A thrilling touch to the liberation of Baguio was added on 29 April when the American and Philippine flags were raised side by side over the gaunt city. Once at the peak they were lowered to half-staff in honor of the late President Roosevelt. Contingents of troops from the 33d and 37th Divisions, headed by their respective commanders, served as guards of honor during the ceremony. Few on the scene realized it, but it was no commonplace American standard that was hoisted on high in the chill morning air. This flag had a history as exciting as the actual Battle for Baguio.

Once before this same flag had occupied this same spot. When the United States went to war against Japan in 1941 it waved over Baguio, remaining aloft until enemy entry into the summer capital appeared imminent. Only then did its aged caretaker, sixty-year-old Juan Arellano, permit it to be lowered. Silver-haired Arellano knew that the victorious Japanese would sully and humiliate the colors as they later did the standards that marked Bataan and Corregidor. The slight, stooped Filipino carefully folded the flag, took it to his home and had his wife sew it inside a pillow.

For three years the colors reposed inside this pillow. On two occasions the Nips raided Arellano's house in search of the flag but courageous Juan braved beatings and threats of death to keep his secret.

Finally, in February 1945 American bombers began to crumble Baguio and Arellano knew that he would not have long to wait before delivering the flag to its rightful owners. In the wake of one bombardment he gathered his family and slipped through the ring of Nip sentries posted around the city. For days the Arellano family slogged over the Caraballos subsisting on camotes and water. Eventually they reached American forces, stumbling into the 123d Infantry line in the Rosario sector. Here, Counterintelligence Corps personnel met them and turned them over to the local Phillippine Civil Affairs Unit (PCAU).

But before famished and exhausted Arellano would eat, he pleaded to be taken to "see commanding officer." Impressed by Juan's courage and humility, PCAU officers escorted him to General Clarkson's CP. Once in the company of the Division Commander, Arellano extracted the flag from its place of concealment, still as bright and clean as when it had added color to Baguio's holiday festivals. "It is my fervent desire," he said as he pressed the standard into General Clarkson's hands, "that your troops let this be the first American flag to fly over liberated Baguio. I am sure that my countrymen join me in this wish."

Grateful citizens of Baguio later presented these colors to General Clarkson as a token of their appreciation for the Division's fight to free the summer capital.

Baguio underwent a rapid metamorphosis in which it was transformed from an idle mass of wreckage into a bustling rear-echelon base charged with servicing combat elements still active in the surrounding mountains. Roads became congested with quartermaster trucks hauling supply and impedimenta dumps from Pugo, Aringay and Bauang to locations within the city limits. General Clarkson's CP was moved inland from the coast and installed in the palatial Baguio Country Club, a rambling, ranch-style building which once served as a gathering place for Philippine elite.

It was the Division Commander's desire to make Baguio a sumptuous rest center where tired infantry forces could relax in the tingling, rarefied climate and gradually shake off the fatigue induced by three months of mountain warfare. Furthermore, General Clarkson wanted his infantrymen to sink into Baguio's comparative luxury without first sweating through the irksome details of latrine excavation and camp construction. Immaculately furnished tents and well policed areas were to greet the doughboys as they came out of line.

Golden Cross engineers gave this program a healthy forward push by repairing an abandoned sawmill in Camp John Hay and restoring it to full production capacity. In a matter of days thousands of board feet of lumber were made available. Filipino work gangs, furnished by PCAU, performed the actual construction jobs. Labor on these projects was completed by 15 May when the first units of the 136th Infantry arrived in the summer capital after five weeks on Skyline Ridge.

Special Services operations kept abreast of the improved food and housing conditions by expanding to a unprecedented degree. A Division recreation center was set up in the shell fragment-scarred ruins of the old post exchange building in Camp John Hay. Under the supervision of Capt. Eugene M. Gilroy, Division SSO, the ramshackle premises were completely renovated and equipped with modern athletic and recreation appurtenances. Spacious lounging rooms, outfitted with upholstered sofas and chairs were made available to troops desiring nothing more than to laze around and escape military routine. For the more athletically inclined, the center had a gymnasium, badminton courts, billiards and ping-pong tables and bowling alleys.

