the city... no matter how much he desired one. All the major bridges were blown up and streets were mined and booby-trapped – buildings had snipers all over. It was not a 'clean up' operation. It reminded me of when George W. Bush declared 'Mission Accomplished' in Iraq... in a similarly premature way.

The U.S took on the remainder of larger organized forces mainly by dropping bombs or shelling the Japanese that were dug in. This was an enormous amount of military might concentrated in a city many called the 'Pearl of the Orient'. Much of the city was destroyed – whatever the Japanese didn't burn down – and many cultural centers and history was gone forever. After the battle was over there was little of an economy or working city to be had for the survivors.

A lot of the accounts were very detailed.. days, individual's names, places... I was wondering how this was so detailed. Spoiler Alert.. the U.S. won... Ok – pretty sure everyone knew that. After the conflict there was a long war crimes trial for Gen. Yamashita. A-ha... the testimony of the people in the trial provided a lot of the details for the book. There were over 120 war crimes reported in the trial in detail. Originally that count was around 60 and three days before the trial the prosecution added another 60...

The trial itself was very interesting and brought up a lot of good points about the fairness of the process, using 'hearsay' in the accounts, etc. etc.. It's unclear really if Yamashita knew of all the war crimes going on – but it was too organized and spread across such a large area for it not to have been coordinated by the higher ups – if not Yamashita directly – then Generals reporting to him. It sounded like Iwabuchi went rogue and ordered a lot of the atrocities from within Manila itself. In the end Yamashita was convicted for essentially 'not controlling his troops'.

This book was really brilliant – and not for the squeamish. There are so many terrible things that happened it both horrified me and pulled at my heartstrings. It also had lots of photos that complemented the narrative. I definitely will want to learn more about the Pacific conflict... Highly recommended to those that love history and want to learn about it so as that it does not repeat. It was very emotional and thought provoking.

[Jack H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although World War II in the Pacific had been brutal enough since the United States' entry in December 1941, the last eight months--not even counting Hiroshima and Nagasaki--were truly barbaric. In many respects, the savagery of that war was on full display during the month-long liberation of Manila in early 1945, as amply depicted in "Rampage" by James Scott.

In keeping with the book's subtitle, two of the major personalities who were absolutely critical to the series of battles involving the Allies' liberation of the Philippine Islands in 1944-45 were towering figures in their respective nations' military lore and legend. General Douglas MacArthur regarded Manila, the Filipino capital, as being the closest thing to a permanent home that he had ever had in life, and when he famously declared "I shall return" on his escape from Corregidor in 1942, that statement was not merely for propaganda effect. He had shown his care and concern for Manila before his army's saga at Bataan by declaring it an "open city" under international law. As his troops neared the city's suburbs in early 1945, MacArthur hoped that the Japanese would afford Manila the same treatment. They did not.

Enter another major figure in Scott's sweeping saga of war, liberation, survival, and the triumph of death: Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Once idolized by the Japanese public as the "Tiger of Malaya" and the conqueror of the formidable British fortress of Singapore, by fall 1944, he was on the outs with Hideki Tojo's leadership. Sent to defend the Philippines, Yamashita seems to regard his command as a futile one, and he viewed his job there much as a samurai of old: to fight to the end, and buy as much time as possible for his nation to prepare for a final defense of the homeland, yet he was under no false hopes of Japanese victory in the Philippines. In Scott's depiction, Yamashita comes across as a combination of hardened and Spartan-like warrior, Zen master and a stoic. To fulfill his vision of a defensive plan to delay in depth the U.S. forces, Yamashita ordered his troops to destroy Manila's docks, supply depots and all infrastructure useful for supporting the invader's troops. That he gave these orders to an embittered bitter-ender, who chose to implement them in a radically different way, directly fueled the tragedy and barbarity that engulfed Manila in February 1945.

This third man, Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, takes on the role of being perhaps the primary villain and architect of Manila's obliteration. Breaking with Army general Yamashita, Navy officer Iwabuchi--who considered himself in disgrace--chose to turn Manila into an Asian Stalingrad. He came close to doing so. It may be more accurate, though, to compare Manila in 1945 to an Asian version of Warsaw 1944: not only in the scope of wreckage of the once quite westernized city of Manila, but in terms of the rapine and slaughter inflicted on its long-suffering inhabitants as Iwabuchi's sailors and soldiers--after realizing themselves all to be effectively "dead men walking"--seek their vengeance. Scott's descriptions of the war crimes and carnage are detailed, grisly, and lengthy. These are, however, necessary to depict not just the hell on earth that occurred in Manila, but in a sense, as also a testimony to the heroism and endurance beyond normal human conditions of the citizens--Filipino, foreign, and Allied civilian prisoners--who somehow survived.

