| On January 9, 1945, American troops arrived at Luzon, the main island in the Philippines, catching the Japanese by surprise. Opposition was light. United States Army General Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) watched the landings from the cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) and at 1400 Hours — about 4 hours after the initial landings — he headed for shore. Navy Seabees had quickly built a small pier with pontoons so that MacArthur and his staff could exit their vessel without getting wet. On seeing this, MacArthur ordered his boat to swerve away from the pier so that he could wade ashore through knee-deep water as he had done at Leyte. He knew that LIFE Magazine photographer Carl Mydans (May 20, 1907 – August 16, 2004) was on the beach. As he strode toward shore, MacArthur struck the same pose and steadfast facial expression as at Leyte. Mydans snapped the famous photo that soon appeared on the front pages of newspapers across the United States and became what Time magazine called “an icon of its era.” No 1, Mydans said later, appreciated the value of a picture more than MacArthur. There is little doubt that MacArthur chose to avoid the pier—and dry feet—for dramatic effect. “Having spent a lot of time with MacArthur,” Mydans said, “it flashed on me what was happening. He was avoiding the pontoons.” MacArthur Biographer D. Clayton James (1931 – 2004) wrote that the Luzon landing “seems to have been a deliberate act of showmanship. With the worldwide attention that his Leyte walk through the water received, apparently the Barrymore side of MacArthur’s personality could not resist another big splash of publicity and surf.” MacArthur, on the other hand, blamed fate. “As was getting to be a habit with me,” he wrote, perhaps with tongue in cheek, “I picked a boat that took too much draft to reach the beach, and I had to wade in.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1786.jpg |
| Image Size | 557.75 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3000 x 2481 |
| Photographer | Carl Mydans |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 9, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Lingayen Gulf |
| State or Province | Luzon |
| Country | Philippines |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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