Baguio took on the appearance of a carnival midway after sundown. Each battalion in the Division had its own hard liquor bar where Paniqui whiskies and rum were sold to the troops at a nominal charge. All beverages dispensed here were first tested by medical officers for purity and alcoholic content. Enterprising Filipinos furnished com- petition in the form of numerous basi (Philippine wine houses scattered throughout the city. A principal meeting place for troops seeking after-dark diversion was the Division Special Services center. In addition to its sports facilities, the center offered a continual round of dances, movies and USO shows. Another congested night spot was the Pines Theater in the heart of the summer capital. Now operated by the Division, it once was the most lavishly decorated movie house in the Philippines.

Members of the Division used this recuperation period to gain a more comprehensive knowledge of the Philippine people. Prior association with the native population had been limited to the peasants who served so nobly as food and ammunition carriers. But in Baguio the men of the 33d encountered a new type Filipino: one so completely Westernized that his culture and educational standards compared with those of the United States. Off-duty mingling with these people made the doughboy understand the tremendous sacrifices made by the Filipinos in support of the American war effort. Most had given sons and brothers in the fighting on Bataan and Corregidor; many lost their personal fortunes and holdings during the years of occupation for their refusal to abet "The Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere."

On the other extreme, the Baguio area also housed the stolid, near primitive Igorots, mountain tribesmen who dressed in centuries-old fashion and tilled their small farms with crude implements. Stumpy and uncommunicative, the Igorots were one of the last Philippine sects to accede to modern government. But despite their outward stoicism these dark-skinned mountaineers proved great assets to the Division throughout the Battle for Baguio.

Principal achievement of the Igorots was their role in the safe evacuation of twelve thousand civilian refugees from the Baguio area during the middle stages of the Northern Luzon campaign. In early March, when the summer capital was being subjected to daily air strikes, Division learned of the sorry plight of the city's civilian population. Most of them Americans and Allied nationals, they had been forced to flee their homes and take refuge in the surrounding hills because of the incessant pounding from the skies. Division resolved to aid these sick and hungry people.

Out of this decision came the famous "Refugee Trail," a literal life line for civilians. Division G-2, in search of the most effective method of evacuation, asked Igorots if American patrols would be able to meet groups of refugees at pre-determined points near Baguio and guide them to safety without enemy interference. The tribesmen recommended against this measure, claiming that the Japanese maintained a close surveillance of the Baguio area and would be able to discern the operation. However, they volunteered to guide the refugees through the mountains themselves since Igorot activity around the Nips would arouse little suspicion. Subsequently, two Counterintelligence Corps agents, Sgts. James Lindquist and Estil Petty, members of the 33d CIC Detachment, went out on patrol with four Igorots to survey the trails around Baguio and note the possibility of coming through with large numbers of evacues.

Lindquist and Petty recommended to G-2 that rescue operations be placed in the hands of the willing Igorots. Their boundless endurance and familiarity with the ground qualified them above American forces. Operation "Refugee Trail" went into effect immediately. Eight tribesmen left CIC headquarters in Tubao in mid-March and slipped into Baguio to spread the word that evacuation plans were under way. Proceeding cautiously, the Igorots first set up a central assembly point for refugees in a wooded area south of the Naguilian Road near Irisan. Scores of civilians petitioned the Japanese for passes to leave Baguio, ostensibly for the purpose of searching for camotes and other foods. Once outside the enemy net, they proceeded to the assembly point where they contacted additional Igorot guides.

Innumerable hardships befell these people during their flight for safety. Weakened because of poor diet, many had to be carried over the hills by their guides. Some could not survive the rigors of constant marching and died by the wayside. It usually took seven or eight days of steady plodding to negotiate the full distance of the "Refugee Trail."