"Rampage" is excellent history, panoramic in scale and grittily detailed. For those who may want exact depictions of where the 5th Cavalry or the 148th Infantry were on a given day in February 1945, this may not be your book. On the other hand, it more than does justice to the saga of the suffering and survival of the average citizens of a great city; to the mindsets of senior leaders of both sides; and in the book's last third, to the legal processes and controversies--including an appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court--of the prosecution and defense of Yamashita. I leave it to the individual reader to judge if the legal process and its final result were the products of a full and fair legal tribunal or, as charged by some, victor's justice by legal fiat.

In short, Scott weaves a compelling, thorough and at times, vivid (if extremely grim) recounting of the fight for the "Pearl of the Orient"; the joy of freedom for thousands of imprisoned U.S. citizens and families; the ravaging of a major city and its citizenry; and the agonies of Manila's liberation.

[Bob Mobley · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Scott has written a well-researched and insightful look and examination of Douglas MacArthur’s campaign to free Manila, Philippines, in order to keep his promise and vow to himself, and those who believe in him at Bataan, and Corregidor, and the people of Manila, that “I shall return.” This is more than a military history of this bloody, violent and ruthless battle between Japanese and United States forces. It is a look into the unbelievable and unimaginable cruelty and violence with which the Japanese defenders of Manila practiced against the civilian population and all those that were prisoners of war in their various camps across the area. It is a hard read from this perspective. So much of WWII has been sanitized because Japan was important as a country and potential ally for the United States in the Far East after the signing of peace with the Japanese in 1945. There is probably a very good book waiting to be written on the subject of presenting to the Western mindset, particularly Americans, that the Japanese had paid their dues by being bombed with atomic weapons, and now was the time to turn the other way and forget all of the atrocities that followed their armies wherever they went in China, Malaysia and the Philippines.

James Scott portrays an interesting portrait and insight into Douglas MacArthur’s behavior, attitudes, and desperate need for public recognition. Students of MacArthur are aware of the General’s character limitations. This book shows the vindictive side of MacArthur, in the trial as a war criminal of General Yamashita, who was the commander of the Japanese forces defending Manila against MacArthur’s invasion. Yamashita was a well-known and victorious general, who was the conqueror of Singapore, and earned the nickname that stayed with him throughout the war, The Tiger of Malaya. Reading Scott’s book raises some real questions about Yamashita’ culpability and guilt and war criminal. His trial was the first of the war criminal trials to take place involving Japanese military leaders. Scott leaves you the feeling that it was a show trial designed to set in place the trials that were to follow, as the allies held Japanese leaders respsonsible for what they called their “war crimes.” It brings to mind a statement I heard my father tell me when I was growing up, that those individuals who win the war determine who is guilty and who is not, regardless of what the truth and facts may be. Perhaps this is one of the challenges and dichotomies of human nature as we deal with different cultures and “tribes.”

Rampage is worth reading if you are willing to keep an open mind, and recognize the truth that war is violent, and it is very difficult to make it any other way. I would close with this observation. James Scott’s book opens the window on history that we thought we knew, but really had not fully comprehended or looked inside the shadows and surprises that lie buried in all human nature and endeavors.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely horrendous view of the cataclysmic battle for the Philippine Capitol during WWII. The details of the atrocities commuted by Japanese soldiers against civilian men, women, and children often reads like a 1980s slasher flick, in the worst possible way. But the final part of the book detailing the war crimes trial of the Japanese commanding officer was fascinating and raises some judicial and ethical questions that are difficult to disentangle from the suffering detailed in the main section. It does take a *long* time for the book to actually get to the main action, but no book on war has ever really conveyed just how nightmarish it can truly be like this one.

[Tony Bartelme · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Scott's new book, Rampage, is a stunning and brutally honest look at one of the most important and somewhat-forgotten battles of World War II. As he showed in his previous book, Target Tokyo, Scott is a master at weaving dialogue and psychology into a story that keeps you glued to the page. Great books are often about people's personal struggles amid grand public events, and Rampage is a prime example. Scott's focus is General Douglas MacArthur and the roots of MacArthur's obsession with recapturing the Philippines. MacArthur's demons create a foil for the larger obsession of Japan and that country's international power grab. The result is a horrifying reminder about the consequences of personal and public distortion.

[KB · Rating 5 out of 5]

The destruction and suffering that unfolded during the monthlong Battle of Manila is almost unfathomable. But James M. Scott takes readers through all of it in his stellar account, Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila.

This was absolutely gripping from cover to cover. It is, however, a very difficult read. Scott provides great detail about military engagements and the fighting in the city, but I think Rampage is more about what the residents of Manila - largely, though not exclusively, Filipino - went through. The Japanese, knowing they could not defeat the Americans, were set on doing whatever they could to slow the American advance, with zero regard for the civilians in the city. The mindset was seemingly that if they were going to be defeated, the civilian population would be going down with them.

