MacArthur Suite | The Manila Hotel

The MacArthur Suite at the Manila Hotel, in downtown Manila, is one of the landmarks of the Pacific War, where General MacArthur directed the war until he was driven to retreat first to Corregidor Island (in the mouth of Manila Bay) in December 1941 and later to Australia (in March 1942), where he had his command in Melbourne.

The Manila Hotel is still an elegant hotel, and the renovated MacArthur Suite can be booked, although it might cost several thousand dollars to stay there for a night.

In lieu of such an expenditure, visitors to the tour can, with some planning at the front desk, visit the small MacArthur Museum in lobby of the hotel, where artifacts from his days in Manila (his longest residence as an adult) are on display, along with photographs and one of his military hats (not the soft cap he wore often).

Rumors that MacArthur actually owned the hotel are unfounded.

Perhaps the most accessible biography of General MacArthur was written by William Manchester, entitled: American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880 - 1964. It has the virtue of being well written and an easy read, at least for a book 816 pages long.

Manchester takes a balanced, largely favorably view of MacArthur. Others who served under in the Pacific were less charitable. Hence the nickname "Dugout Doug".

One of Manchester’s salient points about the general is that in his campaigns across the Pacific he took less casualties than did his army counterparts in Europe, and that he was more focused on recapturing strategic land than in destroying the enemy. Marine Corps units under his command, however, felt that he assigned to them some of the most onerous tasks in the war.

For an excellent overview of American commanders in World War II, see Eric Larabee’s: Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants and Their War.

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Source

• Text: Matthew Stevenson
• Photos: Matthew Stevenson