It did not take the enemy long to learn that large numbers of civilians were being evacuated to American lines. But the Jap did little to halt this activity, probably because of the scarcity of food in Baguio. The occasionally intercepted parties and stripped them of all valuables. Mostly, however, the enemy countered CIC activity by telling people in the summer capital that American authorities were conducting death courts at Tubao where anyone suspected of connection with the Nips was summarily executed. Despite this propaganda, evacuation facilities were enlarged and subsidiary trails were opened leading down Kennor Road and from Antamok south to San Nicolas.

Word was received at Tubao on 5 April that Brig. Gen. Manuel Roxas-later President of the Philippines Commonwealth-and a party of cabinet ministers were ready to break out of Baguio. A trusted Igorot was given a note to General Roxas outlining the plan for his escape. Roxas sent back the message that he was under constant guard by the Japanese military police and could not leave until the sentries were removed. A week later Roxas notified CIC that the path was clear, but by the time Igorot guides reached him, he was again under surveillance.

Finally, after a seven-day delay, Roxas dispatched information to CIC that he was free to start down from the summer capital. Sergeant Lindquist and a score of Igorot guides left Tubao upon receipt of this information, aiming to pick up the Roxas party before it was sighted by the enemy. Lindquist had several close calls with Japanese patrols but managed to make contact with General Roxas a few miles west of Baguio. Included in the Roxas party were Filomena Osmefia, daughter of President Serge Osmefia; Jose Yolo, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Antonio de las Alas, Minister of Finance; and Teofilo Sison, Minister of the Interior. Yolo, de las Alas and Sison held these offices in the Jap-dominated puppet Philippine government. Sison was interned and later convicted of high treason by a People's Court.

As soon as the Division line advanced past Baguio, Golden Cross civil affairs personnel assumed the task of restoring a city of 30,000 persons to normal operation. Critical problems had to be resolved in

a minimum of time. Multitudes were homeless. Commercial establishments had been bombed out and mass unemployment was rife. Utilities could not function and the threat of epidemic hung over the summer capital. Food was scarce; hundreds who could not afford fantastic black-market prices were slowly starving to death. No medical facilities were available to Baguio's civilian bombing casualties.

Major Eli J. Paris, a successful Philadelphia business executive before the war, was selected by General Clarkson to serve as Baguio's civil Affairs administrator. Noting the need for prompt corrective measures, Major Paris took immediate steps to curb the chaotic conditions prevalent within the city. His first act was to provide shelter for the large numbers of homeless. Huge tent camps were erected where civilians were given emergency medical treatment and Army field rations. During the day hundreds of them left the camp areas to work on reconstruction of their bombed-out residences.

PCAU 7, commanded by Lt. Col. E. E. Hobson, entered Baguio shortly after its liberation. Working in conjunction with Major Paris's office, PCAU opened stores all over the town where Army rations and captured Japanese foodstuffs were sold across the counter at token prices. In addition to succoring Baguio's hungry population, this procedure did much to stifle black-market operations. Employment offices were established where Filipinos could apply for work with the Golden Cross as road and camp builders or as carriers of materiel for forward infantrymen. Pay rates ran between two and three pesos per day for this labor.

Large strides toward recovery were made once civil affairs units untangled the skeins of disorder and restored a semblance of organization to Baguio. Much sickness and insanitation were curbed when Division engineers repaired water purification plants. Reconditioned electric power installations permitted the residents of the summer capital to labor beyond daylight hours and employ electrically operated tools in rebuilding homes and businesses. Another major Golden Cross contribution to the welfare of the Filipinos was a 500-bed municipal hospital, equipped with Army medical supplies.

When civil affairs' corrective measures began to bear fruit, Major Paris made the recommendation that all phases of city government be turned back to the Filipinos. Division was to remain on the scene in an advisory capacity. Accordingly, Baguio's last mayor prior to Japanese occupation, Vicsio Valderassa, was reappointed to office. Valderassa had stubbornly opposed the enemy throughout the war and commanded the respect of the entire population. For administrative assistants he selected men who also refused to swear allegiance to Nippon. By the end of the Division's stay in Baguio, local residents had become selfreliant to a large extent.