Part of this was destruction of the city (though the Americans contributed to the destruction as well). This made things incredibly difficult for US troops as they essentially were fighting block by block, building by building, floor by floor, and room by room. This is to say nothing of the city's cultural elements that were lost in the destruction. But it was the civilians that bore the brunt of the horror: mass killings, internment, rape, starvation, torture. I think Rampage contained some of the worst stuff I've ever read in a history book, which is saying something when you read a lot of military history.

Once the battle comes to a conclusion, you might think the book would peter out a bit. But it wraps up with Yamashita's war crimes trial, which was fascinating. I didn't know anything about this, or the process. The Americans obviously had plenty of evidence of the war crimes committed, but there was nothing to tie them directly to Yamashita - and the nature of the evidence (hearsay, for example) was sometimes unusual.

Yamashita claimed to be unaware of what Japanese troops were doing in Manila - but is an officer not responsible for the conduct of his soldiers? It seems like a very easy way to get yourself off the hook by saying you simply didn't know, especially with a lack of physical evidence tying you to any of the crimes. Scott provides a quote from Time magazine:

'Yamashita's spirited defense had suddenly emphasized the lack of precedent for war crimes trials, the vagueness of the charges--violations of the rules of war... What was Yamashita--a consummate liar or a victim of circumstance?'

But someone needed to be held accountable for what occurred during the battle, and so it was Yamashita.

My only complaints have nothing to do with Scott's work, but of the physical book. The pages are like bible page paper-thin, which was a little unpleasant. And the pictures are black and white on a grey background on that same paper, making them not very clear. But those are minor inconveniences.

Rampage exceeded any and all expectations I had for it. I absolutely could not put it down. And while the fighting is one thing, this book is more about the civilians and the horrors they endured.

[Ralph Morales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rampage is the horrific story of how in just 30 days (Feb 3-Mar 3 1945) we lost 100,000 Filipinos from a massacre like no other and a version of a beautiful Manila that we won't see again.

TLDR: Overall, Rampage was a well-researched book and a must read for Filipinos who love history. I applaud the author for his great work to piece the accounts of the survivors but the redundancy makes the book flat.

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As my first non-fic war book about the Philippines, it's my first time to feel being so close to the book, as the places mentioned are ones I pass by today and thus the events in the books in something that can happen to me had I lived in a diff time.

2 things I liked about the book:

A. Unbiased - the saying "history is written by the victor" does not apply w the book. It's written from accounts of the victims of the testimonies w/ except from newspapers then w/ balanced perspective. If any, Rampage is written by the victims and not the victor.

B. The book was smartly cut into 4 parts to mark diff arcs of the story. Part 1 intros the who's and the where's of the war. Part 2 details internees in UST and the return of McArthur. Part 3 is the account of the 29-days of the Battle of Manila. Part 4 is the trial of Yamashita (my fave section bec of I am a sucker for court trials and gray area)

3 Insights / questions from the books.

A. How can humans be so evil? The accounts here are far worse what I see in gory movies, worse these things actually happened. I am starting to believe that men is inherently evil because men are inherently self-preserving. In the Japanese case, they killed Filipino men bec they are threat to their survival.

B. Our morals are largely influenced by what role we think we're playing and what's being tolerated in our social circle. (Case: Stanford prison experiment). In the Japanese case, inhuman acts are done bec it's tolerated and widely accepted by their immediate circle. Note to self: join company / friends w firm moral compass

C. I need to read more about my country. It's only in this book where I discovered the ff

~Americans took us as side deal in their Cuba war w Spain.They never intended to keep PH and make it flourish
~ Yamashita is a general during American War era (w McArthur as biggest his biggest foe)
~ Manila is perhaps the most beautiful city in the Orient. How I wish we can have that back

Personal notes for stories to be explored:
1. Manila's beauty pre Battle of Manila
2. UST as an interment camp for none Filipinos
3. PH bought by US for 20$M only
4. Plazuela De Santa Isabel in Intramuros to commemorate the lives lost
5. Ghost stories in Manila is bed of Battle of Manila

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was incredibly upsetting, but also fascinating and vital. I think most Americans have no idea that Manila was completely destroyed in World War II. It’s a part of late World War II history completely overshadowed by Normandy, the Holocaust, Nuremberg, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is unfortunate, as it exists as one of the most horrifying examples of the dehumanization of 20th century warfare.

