Quezon Comes Home

As the last U.S.-Philippine resistance collapsed on Corregidor, Manuel Quezon quietly arrived in the U.S. to set up his territorial Government-in-Exile. After three months on Corregidor, where he lost 18 pounds, President Quezon had followed General MacArthur to Australia. There he was almost a recluse. He smiled once, when told that Japanese propaganda broadcasts reported his death at the hands of MacArthur.

To the U.S. Quezon brought his wife, two daughters and son, tall, mannerly Vice President Sergio Osmena; Don Andres Soriano, organizer of the Filipino guerrillas and now Quezon's Secretary of Finance, three physicians, a nurse, and a group of military aides and secretaries. The trip to the U.S., said Quezon, was made "on, under and over the sea." He landed at San Francisco from a grey Army transport. Riding to the swank Mark Hopkins Hotel in an Army car, Manuel Quezon heard newsboys shout news of the Battle of the Coral Sea.

A rigid Filipino U.S. Army sergeant stood guard outside the hotel room. Manuel Quezon posed for photographers, told newsmen: "When war began I said the Philippines will stand by the United States until the bitter end. Thank God the fact proves I was right." He said little more. A hacking, tuberculous cough interrupted his every word. How did he feel about Bataan and Corregidor? Manuel Quezon leaned wearily back in a deep, red chair, closed his eyes and murmured huskily: "I am proud."

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