United States Army General Douglas MacArthur‘s Landing on Luzon

“MacArthur Returns,” a photo by LIFE Magazine photographer Carl Mydans (May 20, 1907 – August 16, 2004).

Wading ashore is (Left to right) United States Army Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland (November 27, 1893 – June 25, 1966) United States Army General Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964); Army Colonel Lloyd A. Lehrbas (October 15, 1896 – October 30, 1964); and MacArthur’s personal bodyguard, Sergeant Paul L. Williams (August 15, 1926 – November 13, 2013), who escorts his shore party, armed with a M1911 forty-five caliber automatic pistol, onto Blue Beach, Dagupan, Lingayen Gulf, on Luzon, Philippines.

On January 9, 1945, American troops arrived at Luzon, the main island in the Philippines, catching the Japanese by surprise. Opposition was light. MacArthur watched the landings from the cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) and at 1400 Hours — about four hours after the initial landings — he headed for shore.

Mydans had been interned by the Japanese in April 1942, repatriated in 1943, and worked for LIFE Magazine in Europe. He returned with MacArthur to the Philippines. He gave an interview in 1998: “I was in France when I got a coded message from my office: MacArthur was returning to the Philippines. By the time I got to Leyte, though, the landing was over…While the last of the battle for Leyte was still being fought, MacArthur’s public information officer called us together and said, ‘MacArthur will go to the Luzon assault on the USS Boise. Six of you will accompany him. You’ll draw lots out of a helmet.’ A captain tore up a piece of paper, and everybody put their hands in and took out a piece. [T]he slip of paper I found in my hand had the one word, ‘Stills.’ I was the only still photographer, except for the military, on the Boise. I was loaded into the same landing craft with MacArthur, and I went ashore with him. The story of what happened there has been told and retold many times, incorrectly. [People always ask me] ‘How many times did he do that for you, Mister Mydans?’ And the answer is always the same: “He did it once.” I now realize that the question will go on forever.

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 Mydans 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 one, 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.”

Tank Landing Ship USS LST-740 was laid down at the Dravo Corporation at their Neville Island, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, shipyard on February 12, 1944, and launched into the Ohio River on April 8, 1944; sponsored by A. Jean Blocker (November 2, 1914 – May 1, 1985), the General Manager of Dravo Corporation’s cafeterias. United States Navy Lieutenant John Hampton (January 15, 1909 – December 4, 1997) was in command. USS LST-740 served in LST Flotilla Eight, LST Group Twenty-Two, LST Division Forty-Four. The ship served in operations at Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, Mindanao, and Balikpapan. The ship served in the occupation of China and Japan from September 2 to October 23, 1945. Decommissioned on March 8, 1946, the ship was struck from the Naval Register on April 12. USS LST-740 earned five battle stars for its service during World War II. The ship was sold to become a static carrier hulk for the Oil Transport Company of New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 14, 1948. Its final disposition is unknown.

Tank Landing Ship USS LST-614 was laid down by the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company in Seneca, Illinois, on January 28, 1944, and launched into the Illinois River on May 6, 1944. United States Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade Paul S. Donovan (October 29, 1911 – October 5, 1974) commissioned the ship as Captain on May 22, 1944. USS LST-614 was assigned to LST Flotilla Eight, LST Group Twenty-Two, LST Division Forty-Four. USS LST-614 was the flagship of LST Flotilla Eight. The ship served in the Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen Gulf, and Mindanao campaigns. The ship served in the occupation of China and Japan from September 2-8, 1945 – June 20, 1946. Decommissioned on June 20, 1946, the ship was struck from the Naval Register on October 29, 1946. Ex-LST-614 returned to the Philippines when it was sold to Bosey, Leyte, on February 13, 1948, one of many landing craft purchased. Its final disposition is unknown.

As a pool photographer for the Lingayen Gulf landings, this photo was nationally circulated on January 20, 1945. It is often mistaken for MacArthur’s earlier landing at Tacloban, Leyte, but that was taken by United States Army Sergeant Gaetano Faillace (September 17, 1904 – December 31, 1991). See wwii1469.jpg for that photo.