The book is a tough read, one of the most distressing I’ve ever read - the atrocities of the Japanese marines are presented in exacting detail as related by survivors. They are extensive, thorough and unyielding in detail. It is difficult not to become desensitized to the horrifying details of the crimes over the hundreds of pages they are presented, a problem noted near the end of the book, borne by the participants and observers of the war crimes trials of the Japanese perpetrators in the aftermath. How can the scale of these crimes ever truly be related in a way that can be understood? Certainly relating their story in writing, in books like this, so that future generations can try to understand the personal, spiritual and cultural loss, is one definite way to contribute. I commend the author for doing so, and recommend the book to all who would seek to learn what the war, and this particular part of it, cost humanity.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another triumph by a fantastic history author who is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I've now read two of his books, including the excellent Target Tokyo, and I'll be on the look out for his next opus. Highly recommend to anyone interested in the Pacific theater of WW2 or the battle to take back the Philippines. This was an important read, because like most of us we focus, deservedly so, on the atrocities of the Nazis in WW2. This book details the acts of barbarism by the Japanese in Manila that I may have heard about but had probably dismissed. These are gut wrenching accounts that made me have to put the book down a few times and take a mental break. Kudos to Mr Scott for not pulling punches and describing the accounts in all of their heinous detail. It truly is a despicable account to revisit but of course necessary to remember the victims who died needlessly.

Mr Scott has two other books I have yet to read as noted, both topics don't interest me, but as he has knocked these two out of the park he has earned the benefit of the doubt and I will be picking those up as well. Well done.

[Laurence Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese in December 1941, General Douglas MacArthur had evacuated the capital Manila of American forces in a successful attempt to preserve the city from devastation. In March 1942, MacArthur left the Philippine island of Corregidor in a PT boat vowing to return. The remainder of the American forces on Corregidor and those still fighting on the Bataan Peninsula would not be so fortunate. The final surrender of American forces in the Philippines in May 1942, with the loss or capture of about 23000 men, is considered one of the worst defeats in United States history. Three years later, in early 1945, MacArthur had returned to the main Philippine island of Luzon at the head of an American invasion force with the intention of liberating Manila from the Japanese – a city of tremendous personal importance to him. Opposing him, in command of the Japanese forces, was the talented General Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, responsible for the campaign that had captured Singapore from the British in 1942. MacArthur expected the Japanese to evacuate Manila as his forces approached, to save the city from destruction, as he had done three years before. Tragically, the Japanese had other ideas.

This book, that details the destruction of Manila and the atrocities carried out in the main on the local population by the Japanese while the battled raged for the city, is not a military history. It is a chronicle of a war crime. So, if you approach this book thinking you are going to get a multitude of maps and an Order of Battle for each of the opposing forces and a detailed analysis of the battle as it evolved you will be disappointed. Though James M. Scott takes us into the minds of MacArthur and Yamashita – as much as anyone can, that is – and describes the tactics employed by their respective subordinates during the fighting for the city, the focus of this book is on the suffering of the Western internees who had been held in the city for the last three years and of the native Philippine civilian population, of whom about 100,000 would die during the course of the battle. Many of these civilians would be killed as a result of artillery fire by both sides, but there would be many others who would be simply murdered by Japanese soldiers in an almost unimaginable orgy of rape and wanton violence.

James M. Scott approaches this history almost as a neutral observer. The narrative takes us from the arrival of MacArthur back to Luzon, to the American advance on Manila, to the liberation of the Western internees at the University of Santo Tomas, to the stories of those Philippine civilians that somehow managed to survive the rapes and murderous assaults on them, to the final assault on Intramuros – the ancient fortress that had stood against Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese invaders – and finally to the war crimes trial of General Yamashita after the end of the war. This is an interesting approach. James M. Scott describes but offers no comment on MacArthur’s determination to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation even though the U.S. Navy was more inclined to bypass the islands and head directly to Taiwan, that possibly the people of the Philippines might have been spared their sufferings under the vengeful Japanese if MacArthur had not been so intent on redressing what had become for him a matter of personal honour. James M. Scott makes no comment about MacArthur’s odd aloofness from the fighting for Manila or indeed Yamashita’s. He makes no comment about how the internees at the University of Santo Thomas were left in situ by the American forces after their liberation rather than being evacuated and put out of harm’s way, leading to many more (unnecessary?) casualties after their apparent rescue. He describes and makes no comment on other atrocities committed by the Japanese in China across the Pacific theatre of war. He describes the strange looseness of command structure in the Japanese army (and especially the tension in Japanese army-navy relations) but offers up no in depth analysis of it. And, finally, he describes Yamashita’s war crimes trial but offers up no personal thoughts on its legality, morality or even its political necessity.

Was this the correct approach?

I have to say that I am in two minds about this. I have already stated that this book is more war reportage than military history. James M. Scott has decided to give voice to the people who were there by letting them speak for themselves. In doing this he has created a very powerful book that raises in the mind of the reader a great number of questions. The book describes in some detail a terrible event in history and does the world a service in doing so. Outside of those who read military history, it is probably not very well known that just as the Holocaust is denied by some in Europe and beyond, there are many in Japan who to this day openly deny that any atrocities were committed by the Japanese military in the Second World War and who actively try to engage and shout down those who try to tell the truth. So this book is a welcome addition to the literature on war crimes committed by the Japanese. That being said, I wonder if readers not well-versed in the history of the Second World War in East (1937-45) might lack the proper context in which to place this book.

