Controversies over both Kurita’s and Halsey’s conduct during the battle are the topics of military round-tables to this day. It seems that with the passage of time their actions are being treated in a fairer reflection. Kurita didn’t just “turn tail and skedaddle” as had been the popular narrative. As we have seen it was more complicated than that. But perhaps a further explanation for Kurita’s failure might have to do with the overall Japanese military mindset at that time. So geared toward the offensive, they seemed flummoxed when suddenly the tables were turned and they found themselves under merciless assaults, be they from Halsey’s marauding aircraft laying waste to the Sho-Go2 plan to Taffy 3’s ferocious destroyer and jeep carriers and combined Taffy air attacks.
MacArthur, the Allied general who understood the Japanese better than any other, told his officers once: “Never let the Jap attack you. When the Japanese soldier has a co-ordinated plan of attack he works smoothly.” On the other hand, he added, “When he is attacked—when he doesn’t know what’s coming—it is not the same.” Then they were vulnerable because of their very rigidity. Their inability to imagine defeat made them often incapable of coping with setbacks. He compared it to a clenched fist which, once it seizes something and closes, can never re-open. Such a closed fist, he said, “is useless when the fighting turns to catch-as-catch-can wrestling.”
Halsey has his own critics. Yet “Bull’s run” was certainly in line with Nimitz’s directive to destroy a major part of the Japanese fleet if given the opportunity, and not so reckless when one considers what he knew of the condition of Center Force at the time. In fact, the phrase “The World Wonders” was most likely not from Nimitz at all. It was standard practice to add nonsensical phrases as padding before and after messages to throw off Japanese listening in. The full message read:
TURKEY TROTS TO WATER GG FROM CINCPAC ACTION COM THIRD FLEET INFO COMINCH CTF SEVETY-SEVEN X WHERE IS RPT WHERE IS TASK FORCE THIRTY FOUR RR THE WORLD WONDERS”
The GG and RR meant the beginning and the end of the actual message. Unfortunately in this case the phrase seemed to make sense so it was kept on and handed to Halsey. (One theory is that the radioman probably chose that random phrase in reference to Tennyson’s poem The Charge Of The Light Brigade as October 25 was the anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava, and in it is the line “All the world wondered.” Who knows?)
If anyone should have been sore with Halsey it was MacArthur. After all, it was his landings that were placed in jeopardy. Yet the general remained a firm supporter of his favorite Navy man. When after the battle at dinner some of MacArthur’s staff were harshly criticizing Halsey for his actions, MacArthur slammed a balled fist on the table and said: “That’s enough! Leave the Bull alone! He’s still a fighting admiral in my book.”
Final Thoughts
Why isn’t Leyte as well-known to the American public today as other Pacific battles such as Midway, Guadalcanal or Iwo Jima? It’s difficult to say. Perhaps because by then large fights, both in the Pacific and Europe, were the norm, and the public was getting used to victories so it seemed less…dramatic. (Little did they know how close MacArthur’s landings came to disaster). Perhaps war-weariness had set in. It could be a by-product of the American public and media caring more about what went on in Europe than the Pacific. Maybe it was just too complex and chaotic, as naval battles tend to be. They knew that something enormous happened out there, and that the U.S. Navy won big, but that was about it. Also Hollywood seems more enamored with these other actions and so have cast Leyte into the bin of obscurity. This is a shame. It deserves better. If we can (and should) celebrate the brave Spartans at Thermopylae, then forces like Taffy 3 deserve their own media homages. Perhaps one day.
As for today, a new generation cannot be expected to know something their education system has never taught them. It is imperative, indeed our duty as Americans, to make sure battles like Leyte Gulf are never forgotten for they serve to remind our children, and ourselves, of just what kind of country we were, and still can be. It’s hard for us to imagine today, with our highly professional and efficient military machine, that the American armed forces during the Second World War were made up of mostly citizen-soldiers blended with a small cadre of professionals. And yet what emerged to take on the Axis powers on three continents and four oceans was a military that was the equal to any in the world. How could this be?
I think it has to do with believing in your cause, and thus being willing to give the last full measure for it. This sublime devotion to something higher than the self was present on the fields of Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Belleau Woods, Normandy, and in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. In the aft turret of the shattered Samuel B. Roberts, for example, Gunner’s Mate 1stClass Paul Karr was found dying of agonizing intestinal wounds as he manned the five-inch gun which scored many hits on the Chokai. His last act was to beg for help loading just one more round into the breach.
Totalitarian states have always underestimated democracies’ willingness to fight. Japan was no different. In the face of staggering odds, the U.S. Navy was victorious because the American sailors and pilots fought with a demoniacal fury that stunned the Japanese who no doubt believed, as Yamamoto had, that Americans were good at building things, but as a people were soft and decadent. Clearly this was not the case. Like their German counterparts, the Japanese, in the end, never quite understood their American foes…not until it was too late to save their navy from the bottom of the sea, their soldiers from dying in mass graves across the Pacific, and their cities from utter annihilation.
If anything, we should teach World War II because we can learn something from the experiences of the Japanese and Germans who had the misfortune to face our grandfathers in battle. The spirits of men like David McClintock, Earnest Evans, Ziggy Sprague, Jesse Oldendorf, David McCampbell, Bull Halsey, and the tens of thousands of intrepid seaman and fliers who made the stunning victory possible still dwell within our national character…if we let them.
It’s up to you and me to keep the faith.
Brad Schaeffer is the author of the acclaimed World War II novel Of Another Time And Place.