Japanese Battle Plan of the Invasion of the Philippines, 1941.


Manchurian Brigades, [Philippines]: dated 22 December 1941, with manuscript additions as of 24th December 1941. Japanese General military situation map of the Philippines and part of Borneo, titled "Shojima," printed in black and white, on thin paper, 1050 x 760 mm. Additional markings drawn all over the map by a senior Japanese Commander, in red and blue crayon, the map sets out the seven principal invasion points at Aparri, Vigan, and Gonzaga in Northern Luzon and Legazpi in South Luzon, Davao on Mindanao, the Island of Jolo, and an attack on Northern Borneo at Tawau, each invasion point lettered with the date of the landings, and the commanding officer of the forces, and also showing the progress of Japanese troop advance up the main E1 road both southwards and from the south, five blue bomb symbols denoting areas of bombing in Northern Luxon, ahead of the advancing Imperial Japanese forces. The map silked on verso, old fold lines, a few sections of the map in the north east corner browned and worn, through wear in the field.A rare surviving Japanese Field map printed in the Philippines on 22nd December, and annotated with an up-to-date situation of the disposition of Japanese forces in as of 24th December. The Japanese carried out a 3-pronged attack on the Philippines, starting with the surprise attack from the North, using soldiers moved down from Manchuria to Formosa. They arrived at Bataan Island north of Luzon on the 8th, while the main forces arrived at 3 other landing sites in Luzon on the 10-12th December, just a few days after Pearl Harbor. Bombing missions from Formosa (the planes being moved down from Manchuria) provided aerial supremacy for the Japanese Forces on the ground, and knocked out most of the American airfields in the first few days. American and Allied forces outnumbered the attacking Japanese 3 to 2, but the surprise and the speed of the attack and the incisive multiple landings of the ground troops, all took the defending forces by surprise, and the Northern Philippine island of Luzon was largely occupied (except Bataan) by the Japanese within 2 months. The courageous defense of forces on the Bataan Peninsula until April 1942 allowed MacArthur to set up his operational base in Australia, and plan the slow but steady fight back across South East Asia. The defeat in the Philippines coming so soon after Pearl Harbor was a low point in the Pacific Campaign.