Alternatively, and this is my hope, with the many questions the book raises, it is highly likely that a reader new to the history of the period might be spurred on to read further and much more widely and so come to their own conclusions about Japanese politics and military culture of the time, about why the Japanese did what they did in early 1945 in the Philippines, about Yamashita’s legal and moral responsibility for those crimes, about the appropriateness of his trial, and finally whether the loss of so many lives can also perhaps be laid at MacArthur’s door, whether the whole Philippines campaign was nothing more than an exercise of personal honour and ego rather than an actual pressing strategic necessity.

Personally, I would have liked to learn James M. Scott’s views on all the issues raised in the book. But that would probably have necessitated a book twice the size. There would also have been a risk that any added analysis would have detracted from the personal stories that had to be told. And this then, regardless of any questions that might be raised by this book, is where the book has its real value: it gives a voice to the people of Manila in 1945, the people who suffered so much and lost so much, and to the lawyers who prosecuted and defended Yamashita at his trial and the journalists who covered it. In hearing these people in their own words, we are left with much to ponder and reach conclusions of our own.

Highly Recommended.

[Dylan Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

God was this long. 50 pages of set-up, 500 pages of Japanese war crimes, 50 pages of Yamashita's trial. Only the latter was interesting, I don't know how I could ever read about Nanking having struggled to digest this

[blisster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was relentlessly brutal, an impressively researched historical account of the Battle of Manila that is interwoven with personal stories. I read this for research and don’t normally read military history, I literally had to keep putting it down because the graphic descriptions were one on top of the other for hundreds of pages, it’s a lot. While this history cannot be forgotten, I was surprised that the book was mostly the battle, and a little bit of the trial. The author barely touches upon the consequences of Spanish colonialism, US Imperialism, and the Japanese atrocities. That, to me, remains the battle’s legacy. Manila was failed by many.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway. A very detailed and documented accounting of the horrible and devastating battle for the city of Manila. Tragic accounts of the enormous toll in civilian casualties caused by the occupying Japanese forces was horrific and sad. A must read in order to learn and understand the times in which this war took place.

[Brian Skinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very sad stuff happens in this book. The Japanese butchered and raped the philipino's as the American army regained control of the country. A lot of personal stories but the big picture of how the operation to secure Manila was kind of obscure.

[Ryan Fohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no desire to read fictional horror books anymore.

The story of war time Manila is overlooked and overwhelming; yet things I expected to read about were not even included.

I learned so much from this book.

“I listened all those weeks to the guns. Now I see what they did. Everyone should see it and learn one lesson forever.”

“The tables were covered with huge black flies which cling to everything and everybody. We all knew where they had bred, and were breeding, but did not care to discuss the matter. We had brought death to the city, and perhaps we deserve to eat it.”

“One side destroyed and killed us willfully. The other side killed and destroyed us willy-nilly.”

“I was worried about a lump in my stomach, then I found it was my backbone. I never expected to feel that from the front.”

“We’ve come through all this. I love life. I’ve learned to appreciate it more now. Why do I have to die? Oh, God, I don’t want to die!”

What I learned:

McArthur is one of history’s important and fascinating weirdos.

Manila is home to the Wack Wack Golf club.

This was the greatest amphibious operation in world history if you consider distance travelled and the number of ships involved.

Manila was the last great American city to fall to an enemy since the war of 1812.

Tetanus was a serious concern for all wounds in urban combat.

The Japanese killed twice as many civilians in one month in Manila,(with small arms, swords, and fire) then all the civilians that died in Great Britain over six years of air raids.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard read. Not technically or academically difficult, but difficult because it is an unsparing account of what Dan Carlin in his "Supernova in the East" series has aptly described as a "human tragedy".
Manilla, described early in the book as

“Possessing the bay of Naples, the winding river of Paris, and the canals of Venice,” Burnham wrote, “Manila has before it an opportunity unique in the history of modern times, the opportunity to create a unified city equal to the greatest of the Western World with the unparalleled and priceless addition of a tropical setting.”

will see its near complete destruction during the battle and will be an unbroken chain of atrocities committed against the civilian population. Starvation, disease, rape, torture, brutal murder, crushed, blown up, burned, and horribly maimed by being caught in the crossfire. James M. Scott recounted many of these atrocities in grisly detail, which often left me emotionally drained.

I cannot count the number of times I found myself asking, "why?", why would they do this, what could they hope to gain, what was going though their minds, but there simply is no answer. No answer in this book, no answer that I can formulate in my own mind.

The last portion of the book, covering the surrender and trial of General Yamashita brings no sense of justice or resolution. Rather, it only raises more questions about morality, about culpability, and about willful blindness. The sentiment expressed at the end that someone has to be responsible, someone needs to pay the ultimate price for what happened during the battle is completely understandable. That General Yamashita was that individual is also understandable, but Scott's recounting of the trial, the efforts of Yamashita's American defense team to have his life spared, and even Yamashita's own stoic and upright nature make him a somewhat sympathetic character.

