One day after Japanese forces pummeled Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, they reached the Philippines.
Japanese planes destroyed half of the United States’ B-17 bombers at Clark Field near Manila. The war elsewhere in the Pacific after that kept getting the reinforcements, supplies and weapons that Gen. Douglas MacArthur (called back to active duty by President Franklin D. Roosevelt) needed to protect the Philippines.
Overwhelmed and undersupplied, MacArthur was ordered from Corregidor to Australia on March 11, 1942, by officials who feared for the life of their commander of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East.
“I shall return,” MacArthur promised the people left on the island nation that had been overrun by the Japanese. He did so 19 months later amidst the first salvo of what has come to be known as the Leyte Gulf landings.
“To the people of the Philippines: I have returned,” MacArthur announced Oct. 20, 1944. “By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil — soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples.”
Homage was paid last month — 80 years later — to the 23,000 U.S. and 100,000 Filipino military personnel and one million civilians who died during the more than three-year Japanese occupation of the island nation once known as the “Pearl of the Orient Seas.”
Commemoration
Don Biadog Jr., a retired Navy chaplain, led a group of five from Southern California and 12 from the Philippines from Oct. 19 to Nov. 2 to take part in the commemoration of the Leyte Gulf landings that crippled the Japanese Combined Fleet even as the U.S. military in 1944 rescued the captive island nation and reinforced the Allies’ control of the Pacific.
The U.S. contingent included people or resources from several Southern Baptist churches, including Old Town Community Church (where Biadog is a member), the Woman’s Missionary Union of See World Baptist Church and Southwest Baptist Church, all in San Diego.
Biadog led in prayer at the sunrise service Oct. 20 in Leyte, which was attended by about 500 people commemorating the landing of four Sixth Army divisions of U.S. soldiers at Manila, Luzon, Leyte and Samar in the Leyte Gulf. During the 10 a.m. ceremony that same day — that was attended by hundreds of thousands of people — Biadog presented more than 200 letters of gratitude from students in California and the Philippines to 15 World War II veterans of the invasion. Later, Biadog presented each of the 15 with a seabag full of items collected by members of the Southern California churches, including a Bible, blanket, towels, toiletries and canned food.
During the two-week missions trip, the Southern Baptist team assisted in eight outreach events — in Luzon, Leyte, Samar, Negros and Panay — organized by Silas Felongco, pastor of Tanauan Community Church in Leyte, and Todd Malaki, pastor of Hinunangan Christian Church in Talisay, who both connect closely with Southern Baptists. They gave away nearly 2,000 meals and food packs, led 120 Philippine active-duty personnel in “spiritual fitness leadership training,” led two memorial services, visited two American military cemeteries and more.
“Everyone was so thankful for the meals, food packs, messages of encouragement, ministries of compassion and presence and Christian love in action,” Biadog told The Baptist Paper. “Several hundreds were encouraged, and many, many made commitments to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
‘Great experience’
“It has been a great experience for those who accompanied me, who blessed so many people we visited and helped,” Biadog noted. “This short-term missions trip has been helping the churches involved fulfill the Great Commission. It is a joy knowing the team I led impacted hundreds of youth, children and adults.”
Biadog has been on missions trips to the Philippines seven times since he retired in 2019, plus a trip to help Ukrainians in Romania in April 2022 and to Israel in February 2023.
“The idea of helping others has been ingrained ever since I was growing up on the farm in Negros,” Biadog said of his childhood home in the Philippines. “When I joined the U.S. Navy in 1990 I introduced something we now call ‘Operation Help One Another’ — OHOA — which today is a Christian humanitarian, assistance-driven initiative. I introduced the outreach idea of OHOA when I was aboard ships, stationed overseas and deployed to disaster areas.
“Later, I was able to incorporate the OHOA concept into forward-deployed units wherever I was stationed, in addition to collecting toys and humanitarian items for children, refugees and migrants,” he continued. “I believe we should always be doing good for others and helping our neighbors in need.”
