Prayer on an Anniversary

For 364 days Douglas MacArthur had not publicly mentioned the word Bataan.* Privately, to his officers, he had often spoken the word. "Bataan," he once said, "is like a child in a family who dies. It lives in our hearts." Last week, on the anniversary of the death of Bataan, he spoke the word publicly, flamboyantly--and bitterly.

"One year ago today," he said, "the dimming lights of Bataan's forlorn hope fluttered and died. . . ... Our flag lies crumpled, its proud pinions spat upon in the gutter; the wrecks of what were once our men and women groan and sweat in prison toil; our faithful Filipino wards, 16,000,000 souls, gasp in slavery.

"I was the leader of that lost cause, and from the bottom of my stricken heart I pray that a merciful God may not delay too long their redemption, that the day of salvation be not so far removed that they perish, that it be not again too late."

Two MacArthur officers, Lieut. General George C. Kenney and Major General Richard K. Sutherland, had just returned to Australia from staff talks in Washington. The tone of General MacArthur's prayer indicated that he was not to be allowed enough power to drive up through Japan's southwestern bases, to the Philippines and Bataan.

*Others at his headquarters were required to speak it, often. "Bataan Speaking" is the official salutation of headquarters telephone operators.

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