Of course 70+ years removed from these events, I lack the emotional connection to these events that the people who lived through them would have had and I have no doubt that this distance in time allows me to take a more sympathetic view of Yamashita and even the young Japanese soldiers conditioned to die to the last man, knowing there was no rescue, no resupply, no reinforcement.
That there was evil among these men, there is no doubt. But that there was also a complete loss of hope, that there were orders/compulsion to destroy human life in the most brutal ways, and that not all the Japanese young men would have participated in orgies or rape and murder, but yet still had little recourse but to die is also tragic.

There is nothing uplifting in this story. There is no glory or celebration of humanity. There are acts of goodness and kindness, to be sure, but overall this is a book of tragedy. Well researched, well written, important, but non the less, emotionally difficult to read.

[Kristi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the fall of 1967 as a sophomore at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota I was privileged to participate in the Term in Thailand with 25 other students. We studied at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok - Buddhism, Southeast Asian history, art, literature, and political science. On the way to Bangkok we visited Japan and Hong Kong. Coming home included stops in Penang, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Guam. We were the only undergraduate study group in Southeast Asia - the closest program was in Japan. I have been an avid reader of World War II history and literature for more than 60 years. My father and most of my uncles served in the war in many roles - as a tank driver in Patton's army, a tail gunner who was killed over Germany, and a medic in the Pacific Theater. My reading, however, has largely been within the European Theater of operations. About 2 years ago I had a "DUH" moment. Why was I not reading about the Pacific War when I had visited so many important sites in that history?? I am trying to make up for my lack of knowledge. I have visited two locations of horror and death at the hands of the Japanese. The first is the bridge over the river Kwai at Kanchanaburi, Thailand. With an enormous pool of captive labor at their disposal, the Japanese forced approximately 200,000 Asian conscripts and over 60,000 Allied POWs to construct the Burma Railway. Among the Allied POWs were some 30,000 British, 13,000 Australians, 18,000 Dutch, and 700 Americans. Of the US personnel forced to work on the railway, 133 died. (Their remains were expatriated. ) This included personnel from USS Houston and the 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas Army National Guard. The Americans were called the Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for years after their capture. Near the bridge is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, the main prisoner of war (POW) cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment while building the Burma Railway. . The cemetery contains 6,982 graves of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war, of whom 6,858 have been identified. I have walked through that cemetery and always remember the peace and beauty of the bougainvillea, and the graves and graves and graves. After contemplating the devastating loss of life in WWII, we were standing on the railroad bridge over the River Kwai when 3 American jets made a low pass - coming from or heading to Vietnam. Remember this was the fall of 1967. The Tet Offensive would be in the spring of 1968. I could not help but think of the new waste of lives and the fact that we never learn. I still recommend the 1957 movie, "The Bridge on the River Kwai", starring William Holden and Alec Guinness . Although it is not completely factual, it does capture the hardship of the slave labor to build the railway. Ironically upon awakening on our first day in Tokyo my roommate and I heard the "Colonel Bogey March" which was the theme song from the movie. We looked down upon a lower roof and saw Japanese workers doing morning exercises to the music. We wondered if they had any idea that the music was associated with Japanese atrocities for us.. I have walked through Fort Santiago, the last building in old Manila liberated by the Americans during the recapture of the Philippines. It had been used as a prison/ torture chamber / death house and was found with literally hundreds if not thousands of dead bodies inside. The main entrance when I was there was broken and enlarged to permit American tanks to enter the fort. One of the most difficult books that I have read so far in my Pacific Theater education is "Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila" by James M. Scott. Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya" had ordered his army to retreat into the jungle highlands because he believed he could not defeat the Americans in Manila. Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji defied Yamashita’s orders to withdraw from the city and utilized his 18,000 men to massacre thousands of Filipino civilians. This book is very painful as it has many first-person accounts of the murders and rapes. I have also had the privilege or having known a survivor of the Bataan Death March as a friend. He did not wish to speak in great detail, but the one thing that I have never forgotten was the role of other soldiers to protect their comrades. He explained that they always tried to walk in threes with the weakest man in the middle supported by two stronger men on each side. He was not sent to Mukden the subject of this book.. .. I fell in love with Kyoto and Nara. The beautiful gardens and shrines... The city largely escaped the fire-bombing toward the end of the war. In my reading I was grateful to learn that though Kyoto had been at the top of the list for the atomic bomb, Secretary of War Stimson removed it because he had also fallen in love with this the city. One evening as a couple of friends and I were walking, we were stopped by 3 Japanese university students who offered us drinks in return for an opportunity to practice their English. 57 years later I remember one of the young men asking why the U.S. did not drop atomic bombs on North Vietnam. I could not believe that a citizen of the only country to experience such devastation would think it a good idea to use such a weapon... Finally I believe that anyone who seriously studies the Pacific War has an obligation to form an opinion about whether the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the best option to end the war. There are several factors that have led me to believe that this was the right decision. We were fire-bombing cities all over Japan - led by Curtis LeMay. Thousands of civilians were dying. Our knowledge of the effects of the atomic bombs was so limited that one proposal for the invasion of Japan involved dropping a bomb on an area and invading 24 hours later. We had no idea that we would be killing the American soldiers involved. Some theorists state that the fact that Russia had invaded Manchukuo meant that the Japanese would have surrendered soon. The Japanese were not that concerned about Russia. They also were not surprised. One has to remember that the Soviet Union had never conducted an amphibious landing during WWII, if ever. They had not trained troops for such an endeavor nor did they have any ships or transports for invasion. In Europe and especially the Pacific, the Americans had conducted dozens of water invasions and would have had to supply all the training and the equipment. Finally, even after the first bomb and even after Nagasaki there were still strong forces who did not want to surrender. A particularly militant faction attempted to seize the emperor and keep the war going. The death toll among the armed citizenry and both militaries would have been HUGE. We believed that the Japanese still had about 5,000 war planes - they actually had double that number. They also retrofitting old wooden planes as kamikaze weapons which would not show up on radar. Boats, many wooden, were also being set up with explosives to detonate on contact with a ship. I wish the atomic bombs had not been necessary, but I believe they were more humane than fire bombing, blockading and starving the country and the massive Allied and Japanese loss of life in an invasion. ************* This is one of the most difficult books that I have read so far in my Pacific Theater education. Yamashita, the "Tiger of Malaya" had ordered his army to retreat into the jungle highlands because he believed he could not defeat the Americans in Manila. Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji defied Yamashita’s orders to withdraw from the city and utilized his 18,000 men to massacre thousands of Filipino civilians. This book is very painful as it has many first-person accounts of the murders and rapes. (Sorry I had a better review, but I lost it. ) Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really harrowing to read. To say James M. Scott did extensive research on this gruesome yet comparatively little-known chapter in World War II would be an understatement. “Atrocity” doesn’t even begin to describe the horrible things the Japanese military did.