Little training was done by infantry elements in Baguio. Replacements came in from depots at Manila and these men went through a full work day. For the veterans, however, the military itinerary was confined to housekeeping, calisthenics, occasional close-order drill and parades for the purpose of awarding decorations. A few officers and noncoms were detailed to help train young, green Filipinos who had come to Baguio to enlist in the Philippine Army. For the most part though, everyone, save the troops still tactically employed, relaxed and enjoyed life.

Decorations ceremonies in the summer capital vastly differed from the ones staged during the Battle for Baguio. Here, a man's entire battalion was turned out to witness the affair and pass in review before him as he stood beside the Division Commander. During the fighting the method of presentation was far more informal, and according to recipients, far more satisfying. General Clarkson habitually called in at G-1 prior to his daily tour of the infantry battalions to procure the names of the doughboys approved for combat awards. With his pockets stuffed with Silver and Bronze Stars, the General visited the various battalion CPs where he requested to see the men.

Upon their arrival at the CP these bearded, exhausted figures were surprised to see General Clarkson saunter forward, introduce himself and strike up an easy conversation. In the course of these discussions, the Division CG would reach into his pocket, extract a Silver or Bronze Star and pin it on a muddy fatigue jacket. Haggard and tired as most of them were, their eyes could still light up in appreciation of their commander's considerate gesture.

It was the same with field commissions. No coldly worded Sixth Army order notified a 33d Division man that he had been raised from the ranks. He discovered it when General Clarkson came up to his forward position and pinned the gold bar on his collar. Acts like these made Golden Cross infantrymen think of their commander not only as a leader but as a comrade.

In one case, when S/Sgt. Lee A. Singer, Company C, 123d Infantry, was tendered a battlefield appointment, General Clarkson found him standing in a mess line with the rest of his unit at a Pugo rest camp. This unglamorous setting did not deter the Division Commander. Crashing the line, he made an impromptu presentation to Sergeant Singer who stood with a messgear dangling from his hand, canteen cup hooked over his belt and a wide grin across his bearded face. This human touch of the General's did not go unrecognized. Both Singer and his commander received a roar of approval that echoed throughout the camp.

Coincident with the relief of the Division from combat came an order from Corps directing the 127th RCT of the 32d Division to relieve the Golden Cross in the Baguio area. The 33d was told to move to the beaches in the Caba-Aringay-Bauang area, set up camps, and commence amphibious training for the projected fall assault on Japan. Movement to the coast began on 28 June when the 123d Infantry-less its 1st Battalion which had not yet returned from Cervantes-struck its summer capital camp and occupied a new site near Bauang. By 11 July the last Division unit had complied with the transfer order.

For the supporting elements of the 33d Baguio had been an idyllic vacation ground and they were loath to quit the cool mountain resort for the humidity of South China Sea shores. Particularly chagrined, however, was the 130th Infantry. None of the regiments experienced a lengthy stay in the summer capital, but the Blackhawks only profited to the extent of eight days which came after their relief on Mountain Trail. And most of this period was spent preparing for the move to amphibious training locations.

A short rehabilitation period prior to the commencement of training was decreed by General Clarkson so that all units in the Division could develop their camps and still receive an adequate rest from the rigors of the campaign. While not possessing Baguio's breath-taking scenery, Division camps were nevertheless made unusually attractive. All boasted nicely furnished recreation halls woven of bamboo strips and thatched by Filipino laborers. Kitchens and messhalls were constructed in the same fashion and the men were able to eat their meals in comfortable surroundings.

During the pre-training phase many members of the command were permitted to take lengthy leaves. Most prized of these, naturally, were the forty-five days of temporary duty in the United States given to a small group of high-point men. Larger numbers of troops were furloughed to Manila for one-week periods where the Golden Cross maintained a leave camp at Grace Park. Manila proved a distinct disappointment to the majority of Golden Cross visitors. The onetime Pearl of the Orient retained not a vestige of the glitter for which it was famous. Shockingly torn up, it offered just intense heat, poor accommodations, thousands of base-section GIs and cheap liquor at ridiculous prices.