One thing I would have liked to see, however, is accounts from Filipino guerrilla fighters. In this book, Filipinos were portrayed mostly as helpless victims, while the Japanese and the Americans are the main fighters. It reminded me of Tess Uriza Holthe’s novel “When the Elephants Dance.” She said: “When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.” Japan and the US were the two elephant superpowers fighting over the Philippines, while the Filipinos, the chickens, had to be careful not to get stepped on. While there is truth to that, Filipinos organized as well to fight for their OWN country. A shame Scott didn’t look into that more.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm Filipino, and the way we're taught about MacArthur's liberation of Manila was that he was a hero and that we should be thankful for him. I had no idea of his tremendous ego. To be sure I don't quite believe that if FDR got his way and the US went to Formosa and Japan, bypassing the Philippines, the Japanese wouldn't have scorched earth us anyway, but I didn't know MacArthur's desire to liberate Manila was really just to prove to himself that he could, because he was so ashamed of how he left in 1942 and he wanted to conquer the enemy and be greeted as the hero who liberate the starving, suffering masses. So because of that we got scorched earth by the Japanese, while the US also did some scorching of their own. How Daenerys Targaryen of him lol. I also didn't know about the how the trial was a miscarriage of justice.

The only parts of the book that I was confused with (other than army positions, because a Lieutenant and Colonel and a Brigadier is all the same to me. Same with the different cavalries and airborne troops and etc lol) were the locations in Manila, because having been to Manila loads, while I know where buildings are and the general direction of how to get there (Intramuros, UST, Malacañang, La Salle, Manila Hotel, etc) I couldn't tell you where they are located in relation to each other and the district names. So I had a hard time placing North and South of Pasig, Ermita, Malate, lol. Google maps helped, and the Manila Nostalgia website was a great resource when I wanted to know how places looked like.

It made me yearn to wish old Manila still existed that way, albeit a non-racially segregated place where I would be considered a second class citizen in my own country. I used to be disappointed, when I was younger, that the Americans ruined all the old, classical Spanish buildings in the pre-war era but apparently it wasn't that, there were a lot of great American-influenced buildings built in the art-deco, beaux-arts or mid-century style (styles that I have since learned to appreciate as a grown-up). The problem was the urban planning. You can have all the great buildings in the world but if you don't take care of its surroundings they're just going to end up in rot.

James M. Scott writes in a clear, lucid way that is not at all dry, and very touching especially when describing the suffering that happened for everyone involved. I remember an article of the La Salle massacre and being traumatized at what happened, so revisiting that here wasn't anymore pleasant because of more details involved. But Scott's way of writing and weaving together all these histories in one book makes it a great, needed resource.