As in Baguio, Captain Gilroy's Special Services office did much to liven up the Division's existence. Softball and volleyball leagues were organized which carried through until a Division champion in each sport was named. Top flight entertainers currently on USO tours were booked for appearances in the vast Golden Cross theater at Bauang. Among those giving performances were Kay Kyser and Gracie Fields, the world-acclaimed English comedienne. Kyser's show proved how American troops hungered for entertainment smacking of Stateside. Almost five thousand men, the majority standees, braved a tropical rainstorm to take in the Old Professor's antics.

Once training began, General Clarkson gave his command the whys and wherefores of the coming operation. In characteristic fashion he visited each battalion to give his orientation. Everyone knew that Japan came next, but few were prepared to receive the news handed down by the General: The 33d Division was going in first. Where? He could not say. When? Sometime in the fall.

No further message was needed to stress the importance of interim training. If Philippine fighting was maddening, what could one look forward to in Japan?

First training priority went to amphibious work. Instead of the usual battalion-size exercises, Division units were trained by regimental combat teams. There was no shortage of transports or landing craft as had been the case in Hawaii and New Guinea. Higher headquarters gave the 33d everything it needed in the way of instructors and equipment. Excellent landing beaches lined the shore of the South China Sea from Bauang south to Aringay.

Colonel Cavenee's 136th Infantry, based at Bauang, was the first RCT to take amphibious training. The Bearcats began toward the end of July and finished in early August. However, the other RCTs were not idle while they awaited their turn to take to the water. Their errors in the Luzon campaign were constantly reviewed. Everyone went back to the old grind of scouting and patrolling, reduction of pillboxes, the squad in the attack and perimeter defense. Particular attention was paid the hundreds of replacements who flowed into the Golden Cross ranks throughout June and July. They had to be taught from the ground up.

Two key command changes occurred while the Division was in the lowlands. General Myers, Assistant Division Commander since Camp Forrest days, was given command of the 40th Division which had landed on Luzon on D-day. His successor was Col. Winfred G. Skelton, former CO of the 149th Infantry Regiment, 38th Division. Colonel Skelton was promoted to brigadier general a short time after joining the 33d. General Paxton, Divarty commander, left the Golden Cross for a States assignment a few days following General Myers' transfer. Serving in his stead was Col. Kenneth S. Sweany, ex-Chief of Staff of the 41st Division and a veteran of forty-two months of overseas service.

Division headquarters resembled the New York Stock Exchange in activity during the amphibious training period. Work went on from 0800 until well past midnight. General Clarkson was in constant conference with his planning chief, Colonel McAnsh, and his staff section heads. Senior officers labored tirelessly and drove their subordinates in order to compile the sheaves of orders and annexes necessary to an operation of such magnitude. Recently promoted Lt. Colonel Paris handled personnel problems; Lt. Colonel Downey, G-2 since the beginning of the Luzon fight, headed the intelligence section. In charge of the plans and operations group was Lt. Colonel Faulconer of the 130th Infantry, temporarily replacing Colonel Sackton, on leave in Chicago. Major Thomas F. Smart served as G-4.

On 6 August an American B-29 Superfortress dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. That same day President Truman broadcast from Washington describing the explosive force of the bomb. He called on Japan for immediate capitulation, adding that if enemy leaders refused American terms "they may expect a rain of death from the air, the like of which has never been seen on earth." Unrestrained joy greeted the news of the bomb. Almost everyone felt that the roar of the Hiroshima explosion was the death knell of the Japanese Empire.

Added impetus was given this upsurge of emotion two days later when Russia formally declared war against the enemy. Twenty-four hours after this event another Nip city was atom-bombed, this time Nagasaki. While the Division tensely awaited Japan's answer to Russia and the bomb, no deviation from the training schedule was permitted. The 130th Infantry was actually afloat on APAs during this period while other infantry units attacked mock-up Nipponese positions in their training areas. No let-up in planning was discernible at headquarters where an around-the-clock shift was still maintained.

At 0745 Eastern War Time, 10 August, the official Japanese Domei News Agency broadcast an announcement that the Government of Japan would accept the surrender terms laid down in the Potsdam Declaration provided the sovereignty of the Emperor went unquestioned. The text of the message delivered to the United States through the neutral Swiss Government read as follows:

In obedience to the gracious command of His Majesty the Emperor, who, ever anxious to enhance the cause of world peace, desires earnestly to bring About an early termination of hostilities with a view to saving mankind from the calamities to be imposed upon them by further continuation of the war, the Japanese Government asked several weeks ago the Soviet Government, with which neutral relations then prevailed, to render good offices in restoring peace vis-a-vis the enemy powers. Unfortunately these efforts in the interest of peace having failed, the Japanese Government in conformity with the august wish of His Majesty to restore the general peace and desiring to put an end to the untold sufferings entailed by war as quickly as possible have decided upon the following:

The Japanese Government are ready to accept the terms enumerated in the joint declaration which was issued at Potsdam on July 26, 1945 by the heads of the Government of the United States, Great Britain and China and later subscribed to by the Soviet Government, with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a sovereign ruler.

The Japanese Government hope sincerely that this understanding is warranted and desire keenly that an explicit indication to that effect will be speedily forthcoming.

Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, speaking for the Allied nations, responded on 11 August with a message informing the Japanese that the surrender would have to be unconditional in every respect. At 1900, 14 August, the enemy accepted Allied terms.

The war was over.

VJ-day officially fell on 2 September 1945 when General MacArthur and Jap Foreign Minister Magoru Shigemitsu signed the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship Missouri, riding at anchor in Tokyo Bay. A day later a similar ceremony took place in Baguio where Yamashita surrendered all Imperial Japanese land, sea and air forces in the Philippines to Maj. Gen. Edmond Leavey, representing General MacArthur. Facing the Japs across the table were Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright and Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival, British commander at Singapore in 1942.

With the surrender, a plan supplementing Operation Olympic was drawn up to cover the expected early move from the Philippines and the first phases of the Japanese occupation. Known as Operation Blacklist, it did not entirely supplant Olympic. On the contrary, Olympic was simply held in a state of suspension pending firm establishment of American forces in the Nip homeland. Olympic was to have been implemented on 1 November when the Sixth Army, composed of four Army and one Marine corps, was scheduled to invade Kyushu, southernmost of the five islands comprising Japan.

I Corps had been given the mission of carrying the initial assault. IX Corps and the V Marine Amphibious Corps were due to beach at Ariaka Wan and Kagoshima, respectively, a few minutes after the I Corps landing. XI Corps formed the Army reserve. Before reverting to reserve, however, this force was to make a D-day feint at Shikoku, in an attempt to suck enemy air, naval and ground strength away from Kyushu.

General Swift's divisions had the town of Miyazaki, on the east coast of the island, as their landing area. The 33d and 25th Divisions were to go in first, abreast, while the 41st Division was to be held in reserve. Golden Cross landing plans had the 130th and 136th Infantry Regiments hitting the beach as assault troops with the 123d in floating reserve, prepared to land on call. Colonel Collins' men, beaching to the right of the 136th, had a particularly unenviable job. Not only would they form the right flank of the Division, but they would do the same for both Corps and Army.

Four fresh enemy divisions manned the Miyazaki beaches according to Division G-2 reports. Favored by a series of hills that would have afforded them excellent defilade from American air and naval strikes, the enemy was in a position to fiercely resist any amphibious assault. No one doubted that Operation Olympic would have proven a bloody undertaking for the Golden Cross. Preparations for the move to Japan were made with a minimum of complaint. Even the most homesick were willing to take added months of overseas service now that they were to land as conquerors instead of invaders. Home was a matter of time, not of luck, at this point.

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