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

James M. Scott's Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila is a difficult book to read. No, it's not one of those turgid scholarly tomes with impenetrable academic-ese. Rather, it is due to the subject. The first few chapters give the background of the battle, how the Japanese ran MacArthur out of the country and how he vowed to return. It also spends time on how MacArthur grew up in the Philippines as his father fought rebels when the US colonized the Philippines. There's also background on "The Tiger of Malay" who easily took Singapore and Malay from the allies, before being assigned to the Philippines.The middle section recounts the major battles that took place in the city as well as the many, many atrocities committed by the remaining troops whose job was to slow down the advancing US army to keep them away from Japan as long as possible, they knew were in no position to win as they were outnumbered low on supplies and over-matched by weaponry, so they resorted to abominable behavior raping, torturing, killing, looting, and burning down the crime scenes as they retreated. They treated POWs and civilians equally with brutality and were notorious for starving their POWs. It was a relentless and detailed litany of abuse that made constant breaks from reading necessary. These atrocities were reported all over in Malay, Shanghai, Nanking, and all over the Philippines and this would be used against Yamashita since it seemed to be systematic in the Japanese army. I haven't read anything like it since Iris Chang's The Rape of Nanking. That being said, some of the destruction of the city came from constant bombardment by the US forces and there was a fair amount of "collateral damage" among the populace, but it pales in comparison to what the Japanese were very intently doing to the populace. The final third discusses the war crimes trial of Yamashita, who was found guilty of overseeing the atrocities that we heard in testimonies from various witnesses and survivors. There is a discussion of whether or not it was revenge rather than justice that took place, but Scott surmises had the US not found him guilty the British or Australians probably would have prosecuted him for war crimes in SE Asia. It was a balanced well-research historical treatise with a solid narrative that kept the reader engaged.

[Jeff Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like with most books, I learned just enough about James M. Scott’s “Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manilla” to know I wanted to read it, and then purposefully avoided any further information before digging in, even the book description (this approach leads to the most rewarding reading experience, IMO).

Point being, I went into “Rampage” pretty fresh. For the first quarter or so I was pleasantly impressed by the story of MacArthur fleeing the Philippines and then returning three years later to drive out the Japanese who drove him out. Who wouldn’t like such a victorious outcome? Yay!

But then… “Rampage” becomes a pretty dark ride.

I would say at least half of the narrative enumerates—in literally painful detail—what’s often referred to as an ‘orgy’ of war crimes: mass executions, arson, rape, murder, torture (small children and infants were not spared) as the outnumbered Japanese essentially decided to destroy Manilla and its people. What happened really rivals the Holocaust if not in scale than definitely in coordinated cruelty and inhumanity.

This makes for a strange dilemma: whether or not to recommend “Rampage.” As a history and World War II book, it’s exceptional. I found myself reading vast stretches of it anytime I had the chance, and the story was new to me. However, even for an aforementioned history/World War II book, it’s pretty harsh. Despite reading it intently there were times I didn’t want to read it first thing in the morning, say, or last thing at night.

So, decide for yourself. “Rampage” is not a normal outing. It requires a measured approach, which is unique to each reader.

[Patrick Pillow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read many gut-wrenching books this year; “Rampage” might be the toughest of them all.

I’ve heard much about the savagery on Leyte and Mindanao, as well as the epic naval showdown in Leyte Gulf. However, I knew very little about the battles on Luzon; particularly the recapture of Manila.

“Rampage” tells this story and particularly highlights the brutal three week struggle to wrestle the city back from Japanese defenders in February 1945.

The fighting there was as savage as anywhere in the Pacific; perhaps foreshadowing what was to come at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Those who are familiar with the battles of Stalingrad and Warsaw will find similar brutal tales from the Manila citizens who somehow survived the slaughter and brutality of Iwabuchi’s forces. Disclaimer: this is a a harsh and at times depressing read. However, the reader will walk away with an appreciation for their stories and the way James Scott wove them together.

Finally, I found myself torn at the end on my opinions towards both MacArthur and Yamashita. How much were they truly to blame for what befell the former “Pearl of the Orient?” Was Yamashita truly guilty of the war crimes for which he eventually hung? It doesn’t matter what conclusion I’ve come to; I invite you to ask yourself those same questions.

This is the first book from James Scott I’ve read; it won’t be the last. Brilliant work and can not recommend enough.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanking of MacArthur and the Philippines, I previously thought of: Corregidor, flight before fall w/"I shall return", followed by the Bataan Death March. Well, all that is merely a few paragraphs of the several hundred pages of WW II scholarship here.

Instead, Yamashita and Sanji Iwabuchi (Rear Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy) lead Japanese marines etc. in a ruthless and hopeless defence of Manilla while exacting a rape and rampage holocaust on internees and civilians during the Battle of Manila recalling The Rape of Nanking. So, this is much more about the grim realities of those left behind waiting for the "return", many of which died in the crossfire and cruelties. The closing act is the hasty trial of Yamashita with its questionable process and conclusion.

[I obtained an ARC to review]